Thinking of Career Change at 45

[Feldon]

After much of my working life being self-employed mainly in retail but more lately as a mortgage adviser, various sales jobs and currently a carpet cleaner I am looking to maybe retrain and find a worthwhile career be it on a self-employed basis or going back to be an employee. With a wife and two young children to support I need to be able to find a career which is relatively quick to study for, is in demand and offers a good chance of employment / self-employment at the end, if there is such a thing?

Is it too late to change career at 45?

One possibility I am looking at is training to become a Health and Safety Consultant either to get a full time job or to start my own business and i have been looking at various courses to study via distance learning to fit around my other commitments. Is there much demand for this type of service? Either employed or self-employed?

If anyone has any suggestions of in demand careers etc I am open to other ideas but am looking at white collar jobs / careers.

 

[Digger]

Definately not too late - would look at areas that would give you satisfaction as well as a crust.
I'm older, and literally doing the same thing ( long uninteresting tale )- not easy mind.
Wish you luck

 

[Feldon]

Thanks for your reply Digger

Do you mind me asking what you changing from and to?

In any event good luck to you as well.

 

[Deleted member 138423]

I'm a similar age and am about to embark on something different! My take is that I'd like to do something I really want to do, so I would say you should just do it! I'm sure your wife will back you to the hilt and you'll therefore feel that you can do what you want. Go for it and good luck.

 

[Blood Lust]

After much of my working life being self-employed mainly in retail but more lately as a mortgage adviser, various sales jobs and currently a carpet cleaner I am looking to maybe retrain and find a worthwhile career be it on a self-employed basis or going back to be an employee. With a wife and two young children to support I need to be able to find a career which is relatively quick to study for, is in demand and offers a good chance of employment / self-employment at the end, if there is such a thing?

Is it too late to change career at 45?

One possibility I am looking at is training to become a Health and Safety Consultant either to get a full time job or to start my own business and i have been looking at various courses to study via distance learning to fit around my other commitments. Is there much demand for this type of service? Either employed or self-employed?

If anyone has any suggestions of in demand careers etc I am open to other ideas but am looking at white collar jobs / careers.

Your age will go against you in certain jobs which are looking for people who want a long-term career. This is because they like the younger people who they can mould into what they want.

If you are good at sales that would work, if you were good as a mortgage advisor that would work too and so would being a cleaner.

If you want a fresh career you need to go for those perceived as middle aged man jobs (no offence) or for management in a field you're experienced in. Health and safety would be a good choice and so would something like security if you want a fresh career.

If its a bit of responsibility, some power and a decent wage you're after then are you aware the Police recruit new constables up to the age of 55?

 

I established a charity that gives career advice and one of the recurring themes is retraining . Even at 50 + I would advise it . Nowadays most people don't retire at 65 and many go past 70 , so you've got a lot of years ahead of you. Imagine it takes 2 years to retrain and get established in your field and you work for a further 20 after that - a return of 10 fold . Not bad in my opinion

 

[bdw]

I was made redundant at 52 when I started this business back in 2001. It was not too late for me but I had the cushion of a redundancy payment and very little debt. My family were also grown up and gone. Go for it!

 

[bdw]

I would also say that ageism is alive and well in the UK but not a problem when you are self employed. In fact I have found that quite often my age is a selling point in attracting customers.

It's a pity that UK employers view this differently.

.

 

[Banned]

I would also say that ageism is alive and well in the UK but not a problem when you are self employed. In fact I have found that quite often my age is a selling point in attracting customers.

It's a pity that UK employers view this differently.

.

Ageism is a problem with so many young kids these days doing a degree, becoming lower/middle management at twenty summit' and not taking on experienced people who will do the job ten times better than them.

Luckily smaller business are generally happy to take on older employees, at one point I employed 13 "field" personal when I was in my late twenties and early thirties, the oldest employee was 66 the youngest 35. Tried younger people a couple of times and they simply didn't commit and work as hard as the older guys, they also pulled far more "sickies".

So OP - if you want to employee rather than employer look towards owner manager business would be my advice.

 

[nottinghamdetectives]

I would definitely agree that with the government's plans to shunt forward the retirement age yet again, 45 is definitely not too old to start working on a new career path. It sounds like you have some great experience and many useful transferable skills, so go for it!

Also have you read the recent research that our brains between the ages of 40 and 60, instead of deteriorating, actually 'mature' and allow for more complex thinking so I would say this is a perfect time to learn some new skills to add to your existing ones!

 

[tony84]

I think ageism is there to an extent but having owned a business, i would always prefer to employ older people - reliability, work ethic and common sense are all there in people over 30-35 in the main.

Under 25 and its hungover, lateness, no common sense etc.

If you were a mortgage advisor, what about upskilling to a financial advisor - depending on the route you took (presumably cemap) it could take a year or 2, if you went down the CII route then there might not be so many exams to do...and you have a client bank.

Its hard for anyone to say really, only you know what you want to do and will have the enthusiasm and interest to do. Im useless at exams but because ive always wanted to be a mortgage advisor i sat in and read through the books and passed them - because the desire was there.

Its all about what you want really, there used to be a "test" which you would answer about 40 questions and it would come up with a career choice for you, i cant say it got mine correct but it might give you another idea, im sure a search on google would find it.

Also another option go on the reed website, search for jobs in your area for the pay your hoping for and you might see something that takes your fancy.

 

[Blood Lust]

Ageism is a problem with so many young kids these days doing a degree, becoming lower/middle management at twenty summit' and not taking on experienced people who will do the job ten times better than them.

Luckily smaller business are generally happy to take on older employees, at one point I employed 13 "field" personal when I was in my late twenties and early thirties, the oldest employee was 66 the youngest 35. Tried younger people a couple of times and they simply didn't commit and work as hard as the older guys, they also pulled far more "sickies".

So OP - if you want to employee rather than employer look towards owner manager business would be my advice.

It depends on the career and their personality.

A lot of older people are set in their ways so organisations find it hard to teach them 'how they want it done'. A lot of older people dont like having to follow a younger manager or find themselves being disciplined by one either.

But when it comes to sales older people tend to be trusted more by the customers so they are better there.

I must not sterotype them thought because it doesnt apply to all old people.

 

[Banned]

It depends on the career and their personality.

A lot of older people are set in their ways so organisations find it hard to teach them 'how they want it done'. A lot of older people dont like having to follow a younger manager or find themselves being disciplined by one either.

But when it comes to sales older people tend to be trusted more by the customers so they are better there.

I must not sterotype them thought because it doesnt apply to all old people.

I'm really not disagreeing just for the sake of it but.....

I found the older guys far more open to new methods (actually the job was service based and something they hadn't done before), whereas the young guys thought they knew it all already - again they hadn't provided this service either so both were coming at it fresh and new.

I can see employing an elder person in a similar job then they might be set in their ways. Can't say for sure though as I've never done it.