I was thinking the other day…in another five years, my daughter will be off to college, and our need for a stay-at-home mom will radically decrease (at about the same time our need for income will increase). I’m thinking, with that kind of lead time, that now may be the time for me to start preparing to re-enter the work force. Particularly, I’m thinking that now may be a good time to think about specifically training for something. Trouble is, I’m not sure what.
I majored in English, and worked as an editor and writer for various advertising and publishing companies back in my pre-mommy days, and I’ve pretty much kept those skills up, editing non-profit newsletters and webpages, etc. The thing is, I’m not really sure I want to focus on that. At its best, it doesn’t pay that much more than working in a restaurant, frankly…not unless you’re in L.A. or New York (and the jobs are few and far between). And I keep thinking that this may be the ideal time to think about making a change.
Reality trip time…I’m 45 right now, and will be 50ish when I’d want to start thinking about going back to work full-time, so age will be a consideration as well. I wonder how many places would be willing to hire a 50-something who is brand-new at her career?
If worse comes to worse, I supposed I could always get myself hired as an administrative assistant again…I’ve done that as well. But part of me is intrigued at the idea of starting something entirely new.
I’ve actually flirted with the idea of nursing, but I’m concerned I may be too old to really consider that track at this point, especially as my bachelors degree isn’t in a scientific field.
Has anyone else out there ever gone through this kind of thought process? What did you do? Any thoughts on what direction a stay-at-home mom thinking about a new career should be looking at?
Just figured I’d bounce this off a few wise and friendly heads!
I’ve actually flirted with the idea of nursing, but I’m concerned I may be too old to really consider that track at this point, especially as my bachelors degree isn’t in a scientific field.
Out here, they’re taking folks with any kind of BA at all into an intensive 2 year program that earns you an RN.
Health planners are in a white-faced panic about the crunch that’s going to hit ove the next five to ten years with nurses retiring.
Right, I sure wouldn’t let the age thing be a spoiler.
Lots of people these days start new careers in middle
age–even if its an impediment it won’t finish you
if you know what you’re doing.
You may know the book, What Color is Your Parachute?
which is for mid-life career changes. That’s excellent.
Also it can be very helpful, and, in my experience,
isn’t terribly expensive, to simply go get vocational
counseling.
If you use your head, get the info, learn about
the job market, figure out your skills, etc.
you will probably get what you want.
[stuffed snipped - I still have to go to work evey day]
As far as the being too old thing goes… that’s other people’s problem, not yours. Although you may be completing with 20-somethings in the job market, you bring other skills with you that they haven’t had the opportunity of honing yet… like having raised kids and having dealt with people in real life situations in more varieties of ways.
When you decide what focus is right for you, do it. I mean, why end up at 70 or 80 looking back and wishing you had?
The fact is that the average middle ager can vastly outperfrom
the average college grad–more stable, work harder,
and a good deal less likely to be illiterate. Unless
you’re going to climb trees for a living or mine coal,
there’s no contest.
You may be new at a particular “career”, but you have a life time of experience that a 20 something doesn’t have. You’ve learned how to multi-task extremely well (where’s the bookbag? Is that lunch packed? How do you get to soccer practice, get dinner ready, pick up those library books, etc. all at the same time?). You’ve learned medicine (is this really something to worry about or just a stomach bug?). You’ve learned time management (I told you a million times to start a project sometime before the night it’s due!). You know creative thinking (of course I can make a volcano out of baking soda!).
Try to volunteer in any career you may be looking at. It’ll help you decide if this may be a good choice, plus it looks good on a resume’.
Most colleges have “older student” help these days - talk with them about ways to make the transition smoother. Some go so far as offering tests for life experience and you may not need to take some classes because of that.
The latest issue of AARP magazine–(ok, ok..I’m not trying to rub it in, We started getting it when my husband turned 50, and it’s actually one of the more interesting journals I read.)–has an article specifically on how colleges are catering more and more (and how much more normal it’s becoming) for mid-life and older people to head back to school.
A friend of ours, who recently turned 55, scoffed when a friend referred to him as middle aged. Then his wife turned to him and asked “just how long are you planning to live, anyway?”
Thanks for the input, y’all. Food for thought, definitely. Since a good part of my daughter’s college payment plan hinges on my going back to work when the time comes (not to mention that I’d also like to take some of the load off my husband, who’s worked hard to make sure I could stay home and be with our daughter all these years), I figure that now’s the time to be thinking about what I want to do. Right now I’m only sure about what I DON’T want to do…e.g., go back into publishing or advertising, go into law (I have relatives who are constantly after me to go to law school, but I’m not drawn to that at all!), work from home (I like to keep my home life and my work life separate), etc. I guess that’s something of a start, though!
