What next?

[absolutelyme]

I'm starting this thread, with the hope that I won't get my arse handed to me too badly. I'm 43 and am lucky enough to have enough of a private income that I don't need to work. I live a comfortable, but not extravagant life. Our family has a family holiday once a year, one car 10+ years old, one slightly newer, neither fancy brands. The mortgage is paid off and we have no credit card debt or personal loans. We shop at Aldi and the kids are at state schools.

DH works 4 days a week (the private income source is mine - though obviously all money is family money), and gives the fifth day either to family responsibilities or his hobby.

My eldest DD is now in Y8. My youngest is in Y5. I worked in a middle-management role in banking until my youngest was born, earning approximately £60k. I was made redundant whilst on maternity leave, moved out of London, and haven't properly returned to work since. I've done bits of consultancy work here and there, but a lot of it has dried up over the last couple of years, and I haven't chased hard because I haven't needed to financially.

Whilst I've been out of the workforce, I've done a significant amount of voluntary work. I'm Vice Chair of our Parish Council, and have set up (and coordinate) a local food bank, so I've not been idle per se.

But as my kids are getting older and need less full-time attention when they're home (generally happy to do homework / watch TV / call their friends without too much intervention from me - gone are the days when I would have to watch Paw Patrol with them), I'm beginning to get bored.

I did recently apply for a full-time PM job, at £20k less than I was on ten years ago, but all my memories of the actual projects I worked on are so fuzzy and distant that my competency-based examples weren't great. Also, I really don't want to work full-time (I would have tried to negotiate for part-time had I been offered the role), because I don't need the money, and the impact it would have on my day-to-day life would be significant, just in terms of school runs, walking the dog and managing my charity responsibilities.

At 43 I feel I'm too old to retrain in most things. I might feel differently if I had a soaring passion to follow a certain path, but I don't. A friend - a qualified coach - suggested I'd be good at coaching (not life coaching - proper accredited career coaching), but it's a significant financial investment - £5k ish, with the same scrabble to find your own work afterwards - it's not going to fall into my lap.

But I do need to use my brain a bit more in a constructive way. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Could you maybe gear some of your volunteering more towards exploring new sectors so then if you do decide to spend money retraining you have more of an idea of what you are getting into. Eg volunteering in adult education to see if you would like teaching/ career advice etc….
43 isn’t necessarily too old to start again - I expect it depends on the sector.

If you’re in such a financial position to not ‘need’ to work and investment of 5k to bring in some future additional income doesn’t seem expensive to me. What am I missing?

Thank you - I'm fairly sure I don't want to go into teaching (some of my other voluntary work has been working with primary school children, and whilst I'm hugely supportive of the sector, I don't have the patience). I think it's also a hugely undervalued and underpaid and stressful career - sort of the opposite of what I'm looking for!

But if you can suggest any voluntary sectors that don't involve working with children, I'd be keen to hear. I don't feel I'm under-qualified though (whilst of course not actually being qualified to be e.g. a dentist or an architect!).

@ReadingTeaLeaves My private income gives me enough to live on, but not enough to spend money like water. I could afford the £5k investment if it came with a guarantee of well-paid, flexible work at the end - but I suspect as a coach you are doing a lot of drumming business up - and I'm not good at that, and don't have the impetus.

Hopeful bump

Could you look for a Project Assistant role with a view to working back up to PM?

I wouldn't invest 5k in training to be a career coach in the current financial climate - it's the kind of thing that's first to go when people are tightening their belts.

Corporate training/L&D facilitating could be a goer, OP. It would use many of the same skills as PM work, teaching (adults, not children) and career coaching without the precariousness mentioned above.

https://jinn.careers/wiki/corporate-trainer/

That's exactly what the freelance work I've been doing is - so great suggestion!

I've found the market drying up in the last couple of years though - AI and cutbacks mean companies aren't investing in L&D so much.

I do love designing and delivering training though. But I'm not well connected enough to launch my own business with my own client base.

As you've worked in the not for profit sector and previously in banking - Grant writer could be an idea.
May I also throw in the more leftfield suggestion of digital marketing manager? Google have a great digital skills academy:
https://grow.google/intl/uk/courses-and-tools/?category=career

Anyway OP, not sure I have any more to add, but someone on another thread suggested BraveStarts as a very helpful resource, so I'll also give them a mention.

Sometimes Mumsnet is spooky and I wonder if I've been outed - grant writing was the main work I did for the Parish Council (and indeed have used for the food bank too) - and I've been moderately successful at getting grants. I will definitely investigate that.

I will also investigate Digital Marketing Manager. I started my career in Marketing (before moving to PM and L&D), so it wouldn't be an entirely crazy move. I'll also check out BraveStarts - thanks!

I don't have much to boast of by way of superpowers OP, but I have a knack for spotting the intersection of what initially looks like a diverse skill set! You had mentioned AI making inroads into your work; It's a very legitimate concern that has been preoccupying me hugely, but that's another post. I reckoned digital marketing is one way of getting ahead of that particular curve. I've done that particular Google course and it's very thorough. Did you consider data science/analytics? Anyway, would be great to hear what you decide to do!

Why not look at studying something of personal interest to you.

"Diverse skill set" is a very kind way of saying "Jack of all trades, master of none"!

I will have a proper look at digital marketing - albeit I'm less good with analytics, data, numbers. I'm not financially incompetent, but my skills are more towards the arts and management, rather than the sciences and data.

My professional experience is PRINCE2, LEAN, Six Sigma, facilitation, L&D (soft skills - e.g. communication styles, drivers, managing time, customer service), writing business cases, grant proposals, a tiny bit of Agile.

@newrubylane I have an undergrad degree, but didn't love uni, so I've not been hugely excited to jump back into the world of academia. I've done a few courses here and there on creative writing etc., but again, I don't have a huge passion for a specific thing to study.

I do appreciate I'm in a fortunate position. I just don't want my brain to atrophy, and if I can earn some money whilst doing that, so much the better! I did a bit of exam invigilation last year, but it was minimum wage, and a really weird combination of boring and stressful!