Hey, it's Iris and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
In this video, I'm going to be answering
a frequently asked question
about making a career change.
And that is: I'm in my thirties, or forties,
am I too old to make a career change?
Am I too old to go back to school
or to start working in a field
that I have zero experience in?
Spoiler alert! No, no, no, no.
You're absolutely not too old.
But before I tell you why
and how to make a career change in your thirties or forties,
please like this video and hit that subscribe button.
That will tell me exactly what kind of content
you're finding valuable,
and it will help me to grow my channel.
Alright, so back to that question,
am I too old to change careers in my thirties or forties?
Firstly, I want to reassure you that you're absolutely not.
I've worked with hundreds of people
in their thirties or forties
to help them change careers
and find more exciting, fulfilling and meaningful work.
What you need to do is change that story
in your head that's telling you that you're too old.
Because the truth is
when you're in your thirties or forties,
you still got what...
30, 40 years left in your working life?
How would you feel if I would tell you,
you know what, for those 30, 40 years
you've got left in your career,
you're gonna be doing exactly the same thing
as you're doing right now.
You're gonna be working in exactly the same field
as you're in right now.
Seriously, how would that make you feel?
I'm guessing not that great.
So instead of asking yourself,
am I too old to make a career change?
Ask yourself, what do I want the rest of my career,
the rest of my working life to look like?
What do I want to do
with the hopefully 30 to 40 years
that I still got left in my career?
Do I want to do the same?
Or do I want to do something different?
And if there's just the tiniest part in you,
that's questioning your current career,
then please listen to that.
Sometimes our hearts know ourselves better
than our minds do.
Okay, so if you've decided it's time for a change
and you know roughly
what you'd like to do,
(if you don't hop on over to this video)
but you worry about the logistics of it,
how to make it happen.
Then start by asking yourself the following questions.
Realise that you're not a grad,
you're not starting from scratch with zero experience.
You've got what, 10, 20,
maybe even 30 years of professional experience
under your belt.
Don't underestimate what you've learnt
and what you've built up during the time.
You'll be able to pick up things much quicker,
and I bet you'll be able to bring some valuable new skills,
and knowledge, and connections with you
into the field that you're moving into.
Sometimes it's actually really helpful,
especially mid-career, to use skills,
knowledge, and experience that you already have
to get a foot in the door
at a company that you'd like to work for
or to move into a field
or sector that you'd like to work in,
even if it's not what you want to be doing in the long term.
So for example,
you are an accountant in finance,
but you are interested in working in the tech startup scene.
It could be a really smart step to find an accounting role
or something quite similar
in the tech startup scene.
And from there,
start to build your connections,
start to build your knowledge and experience,
so you can move on to a different type of role,
maybe business development
or whatever you are after in the longer term.
Or maybe you work in marketing in telecommunications,
but you're interested to work
in the health and fitness sector.
It might be a really good idea
to use those marketing skills,
to get a foot in the door
at a company like Peloton
or a small start-up in the health and fitness sector
in that marketing capacity,
and then move on to something quite different later on.
The secret is to see your career change
less so as one big change,
but more as a series of small incremental steps and changes.
Finally, a couple of things to consider
Don't limit your thinking to full-time employment only.
Consider consulting, volunteering, temp work,
part-time work, maybe even self-employment
as potential career options.
Or perhaps a combination of all of those things
will help you to achieve your professional
and financial goals.
Second thing is to avoid the
traditional job seekers process,
which is where you go onto job boards,
You find a job post that you like,
you put your resume together,
write a cover letter, apply,
and then keep your fingers crossed
hoping that you're going to get invited for an interview,
nail it and then get the job.
The problem is that a large number of companies
use a so-called ATS
to automate the first step of the hiring process.
If you go like... Iris, huh?
What is an ATS?
Check out this video
in which I tell more about what an ATS is
and how it impacts your job applications.
For now, what I want to tell you is
instead of going for the traditional job seekers process,
focus more on building your network
and reaching out to people who work at companies
that you'd like to work for
or who work in industries
that you'd like to work in,
reach out to them,
connect with them and try to find a job,
the more informal way.
So there you have it,
my answer to that question
Am I too old to change careers in my thirties or forties?
No, you're absolutely not.
Please don't settle for a job
that's not right for you,
that doesn't get the best out of you
when you still have 20, 30,
maybe even 40 years in your working life ahead of you.
Don't settle for something if you can't stop but
thinking "is this all there is?"
"What's it all for?"
Thank you so much for watching.
In next week's video,
I'll be talking about how to find a job
without using a job board.
So if you're interested in that,
you know what to do,
hit that subscribe button,
and if you've liked this video,
please hit that thumbs up button.
Thank you and I'll see you again next Wednesday.