No. You aren’t starting from zero. You’re taking skills you already have somewhere new, and the people who already know you are the fastest way in. Changing direction is also far more normal than it feels: Americans born in the late baby boom held an average of 12.9 jobs between 18 and 58.
Somewhere right now a woman is typing “is it too late to change careers” into her work laptop. In incognito mode. As if HR has a team monitoring for flight risk. (They might. Use your phone.)
Why it’s harder than it sounds
The research is on your side. The Bureau of Labor Statistics followed people born from 1957 to 1964 and found they held an average of 12.9 jobs from ages 18 to 58. Women averaged 12.7. And the moves didn’t stop at 40. The same group held an average of 2.2 jobs between 45 and 54, and 1.3 between 55 and 58. A new job isn’t always a new career, but the point stands. Moving on is what working lives look like.
The feeling is less cooperative. Your job title has been your answer to “what do you do?” for 15 years. Saying “I’m changing careers” at a party sounds like “I’m between things,” which sounds like “please don’t ask.”
Then there’s the fear of starting at the bottom, behind a 24-year-old who knows the software. That fear assumes you leave everything behind. You don’t.
What actually works
Translate what you do, don’t restart
One woman was selling magazine advertising when she hit her moment. She sat at her desk, looked at the ad layouts on her screen and thought: “What the hell am I doing here?” Then she did the useful thing and translated.
“I thought, well, if I can get companies to give me money on the premise that buying advertising will make them more money, I bet I can get people to give women’s organizations money on the premise that it will change the world.”
She started a consulting firm raising money for women-focused nonprofits. In her words, “all of the stuff that I’d been doing in sales for radio and for magazines, I was just doing now, but in fundraising and development.”
Try it. Write your current job as verbs, not a title. Persuade, organize, negotiate, fix, teach. Then ask who else pays for those verbs.
Take the “what the hell am I doing here” moment seriously
Hers came with a line every career-changer will recognize: “I don’t have any skin in this game.” That’s data. A feeling that keeps coming back on a Tuesday morning, for months, is telling you something about fit. Write it down and see if it holds.
Get the credential only if it opens a door
Her partner at the time told her, “You know, you gotta hunt with a bigger gun.” She went and got a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution. Most career changes need much less than a doctorate. Sometimes a short course and a rewritten LinkedIn headline will do. Ask people already in the new field which qualification they actually check for. Then get that one, and only that one.
Call everyone you’ve ever met
Years later she went out on her own as a coach, and went to her network first. “I called every single person I had ever interacted with in my entire life.” Everyone knows someone who needs what you do, even if it’s, in her words, “my sister’s nephew’s dog walker.” Her goal was to replace her old income. She tripled it in the first month.
Expect to do it more than once
That coaching practice is the third company she’s owned. Career change turns out to be a habit. You get better at it every time.
Hear it from someone who’s done it
Dr. Liz DuBois Erskine went from radio and magazine ad sales to fundraising for women’s nonprofits, then a PhD, then her own executive coaching practice. Jump to 13:02 for the moment at her desk when she decided the ad layouts weren’t her future, or listen to the full episode.
FAQ
Should I change careers?
If the work has stopped meaning anything to you and that feeling has lasted months, not days, look seriously. Start by testing the new field on the side: a project, a course, coffee with three people who do the job.
How do I change careers at 40 or 50?
Lead with what you already know. Find the overlap between your experience and the new field, and pitch yourself into that overlap first. Your network is the fastest door, so tell people what you’re doing next.
Can I change careers with no experience in the new field?
You probably have more relevant experience than you think. Sales is fundraising. Teaching is training. Project management is project management everywhere. Translate your track record into the new field’s language.
Is it too late to change careers at 50?
No. The BLS data shows people still changing jobs into their late 50s. And at 50 you bring a longer track record and a bigger address book than anyone starting out.
Next step
A career change is partly a visibility problem. Nobody knows you do the new thing yet. A podcast fixes that one conversation at a time, and Captrr builds them for experts. Full disclosure: it’s Serena’s company.