Why People May Want A Change In Career Direction Later In Life, And The Choices On Offer For Starting Again

In past times, somebody decided on a given profession at an early stage, did the specified tuition for relevant exams, and subsequently remained in the same field (and sometimes the same company) for the next 40 or so years. The situation has changed since then, with more and more people changing their career path in later years. Clearly the more advanced in years they are, the more difficult it becomes to switch to an occupation requiring a different way of thinking, but conversely, they probably possess more savings to help tide them over the probable temporary drop in income that a change of job necessitates. The new area of Internet business has provided a new type of online jobs, which those from various areas can adjust to without difficulty, especially since they allow people to work from home.

There may be various reasons why people decide to leave their current occupation. In some cases, somebody may have been coerced by their parents into choosing a given line of work, for instance, a son has to adopt his father’s profession. However, in such cases this is rarely what they are particularly good at doing, so at some point, they might decide break away and re-train for the job they really hope to pursue. For some the strategy is to accept a normal 9-5 occupation, and pursue their real area of interest – in music or crafts, for instance - after work. If they achieve success, they are free to leave their more mundane occupation.

A more familiar motive nowadays, is that people find out that in reality they don’t take pleasure in their selected profession. Perhaps things didn’t turn out the way they anticipated. For instance, I have encountered a lot of former teachers who made the decision to do other things as they became disillusioned by the lack of discipline in modern schools.

Money may also be a factor. There are many jobs which are immensely fulfilling, for instance in scientific research, but salary rates are low and the jobs are often short-term or temporary. For someone who is required to support children, the idea of a more lucrative job in a less exciting field is difficult to resist. The way someone has expressed it to me, work satisfaction is great in theory, but it’s not much good when you are trying to bring up a family on less than £20,000 a year and your children need food and clothing. At the other extreme, there are those who give up high paid posts so that they can choose a low paid but more satisfying occupation, or to allow them to work from home in some capacity.

Unfortunately a widespread and unwished for cause of a career move is being laid off. Those who are made redundant may take the chance to invest their redundancy payout to set up a self-employed business. Sometimes it may be doing the same as whatever they had carried out before, but often it can be a totally new line of work. For example, a friend of mine, laid off from a managerial position, established his own antiques auction room.

Thanks to the invention of the Web, there is a huge variety of Internet business opportunities which can be taken up by people seeking a change in career or who have become unemployed. These may be described as ‘online jobs’ since people can work from home and connect to customers via the WWW. A few without previous IT experience might be apprehensive that they do not have the computing skills to accept these openings, but they can easily be trained up and many find the necessary skills are easily acquired. In cases where people are frustrated in their current career and hope for a change of scene, or find themselves out of work and are looking for new opportunities, the online jobs available in Internet business can give people a golden chance to start afresh.