«Your professional career must be launched at 30 and you must have arrived at 40. If you are not at the absolute peak of your career at 50, you can forget about your professional career. Changing careers at this advanced age is out of the question and you’ll be lucky if you can find a reasonably decent job at all.» Do you know these or similar career ideas? It’s high time we put this nonsense where it belongs – in the land of myths and fairy tales!
I always tell the following story to all my clients who, even in their early forties, resign themselves to the fact that their career is over and that major career changes are no longer possible at their advanced age. A friend of mine, let’s call her Monika for reasons of discretion, gave the lie to all these widespread dogmas.
Read on at your own risk; some of your old beliefs about your career may be shaken!
It doesn’t work without a willingness to invest
Monika is now over 80 years old, so she was born in the 1940s. She grew up in the countryside in a family with many children and in modest circumstances. She only attended the minimum compulsory schooling at the time; only some of her brothers were allowed to complete an apprenticeship. From her it was was expected that she contributes to the family income after finishing school; a later marriage was assumed.
Monika had married at a very young age and raised her four children as a single mother after her husband died early. As soon as her children were grown up, she sought to return to work and worked as a care assistant.
Take the reins into your own hands
After a short time, she was underchallenged. As an unskilled assistant, the career prospects were poor, not to mention the earning potential. She therefore decided to train as a nurse through an apprenticeship. The reactions to this surprising step were varied and, in many cases, not encouraging. She met with little understanding, at least from her siblings.
Fortunately, her children and some friends supported her in her efforts. Her training company and schools were also open to her extraordinary, previously unseen approach. So, at the age of 50, she started her first year of apprenticeship and was proud to receive her diploma four years later. In the photo of the graduation ceremony, she is standing next to the other graduates, whose mother she could have been. Even most of the teachers were younger than her.
Monika then had ten fulfilling years of nursing ahead of her and was able to top up her pension at the same time – an overall successful career.
So, it’s worth throwing all the confused ideas and media-fuelled social beliefs about what a perfect career should look like to the wind and going your own way undeterred! Admittedly, Monika’s hard Central Swiss skull was a good prerequisite for this.