Considering a later in life career change? You're not alone

CATHY WURZER: With Thanksgiving behind us, we are fully in the holiday season, and for many, the holidays and the new year mean a time, of reflection and maybe some change. That could even mean looking at a new career or job. For younger people, it's generally easier to switch jobs. After all-- after all, it's people between the ages of 18 and 46 who are likely to have about a dozen jobs during their working years.

If you're a little bit older, changing your job can be more daunting. That's where we want to jump off today, how to navigate later in life career transitions. Kate Schaefers is the director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Minnesota and she is on the line. Kate, welcome.

KATE SCHAEFERS: Hi, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: An older worker, I understand, is defined as someone at least 40 years old or older. How many of those folks are out there, do you think?

KATE SCHAEFERS: Oh, there are a lot of them, and it is amazing thinking 40 being an older worker, but that is true. And most people are working longer. And so when you think about older workers, you're seeing people in their 50s, their 60s, their 70s still in the workplace.

CATHY WURZER: So how does a person-- actually, anyone of any age, how do they know when it's time for a career change?

KATE SCHAEFERS: You can get big and little signs that it's time to make a change. I mean, some of the big signs are things like constant stress. I mean, a job that is zapping your energy. Maybe a health crisis. And so we can get those signs of, this job isn't fitting my life right now.

But it's also important to listen to those more subtle signs, like we're just bored or we're just unhappy or cranky at work, and we just feel uninspired by what we're doing. And it's important to look at those as well. You don't have to wait for a crisis to change a job. And so thinking about maybe those are good signs to start looking.

CATHY WURZER: I would think, though, that changing one's job later in life would be a little tough.

KATE SCHAEFERS: Yes and no. I mean, there's certainly things around ageism that older workers face, and this-- it's a form of discrimination. A lot of the assumptions that are out there about older workers are just that, they're assumptions and they're stereotypes, they're not true for most of our workers. And so it can be daunting.

But when you think about careers, today, people are working longer. So if you make a career change in your 50s, you may be launching a new phase of life that might be 10, 15 years long. And so recognizing that that's a large chapter of your life, that you may want to think about doing something different because that's a lot of time to just sit in a job that you're bored in.

CATHY WURZER: Kate, you mentioned ageism. Let's talk a little bit about that. How do you know that you are facing ageism? How subtle can it get?

KATE SCHAEFERS: It is something that we all have stereotypes, and quite honestly, ageism is one of the last-- I hate saying this, but a socially acceptable stereotype around how we even view ourselves. The language we use around, I'm having a senior moment or just even how we talk about ourselves is very ageist in many ways.

But that said, there's really some things that people can do that can help circumvent that when they're looking for a job. And I think what you want to portray is someone who is engaged, interested, a hard worker, is able to report to someone younger and probably less experienced than you.

So it's like nipping those stereotypes in the bud as you're talking to people. Do a resume that's only 10 years long. You don't have to have a three-page resume, no one wants to read a three-page resume. Be focused on the most recent experiences, the most relevant experiences. Don't let it be easy for people to see some of that age in your materials, like your resume.

But then, it's also come in and talk about how you can work in this workplace and be an addition to the staff, which is going to be a bonus for them.

CATHY WURZER: So when if someone is listening, they think, OK, I hear what Kate is saying, maybe I'm ready to just launch off in this new year and try something different. What are the first steps to trying to find a new path?

KATE SCHAEFERS: There's a paradox here because we think about the best way to go about this is to plan. So I'm going to put do a list of my strengths and my weaknesses, and I'm going to put an action plan, I'm going to have a goal. And the research is really interesting in this, that people who change careers, they do give some thought to it. I mean, they focus on what they want and they also focus on what they don't want, and they often know that better. They don't want the job they have right now.

But then what they do is that they start crafting little experiments. So trying things out in small ways. You don't have to quit your job to start building a bridge to something else. So let's say that you want to be an event planner. You're thinking about that as a career change.

