The average person changes careers 12 times throughout their working life.
The concept of working for the same company your whole career and retiring with a gold watch just doesn't exist anymore. In fact, the median employee tenure is 4.3 years for men and 4 years for women.
Changing careers every few years is more common for younger workers. But factors such as redundancies and diminishing industries, as well as a re-evaluation of values, can also prompt older workers to seek reinvention.
Whatever your reasons for needing a change, keep reading to find out how to reinvent yourself at 50.
Your Guide to Reinventing Your Life
Whatever your age, learning how to reinvent your life requires the same kind of thought process and planning. Here's how to put your plan into action:
Assess Yourself
Your first step towards reinvention should be to assess yourself. This means considering your skills and abilities, core values, and personal preferences. These might include general skills such as teamwork or specific abilities such as social media marketing. And values and preferences often involve areas like work-life balance and creative autonomy.
You should also focus on why you want to change and what you're prepared to do to make it happen, such as learn new skills or take a pay cut. This will show you whether your motivations are likely to adjust over time or not. And you'll also get a better idea of what sacrifices you're willing to make to put your plan into action.
As part of your assessment, it's important to look at potential obstacles and opportunities. Aim to be as realistic as possible without getting hung up on perceived stumbling blocks such as your age.
For example, switching from being a teacher to a chef is unlikely at 50. But your education experience and core values would make you an excellent corporate sales trainer or life coach.
Commit to Change
Once you're set on the idea of changing careers, it's time to act. The sooner you commit to making change happen, the sooner you can start living it.
Research the area you want to move into. Is there some way you can gain training and knowledge in that field? Or is it more a case of brushing up on skills you haven't put into practice for a while?
Look for low-risk learning opportunities that will bring you closer to your goal. From watching online tutorials to volunteering, there are lots of ways to use your limited spare time to help fuel your plans for reinvention.
The transition process is likely to be hard as you'll have to continue working in your current role while also planning for your upcoming career change. But it's also a good opportunity for reflection and exploration. And, you might even make inroads that help you skip some of the traditional routes to changing careers.
Network, Network, Network
As well as seeking out learning opportunities, networking is always a vital part of pursuing a career change, and even more so in an employers' job market.
That means taking advantage of all interactions and relationships, both in the real and virtual worlds.
Start your networking plan by creating a list of everyone you know who could help you change careers. Anyone, from your dentist to your friend's cousin, could prove useful in your quest for reinvention, especially if they work or know someone in the area you want to change to.
View every event and interaction as a networking opportunity. And, whether you're collecting your dry cleaning, at a party, or connecting with someone online, don't ask for help. Instead, ask your target how you can help them.
Practice and Prepare
Unless your career change involves finding ways to work for yourself, expect a succession of interviews, tasks, and tests during the screening process for any job.
Prepare for this by practicing interview situations with friends and family. And always make sure to refresh all your skills on a regular basis. For example, you might have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation as part of an on-site test, which will be a lot easier if you've practiced this in the last few days.
If it's been a while since your last round of interviews, one thing you might not be used to is how common it is for employers to 'ghost' potential candidates. But you shouldn't see not hearing back from an employer as a personal insult or failure. Often, it can mean a lucky escape from a disorganized or toxic company.
Regardless, always take the higher moral ground and write individual thank-you notes to all your interviewers.
Utilize Social Media
Whether you see it as a chance for you to shine online or a necessary evil, you can't deny that your virtual presence is a vital tool in your reinvention process.
If you have little or no social media presence, start by creating or updating your LinkedIn profile and making connections by posting or answering questions and responding to posts. The same goes for Facebook and Twitter. Sharing others' posts and meaningful or relevant tweets is an easy and effective way to increase your presence.
Just make sure that all your profiles reflect your true personality and values while avoiding anything controversial or inappropriate. The first thing that prospective employers will do is to Google you, so you don't want your online presence - or lack thereof - to undermine your real-world career successes and goals.
How to Reinvent Yourself at 50
Thanks to this guide on how to reinvent yourself at 50, you should now have a much clearer idea of what steps you need to take for self-reinvention.
With a considered plan and well-chosen goals, you'll find that your existing strengths and years of experience will help guide and encourage you along the way.
And, once you've found the path you'd like to pursue, make sure to check out our free guides. From blogger outreach to Instagram social selling, finding the information you need to reinvent yourself has never been so easy!
