This is a pretty niche question, but I thought it was worth a try. I’m in my mid forties and for have had jobs such as Policy & Research Officer, Project Officer, Policy Manager etc. I’ve worked at charity/research/think tank type places.
I’ve always known that I don’t want to progress above the Policy Manager role I have now. My current role has some responsibility but not too much, and I know the pressure and endless meetings that any promotion would entail is not for me. Which is absolutely fine in theory, but I’m now starting to feel a bit of an anomaly at work as everyone else doing my job is at least 10 years younger that me!
So - my question is, where to people working these kind of roles disappear to in their forties?? Obviously some are progressing to more senior roles, but for those who aren’t:
- Are they moving to particular employers (civil service roles maybe?)
- Are there certain charities, think tanks or whatever staffed by policy managers in their fifties that I don’t know about?
- Are there lots of people in this position who career change into a completely different field?
- Are people taking (very!) early retirement?
I think my issue is that I’m at a ‘mid-career’ stage and am thinking about how the next twenty years could pan out. And as the places I’ve worked at have had very few staff (apart from senior management) who are mid forties or older I’m struggling to see what my career path could look like, as I don’t want to progress to a management role.