<p>Why don’t you look over the want ads in your area or online for the next few weeks and see what kind of stuff pops out to you as interesting? I have always enjoyed just looking through the want ads even when not needing to look for a job - it’s fun to see what’s out there and what I would actually be interested in or qualified to do.</p>
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<p>H has taught as an adjunct at a local 4-yr college. Pay for a semester is around $2,500 for a class of about 30 meeting three times per week. As another friend who taught there commented, it’s about enough to pay for the gas.</p>
<p>“We solemnly warn the kids on cc not to pin all their hopes on getting into HYPSM, to build their list from the bottom up, to love their safety. But when someone middle-aged asks we say Go for it! The sky is the limit! We need to set up a Chances forum for the parents contemplating career changes.”</p>
<p>I don’t think that anyone has said the sky is the limit. We have said, though, that it is possible for a 50-year-old person to enter a variety of careers including becoming a physician or lawyer. I think that people like me also assume that the original poster is thoughtful enough not to pin all of her dreams on a longshot like getting into medical school.</p>
<p>If, though, she had an interest in medicine, there are various careers in that field that would probably welcome her. Nursing, for instance, is one. Last time I was hospitalized, the most pleasant nurse that I had had entered the field around age 50. She was about 60, and clearly as very happy as a nurse, something that often isn’t true for younger people who enter that field only because they want a job where there’s an excellent chance of employment and good pay.</p>
<p>And we don’t always have a choice. Some people are phased out of jobs through out sourcing, down sizing or the collapse of their industry.</p>
<p>As the retirement age increases, people will be making later in life career changes.</p>
<p>With a deep recession many don’t have the funds to retire.</p>
<p>Consolation: I have friends that support themselves by adjuncting five or six courses a semester. It’s not princely, but it is something. I have a full-time tenured job and I adjunct two courses a semester as well. My pay is $3100 per course, per semester. The five extra courses I teach a year make a nice dent in college costs.</p>
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<p>Not in exactly those words, but it’s really not different from what was said for example in post #51: "Once you figure out what you really want, then you can figure out how to make it happen. "
And other posts have referred to achieving all your potential and living the dream. Like I said, just keep working on that jump shot.</p>
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<p>Well, chance me and I’ll chance you back.</p>
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<p>Would you consider teaching? I’m not sure how easy it would be to get a teaching certificate and get a job, but I do know that my D has had at least a couple of really good teachers who had made mid-career changes to become teachers.</p>
<p>I too am thinking of a career change in my early 50’s. I have several reasons for it, ranging from being widowed to having empty-nest syndrome to being a bit disenchanted with my original career (RPh). But like MomPhD, I wonder if it is realistic to do anything else at this age. If I could afford to volunteer my time to organizations important to me, I would; however, that is probably not financially wise for me since I am now on my own. Still, I cannot believe (or do not want to believe) that it is impossible for me to find a little happiness and fulfillment in some gainful employment for the next 10 or 20 years…or else I might have to just give up. Let us mid-life caeer-changers have a little bit of hope!</p>
<p>I recently went through this kind of soul-searching. I quit my job at age 49 (Feb. 2008) with the intention of doing something entirely different. I had thoroughly disliked everything (I thought) about my career (except the pay) and had tried to change directions at least three times earlier. I always ended up going back to doing the same thing because we “needed” the income. Anyway, I was determined that wouldn’t happen this time. </p>
<p>I got my personal life together (lost weight, got in shape, started volunteering with the Girl Scouts, etc.) but ran into one dead end after another on the career side. I explored library science, government jobs, not-for-profit jobs, university jobs and just came up empty. Then the market crashed and H lost his job so we were back to “needing” the income. </p>
<p>I took a risk and started my own business. I was careful to craft my work to eliminate the parts I had hated most. (I wasn’t even aware that I liked any part but I definitely knew what I despised.) For me this meant minimizing travel, client entertaining, & public speaking and eliminating management duties, & reliance on a bonus (very political). Anyway, I stripped it down to just reseach and writing on a single sector of interest, working from home part-time, & paid on a billable hour basis. I find I actually love my job for the first time in 25 years and wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t make as much money as before, but don’t work nearly as hard, have no stress and enjoy myself when I am working. My primary client has given me a minimum monthly guaranty which is enough to pay the bills, so I only accept other assignments if they are extremely enticing.</p>
