To ask if you have changed careers in your mid 30s or later in your life?

[judybloomno5]

I am currently on maternity leave and I am considering changing careers.

I am currently in HR where I have worked in a call centre helpdesk environment and its recently been restructured so i feel my job has been downgraded and my skills will disintegrate. I have a good general business degree and I work for my DP part time (its not a business i could go into without us buying a premises which we aim to do but don't currently have the finances for, I just collect his receipts and manage accounts for him).

Have you changed careers at this stage in your life? What did you move to?

Patricia the Stripper..is that true? Were you a trained dancer before doing that and can you tell us what rock band you toured with? I'm gobsmacked!

cguk81 I don't know what salary you're looking for but Police and Crime Commissioners have research/analyst/policy officers so you'd be balancing police knowledge with research.

Moved from marketing at senior management level to go into teaching in my 40s. Love my job, I really do but detest the unnecessary paperwork/jargon and politics that is endemic in education these days.

Yes academia is ruthless in its own way. however i truly believe times are changing somewhat, certainly the university I am at is working really hard to help people get back to careers in academia that fit around family, and constantly looking for new ways to find and encourage great researchers to get back into work, and encourage women particularly into permanent jobs, and reduce/stop gender pay gap.
I'm really impressed, I've been at a few universities in my time and never seen this.
(They even think of small (but important) things like having parking spaces for after 9.30am for school run parents so they don't need to worry about parking when they get to work after everyone else!)

I did it as a single parent and it was a drop in salary but I am happier and hours suit my family needs especially in the holidays. Early days were very tough though.

I'm 27 and work in advertising.

I'm seriously thinking about joining the army...

I used to be a research scientist (4 year post-doc in academia, then 3 years in industry). I retrained as a patent attorney when I was 34. Best thing I ever did.

I turned forty this year. Last year I gave up a job working in commercial insurance after 20 years and became a self employed childminder. Wish I did it years ago. its not steady reliable income though. I'm only now building up a reputation. Takes a while to grow a business

Masketti you sound like you have got to where I would like to be. I'm good at advising, researching and problem solving and think I would enjoy a job like career advice or something like money advice. I am in Scotland we don't have the police commissioners here but that kind of job would be great. I'm hoping that once I get back to work in January it won't be as bad as feared but it just feels like it makes hee haw difference to anyone and my organisation is so so slow at getting anything done and very heavy on middle management. It's soul destroying.

TiredClare I think I've been away from the police work for too long now to do anything related to my work there. I regret leaving my role there although shortly after I left there was loads of redundancies so I might have been pushed out anyway.
My current job is so good in every other way with pay, location and flexi working that it makes it so hard to leave it for something else but it's so unfulfilling and I'm really losing confidence there.

Patricia the Stripper you are my hero

Cguk81
I have a friend 40 years old who started her PhD this year and she is not the oldest.
The age is just a number, follow your dreams.

I've recently left the police after a long time (my whole working life to date) to work in a school post.
Am in my 40's with school age kids and couldn't face the juggling, long hours and morale any longer.
If you can do it, go for it.

Not really a change career wise as I've been doing a job forever because it pays well, flexible and good benefits etc but an a trainee counsellor set to qualify when I'm 37, expensive and I won't make much out of it but its what I want to do.

I had varied 20s and studied a lot. Never really settled into one career (due to health issues). Had children in my 30s and worked part time in a shop. Then at age 39 started retraining as a therapist. Am now in final year to qualifying and will probably continue on to an MA. I found that until that point I hadn't known what I wanted to do. So it was the right time for me.

What kind of therapy deadsouls ?

Arale I'm not discouraging career-changers into academia from doing PhDs simply on grounds of age. It's just that the statistics for finding work afterwards are dismal: only around 15% ever find postdoc work. Some of those 15 percenters will be over 40, but as in any, any field, it's the 25 year old boys who stand the best chance.

I'm looking at retraining (I'm 38) To do something I wanted to do 20 years ago. It's terrifying but exciting at the same time. Whether Im ready to apply for 2017 or 2018 is my big decision at the moment - I suspect I need 2 more qualifications first.

I enjoy what I do at the moment (I'm 33 and a psychologist) but am sure I will retrain at some point in the future. I'm toying with the idea of being a data scientist or computational linguist and would definitely be interested to hear from anyone who's doing those.

Posted too soon So this thread is inspiring me to keep going!

Me! Financial crash of 2007, plus second child, plus relocation from London was death of a good journalism/editorial project management (freelance) career. I took a sizeable career break and retrained in digital/content marketing and have nearly finished an MA which I am doing via distance learning alongside work.

I work for myself, have growing client list and have never been happier at work. Just wish I had followed instinct 20 years ago and made the move to Marketing when I realised I had good commercial instinct as well as writing ability.

When you have good skills to fall back on the change is less risky - e.g. I took take on writing commissions/editorial projects when retraining and am still in demand as a freelance writer, but more for ghosting commercial projects than journalism.

Judybloomno5 - I'm a GP Practice Manager. Anything you want to know?

Without wanting to put you off - it is long hours, pay is rubbish compared with private sector and secondary care, no guarantee of a payrise, ever increasing workload, goalposts currently changing on a daily basis and very little support aimed directly at GP Practice Managers. Partnerships make all the difference - if you have a good partnership then it makes the job more bearable but a bad one can make it a living nightmare.

I would like to point you in the direction on the annual Practice Management Job Satisfaction survey (www.firstpracticemanagement.co.uk/blog/posts/practice-manager-job-satisfaction-survey-2016-results-over-34-of-managers-feel-stressed/)

and also this survey by mind showing that 9 in 10 primary care workers (includes GPS, practice nurses, practice managers) fingers their job stressful (www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-finds-worrying-levels-of-stress-among-primary-care-staff/#.WGTNG8unzqA)

Primary care is not a happy place to be at the moment. Currently primary care carries out 90% of patient contact within the NHS for less than 8% of the budget. We are having more work forced on us from secondary care with little to no financial reward. GPs are leaving in droves, closely followed by Practice Nurses and as Practice Manager you are the one sat up til all hours trying to hold the pieces together.

Sorry - this isn't sounding overly positive but the majority of NHS workers are looking for a way out right now.

Re academia TiredClare:

it's the 25 year old boys who stand the best chance [of employment]

^^ this, particularly given how few posts arise these days.

Watching with interest, I've been in my retail role for 19 years and need a total change but have no idea what. Does anyone know where to get adult careers advice?