Is 45 too late to change careers completely?

Question

Mary Spio · Accepted Answer

Completely is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Most successful changes are not complete — they are a pivot on something you already have. The people who struggle are the ones who try to erase twenty years and arrive as a blank slate. You are not a blank slate and you should not want to be.

Find the part of your old work that transfers. Operations, judgement, knowing how organisations actually behave under pressure — these do not expire. Then change the surface around it.

That is not a smaller move than starting over. It is the move that works.

Is 45 too late to change careers completely?

You are not the only one rebuilding right now.

More in Midlife reinvention