<p>So, my take-away is as follows: (1) it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to change careers at age 50. Being in high demand for doing what I have always done did not translate into being in demand for other things (frankly this was a surprise); (2) I was able to build on what I had done before and change it in material ways that made it work for me. Others have already suggested this approach and it certainly can’t hurt to try it.</p>
<p>coureur: You took my remarks a bit out of context. I specifically indicated that desire is a starting point, not an ending point. However, I have observed that “following one’s bliss” as Joseph Campbell said, is usually a good starting point. Then the “practical concerns” of the world do modify those desires.</p>
<p>DH took a business degree but has only been able to succeed since he realized that art and photography are his passions. He now owns a photo studio. He is not raking in the dough, but his earnings are fairly consistent and he cannot be laid off, down-sized, outsourced, etc.</p>
<p>He would have scoffed at the idea of an art degree in his youth (he didn’t think he could draw) but his business degree hasn’t been that useful to him since his is not suited to corporate life. However, he did what he thought was practical.</p>
<p>I am emphatically not saying, “the sky’s the limit.” I am saying that pursuing a course with real internal appeal gives us wind in our sails.</p>
<p>And maybe pursuing an MD is not realistic, but maybe an RN or even scaling back more, some kind of health care tech, is. </p>
<p>Maybe law school is not realistic but maybe a paralegal course is.</p>
<p>lkf725: Good luck!!!</p>
<p>TheAnalyst: What an inspiring story!!!</p>
<p>After 25 years I have a bit of burn-out teaching community college students. But I will do it unless one of my novels sells enough to make me attractive as a teacher of creative writing at a more elite institution (I also have a PhD with an award winning dissertation.) The lifestyle is very appealing, especially to older workers – summers off, a month off in the winter, four day a week work weeks and short work days.</p>
<p>I have spent this 25 years introducing very resistant students to the beauties of literature and the rewards of communicating and writing clearly. It is very, very difficult at times.</p>
<p>But I have just enough love for both literature and students to carry me through the difficult parts.</p>
<p>I could not have lasted in a job I hated, and I sacrificed earning power for job satisfaction and life style choices, and I think for me it’s been a very worthwhile trade off.</p>
<p>I think a lot of us in the late 40’s and up would like to change careers. I am a nurse with a Masters degree and work in longterm care management. I’ve been a nurse for 28 years and although I know I’m good at what I do, I don’t love it. I like it most days. I work 50 hours a week plus end up doing some at home on my laptop (apprasials and such) and am salaried. For my rural area I earn a good living but the rest of the world operates on a different salary scale so overall, not so great. The COL is high here also. I would dearly love to change direction but my interest in costume design is just not going to make any $$. So I do it as a volunteer (and the places I volunteer for are psyched, not many people sew anymore apparently) and that satisfies me some. But I admire those who can make a big change. Financially I cannot take a salary cut and with 2 in college and an iffy home life I have to have benes and steady income. But I say to the OP - if you can do it, go for it. Be careful and thorough with your planning and if you have the support of your H that is most helpful.</p>
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<p>I would think that scheduling that many adjunct courses would be very difficult. Almost impossible unless they are all at the same campus. (And I shudder to think of the amount of class prep for 5 or six different courses, varying each semester…unless they are sections of the same course.)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my H has never been offered more than 1 course at a time at a single campus. There were a couple of other possibilities, but the timing was such that it would be impossible to physically get from one campus to another in time to teach both classes. And they weren’t going to change the class time to suit his needs.</p>
<p>^^^^Well, I’m sorry it didn’t work out better. I know you H would have been an awesome teacher or professor.</p>
<p>^Northstarmom is right (and I’m glad you had a good nurse, too!) that nursing indeed has a shortage in many areas of the country. Predictions are that the shortage will continue and worsen. However its physically demanding work accompanied by the weekend/holiday thing…which often for older staffers is not appealing. Starting to work Christmas, the 4th of July and other sacred, traditional family days has major drawbacks for many. So consider ANY health career carefully. Nursing is not alone in its scheduling needs.</p>
<p>^ Agree. Pharmacy is only convenient for customers, unless you do consulting.</p>
<p>here’s my final look at this thread (and with my last kid now in college, the cc site seems no longer relevant). but reviewing comments here has given me a new perspective on myself: i’m thinking of quitting my own job (great money, lots of responsibility, not easy) because i have a future award-winning book in me, too. title: “the limits to fun in work” what do you ladies think about that one? and here’s another insight. there may be more to women’s low pay than a “glass ceiling”. if you have a family to support, kids to put through college, retirement to save for, all that goes with the real world today, somebody in the house just may not be able to indulge in the luxury of “passion” when it comes to working. people get paid to do things somebody else wants done. if it’s really a lot of fun to do, others will want to do it, too - and some won’t even ask for money. so we have things that are personally fulfilling - volunteering at the library, free-lance writing, caring for homeless animals at the spca, that sort of thing. if that’s your deal, go for it - but don’t confuse this motivation with why you “go to work”. and, as this thread has always struck me as completely inappropriate on a forum mainly about parents with kids in college, i just googled a few relevant terms and came up with more appropriate websites for this audience: [Winning</a> Financial Freedom to Do the Work You Love](<a href=“http://www.passionsaving.com/]Winning”>http://www.passionsaving.com/)