It sounds like your heart is no longer in the fields of editing and writing, but you do have experience there and there’s been one major change in the past 15 years or so that might make it more interesting now: in many cases, physical location no longer matters. That means you might be able to stay where you are but work for a firm in NYC or LA or wherever, and thus earn a better salary. I’ve been doing exactly that since 1994, first living in Vermont while working for a publisher in Boston, then later as a freelancer (still in Vermont) and now working for a consulting firm in Washington DC while living up here in Montreal.
Of course, if you simply don’t like the day-to-day work of an editor or writer, then don’t bother considering these options. But if you’re discounting the possibility of staying in that field because of income potential or a perceived need to move somewhere to get a better job, I don’t think those are valid concerns anymore.
It’s partially that I’m tired of the work, and the inevitable wrangling with writers who think their deathless prose is beyond reproach, and partially that I don’t want to work from home (which would be necessary if I were working for an out-of-town firm). I’ve worked out of my home before, and found it virtually impossible to keep work from intruding on my home life…every time I sat down at the computer to do a little surfing, I’d be thinking “so long as I’m here, I should get this done,” and every time I’d settle down to watch a TV show with my husband, I’d get a call from a client. I just don’t have the discipline, I guess.
But mainly it’s a matter of looking at what I’ve done with my life so far and wanting to do something different. I’ve been a writer and editor, and I’ve been a full-time mom…now it’s time to explore another path, y’know?
Hey, it SC lets the University expand, there will be mucho jobs. Once you’re in the system, there would likely be many interesting jobs…
Don’t go into journalism, writing pay sucks. i was surprised to find out that at my paper, we (the graphic artists) outearn the reporters by more than a third.
If you want money, be a real estate appraiser. You get to drive around and make decisions that affect people’s lives and it pays very well. Lotsa freedom.
You only make a reasonable wage at the university if you’re an administrator. We’ve got everything from full professors to computer programmers for the university living out of campers here.
As far as the pay for journalism goes, you’re right…and the same is true, by the way, of advertising. The artists WAY out-earn the wordsmiths.
Hmmm…real estate appraiser. That sounds intriguing…
Valid points, however the fact is that age discrimination is a very real thing for the over 35 crowd. It’s very wise to track down stats regarding age group hiring within the field you choose, otherwise you may find yourself with lots of school loans to pay back, and very few job opportunities.
Hey, why not become a whistle maker, everyone else seems to be doing it?
My sister has found nursing to be a good career but she has mentioned that it is getting physically very tiring to work the 12 hour shifts where she works as a substitute----she’s 54 and in fairly good shape. I imagine there are all sorts of nursing jobs and time arrangements one could investigate, so I don’t mention this to discourage you from nursing but just to add something to look into.
I’ve got a buddy who’s been a nurse forever, he tells me that if he were to do it again (assuming he didn’t have such a cush job at a VA hospital) he’d go the route of home health care nursing. Says he feels it’s much more relaxed type of Nursing gig than the typical hospital rotations, and the pay is apparently good as well.
Well, that’s not something I’m sure of either. I’ve never really thought of it…at least not since I was a college student. That’s kind of why I’m playing around with different ideas now (and would welcome suggestions). Unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to make money out of any of my passions (not much work out there for an Irish language translator – at least not in California! – or for a very low alto who can hold her own in a choral setting!) I like working with animals, but there’s not much of a future in that either…'bout the only thing I can think of in that line that might offer employment is vet tech, and they’re a dime a dozen hereabouts.
In school I was strong in the sciences, particularly biology (but very weak in math, which is what kept me from pursuing a veterinary degree…when science and math came together in the form of chemistry, I caved) and in language (including foreign languages). I’m what you might call “mind hungry”…I love learning about stuff…but I’ve never been very good at putting that drive to practical use. I don’t like being the one “in charge”…I much prefer working for someone to being the boss (or to being my own boss) – in fact, I’m a pretty good “girl Friday.”
It doesn’t help that jobs are a bit thin on the ground here in Santa Cruz…there’s not much here other than the University, Cabrillo College, and the service industry (restaurants, hotels, etc.). I hate the thought of joining the throng clogging Highway 17 to San Jose every day…at today’s gas prices, a 60-mile round-trip commute isn’t appealing.
