career change advice needed (mid-40s woman)

[Anonymous]

I am curious to hear other folks’ experience resetting their career in their mid-life or just any time. How did you start? what questions did you ask yourself to figure out?

I have been in project mgmt for a while now, spending time right now to rethink what i want to do next, stay in current career (solid pay but demanding and not motivated work) or try something different? kids are going to college in 5 to 7 years, and college tuition for two teens are not too far. don’t think volunteer work is an option at the moment, and work that’s meaningful and interesting with decent pay will be ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious to hear other folks’ experience resetting their career in their mid-life or just any time. How did you start? what questions did you ask yourself to figure out?

I have been in project mgmt for a while now, spending time right now to rethink what i want to do next, stay in current career (solid pay but demanding and not motivated work) or try something different? kids are going to college in 5 to 7 years, and college tuition for two teens are not too far. don’t think volunteer work is an option at the moment, and work that’s meaningful and interesting with decent pay will be ideal.

Having been through this myself, here are the questions I would explore:

Are there other industries you'd be more interested in that you could stay in the same general role (project mgmt) but in a more interesting area?
What interests you personally outside of work, and are there jobs where you could apply your current skills? This was key for my career pivot.
Do you have any friends whose jobs seem interesting? Talk to them to help you brainstorm. Or even just friends/former colleagues who know you and your skills well - they may have ideas but would never think to bring it up if they don't know you're interested in changing directions.
Browse some job boards to get a sense of what is out there.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of similarities with this post but I’m surprised it’s not me!

I would say the easiest thing to do is to switch into a non-project management role in the same industry or division of your company. If you’re in technology, you might wanna move into a more pure IT or tech leader role. If you’re not in IT, you might want to move into a more of the operations or whatever side of the industry you’re in, but as more of the business lead or strategy side of the work.

[Anonymous]

Same age, also a PM, almost same age children. I chose a government job and plan to stay till retirement.

[Anonymous]

I'd also add to the other great advice: figure out exactly what it is about your day-to-day that you would want to change, so you know what things you want to be doing in your career pivot. Are there parts of project management that you really enjoy and are really good at? It's a more targeted version of figuring out your transferrable skills. This helped me with my career pivot a few years ago - it sounds obvious but my job had been so all encompassing (it was also project management) for so long I had to really think about what I really, actually liked and wanted to keep doing.

[Anonymous]

Try to move to a management roll. Associate Director of Operations, etc.

I’m in a similar position and decided to ramp up again because of college bills and two teens right behind this one. Even with college savings it’s hard to see those savings amounts go down, bills go up, and two more on the horizon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try to move to a management roll. Associate Director of Operations, etc.

I’m in a similar position and decided to ramp up again because of college bills and two teens right behind this one. Even with college savings it’s hard to see those savings amounts go down, bills go up, and two more on the horizon.

Make sure the manager jobs pay enough to be worth the extra headache and hassle. Oftentimes they don’t if you’re really good at what you do.

[Anonymous]

Also mid-career, mid-40s (but with ES-aged kid), looking to pivot. One thing that has helped me in my past two job changes has been the VIA strengths finder assessment. It helped me to see that I was working from areas that were not my best strengths (and that was leading to burnout). Knowing what your strengths are can help you pinpoint the types of positions that would be most fulfilling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same age, also a PM, almost same age children. I chose a government job and plan to stay till retirement.

What government job? Project mgmt also?

[Anonymous]

Proposal management--same skills required and every day is different. Plus it is very motivating!

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks all.

what are the assessment tools you’ve used to find your strength and career that fits you?

[Anonymous]

NP but I’m curious to hear more about people’s pivots - the nature of them and whether people ended up happy on the other side - and bet OP would be too. I’m in a director role at a pretty niche organization that I’ve been with 15 years. I find it really hard to imagine myself somewhere else, given our unique niche, but I am desperate for a change (and to make more money before my kids go to school!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same age, also a PM, almost same age children. I chose a government job and plan to stay till retirement.

What government job? Project mgmt also?

But does gov pay any more? What lucrative niche is a 40s pivot?

[Anonymous]

NP I took the via assessment and it told me strengths and weaknesses…how do I know what jobs work with those?

[Anonymous]

So I pivoted in my 40s from being a director of a program to leading a nonprofit that was allied with that industry. I think what I'd say is to think about the fields that are related and connected to your job. You said you do project management but haven't said for which industry. Say you work for a software company. Who buys that software? What groups are affected by that software? Who sells that software? Who defines the specifications for that software?