Well, you could take a class on project management where you're going to be meeting other people who are working in different places and get insights into how maybe you might do that. You could volunteer for a nonprofit that puts on events and see if you like it because again, we know what we don't like, but it's hard to figure out exactly what we do like. And so trying things out and taking those small steps is a really great way to start yourself in a direction.

CATHY WURZER: So, by the way, do you have any advice for folks who-- you had a good word that you used. How some of us who have been around for a long time in a job can just feel stuck. It's not like we don't like what we do. We do, but we just feel stuck sometimes. Is there-- do you have any advice for getting unstuck in your current position to freshen yourself up?

KATE SCHAEFERS: Yeah. I mean, I do think that you can look at ways to tweak your job, and oftentimes these are conversations with a manager of taking on, let's say, a stretch assignment, or volunteering for something in your organization, especially if it's an area that you're interested in exploring more.

So you can do stretch assignments staying in your own job, but be able to engage in other ways with that. But then there's also just taking a class can really open your eyes up. So there's a lot of ways that you can step into things to maybe freshen things up and help you get some new passion and maybe new insights into how you do your job.

As we get older, a lot of times we get better and better at a discipline or a field, and some of the creativity comes when we engage with people who come from different fields. And so you if you're deep into a field, maybe you need to be spending time with people from different fields, from different generations, from different communities in our community so that you're getting some fresh ideas.

CATHY WURZER: Say, for folks listening, and, of course, because you are at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the U of M, you mentioned classes. And you have some really wonderful things, by the way. I have to tip my hat to you. How do people find information as to what classes they can take in your institute? How's that--

KATE SCHAEFERS: Yeah. And so I want to talk globally about our college. So I'm part of the College of Continuing and Professional Studies. And we offer everything. Actually, we serve people from high school to older adults, and it's amazing when you think about the diversity of students that we serve.

But a lot of people come to us because they're mid-career and they're wanting to retool for a career change or update skills. We offer a lot of non-credit classes and things like project management, agile, data visualization. So again, finding some new sparks to the career that you're doing right now or even a career that might take you in a new way.

And then the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, we offer enrichment learning for people 50-plus, and we are just a terrific organization to explore those interests and learn about things that maybe you've always been curious about but you didn't have time or opportunities to learn about that. So we offer courses anywhere from a single session. We've offered courses on things like the Edmund Fitzgerald and shipwrecks in the Great Lakes to more in-depth learning about dementia care.

And so there's just-- anything that you want to do, we offer from a single session to seven-session-long series of classes, all enrichment-oriented. But I think the college in general, non-credit classes, boot camps, for-credit classes, too. And we have a lot of people who come back to the U And earn degrees after age 50.

I'll just also say one more thing. If you are a Minnesota resident 62 and older, you can audit many of our classes for free. You can take them for $10 a credit. And so again, that lifelong learning is key to an engaged life as we age. And so recognizing that those opportunities to explore your curiosities and to strengthen your skills that are work-related or just your interests that go beyond work, there's a lot of opportunities to do that at the U.

CATHY WURZER: Oh my gosh, an engaged life is so, so important. Final question, and this is for folks that you may have helped or some of your instructors may have helped. What do folks tell you about changing their career later in life? Do they turn out to be happier individuals?

KATE SCHAEFERS: Absolutely. And I will say, too, it's a really uncomfortable place to be in-- there's a professor who does a lot of work in this area and she calls it the liminal space. Like, to not know where you're going and that in-between space of just-- you know you're letting go of a past, but the future is not clear.

And to recognize that coming together with other people, with kindred spirits is a really important way to help you move through that and move in a direction that makes sense for you. And most people, when they go through a process and try things out and make a change, don't look back. They're happy.

CATHY WURZER: Kate, it's been fun talking to you. Thank you so much. I wish you all the best in the new year.

KATE SCHAEFERS: You too, Cathy. Thank you so much.

CATHY WURZER: Kate Schaefers is the Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Minnesota.