and in case you’re feeling like your current dilemma is related to age, take heart in this:
[Hard</a> Times Can Be Troubling Even for Those Too Young for a Midlife Crisis - washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002317.html]Hard”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002317.html)
- 30 -</p>
<p>"I’m thinking of quitting my own job (great money, lots of responsibility, not easy) because i have a future award-winning book in me, too. title: “the limits to fun in work” </p>
<p>If you don’t like your job and don’t need to make that much money, why not quit and do what you like? Why put off until retirement things that you would enjoy doing today? You may not live until retirement and even if you do, you may be disabled or be prevented from pursuing your passions because of responsibilities like caring for an ill spouse. I will never forget my friend who died of cancer 2 years ago at age 58, the age I am now. She regretted the fact that until she became too ill to work, she had having totally devoted herself to a career that paid well and that she enjoyed but that kept her from doing some things that she would have enjoyed even more. She was putting those things off until retirement, but when illness forced her to retire, she was too ill to do the things she had delayed. </p>
<p>Years ago, I gave up an opportunity to be an assistant VP at a Fortune 500 company because I didn’t like the job. I took a much lower paying job as a prof at a public university. I never regretted making that switch. I had less stress, more time to enjoy my kids, and I got much more pleasure out of my work and live in general.</p>
<p>I didn’t get to have a Mercedes and I didn’t get to fly on the corporate jet or live in a luxurious house. But, I had wonderful summers traveling with my kids, and I didn’t have to deal with being part of a corporation that was abandoning its core values in order to pursue profits only.</p>
<p>Money really isn’t everything. One of the benefits to having a lot of education is that one often can choose between working for lots of money and stress and working a lower paying job that one enjoys. Someone with less education may only be able to work a low paying job that they hate.</p>
<p>Some people here also have earned the financial freedom to do the work they love or to even not work at all if that’s what they choose. </p>
<p>“there may be more to women’s low pay than a “glass ceiling”. if you have a family to support, kids to put through college, retirement to save for, all that goes with the real world today, somebody in the house just may not be able to indulge in the luxury of “passion” when it comes to working. people get paid to do things somebody else wants done. if it’s really a lot of fun to do, others will want to do it, too”</p>
<p>That’s not necessarily true. Many of the jobs that I found most enjoyable were things that many people wouldn’t have enjoyed doing at all. Jobs that I hated were jobs that other people loved. The person who took the Fortune 500 job that I quit loved it. </p>
<p>“So we have things that are personally fulfilling - volunteering at the library, free-lance writing, caring for homeless animals at the spca, that sort of thing.”</p>
<p>There are people who get paid to be libraries, to run and work at animal shelters and who support themselves as freelance writers. There also are many people who’d hate doing those things.</p>
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So true. My husband worked hard since he was a teenager, put himself through school and stuck with jobs that he sometimes didn’t like very much…all to provide for the family and to insure a reasonably comfortable retirement. We didn’t care all that much for luxuries and talked of early retirement and taking some jobs that were meaningful to us. We looked forward to hobbies and travel. Well, that never happened. He passed away before we had a chance to get to the “good stuff”. Northstarmom hit the nail on the head with her post. I challange anybody who changed careers in midlife to explain why that decision was a mistake. I bet there are not many takers.</p>
<p>^ Hey, not to be depressing there. We did dedicate ourselves to family and had lots of great times raising two wonderful kids. I think the commercial says that the cost of such things is “priceless”. You can’t live either entirely in the present without planning nor entirely for the future without fun… there needs to be a healthy moderation.</p>
<p>Amen Northstarmom!</p>
<p>I was widowed at the age of 36. I finished college and then worked as a software engineer raising my four children until I remarried at age 41.</p>
<p>I hated it, but did what I had to do at the time.</p>
<p>Now I am in grad school and work in a library. I am much happier. </p>
<p>I get paid far less, and do not project earning as much as I did back then, but I have seen death and know we never know when any of us are going to face it. I am going to live now, do what I enjoy, and take time to appreciate my children/stepchildren/grandchildren.</p>