I need a new career. Former magazine writer who went into marketing and I am so deadly bored. In my mid-40's and I probably have to work for 20 more years. I want to do something different.
My skills are all soft skills and communications. Not a patient/people person (social work/teaching are definitely out). I'm open to some retraining or working my way up, as long as the career offers that option (good luck getting an entry level marketing job in your late 40's! not happening).
Any ideas? Open to any and all!
watch “younger” and do what she did! Just kidding, obviously. I am sorry, I do not have any useful advice.
I'm in a similar position to you, same skills, just a few years younger. I started interviewing career coaches and am going to make a decision on who to buy some coaching sessions from. I felt it was time I invested in myself - it's been 6+ years of kids, maternity leaves...and now pandemic for me. Just an idea for you to consider.
Curious, what did you ask the prospective coaches?
What were you doing before kids and the pandemic?
@anonymous I have my first call with a prospective coach at the end of this week. I have some HW to do and need to come up with an interview guide. All of them do a ~30 min intro call so I'll try to get a feel for their approach and style, and also fee structure. I have been told to be wary of those who want the full fee upfront. I don't think a career coach will have all the answers, but I need some direction and am tired of being in my own head.
Try to think of your skills at a higher level of abstraction so that you can think about other possibilities. So you did marketing, ok, but at a higher level of abstraction, what is marketing? Sales. You were a magazine writer. What's that at a higher level of abstraction? Communications, so you could try for corporate communication positions. That's what I would do in your position - think more broadly about your skill set and then see what types of jobs fall into that broader categorization. Also think very specifically about the skills you had to use: ability to work in a high pressure environment and under deadlines, ability to communicate clearly and succinctly, software skills, etc. Then think about jobs that use those specific skills (Executive Assistant, Chief of Staff, etc.).
Agreed. Communications is an entire field. Any medium sized company will have a communications functions. The larger the company, the more people that they will have devoted to it - both internal employee communications and external
Is there an organization you're involved with that might need a Comms person (kids' school, church/temple, non-profit)? That can be a good way in. And of course corporate comms as an earlier poster said.
Thanks. I've applied for many corporate comms jobs and have never gotten so much as an interview.
@anonymous Is your problem identifying the job you want, or getting it? If you have an idea of what you want, then your issue is just getting it. That's where your network comes in. Thousands of people will apply for jobs -- you need someone to pluck your resume from the pile and have a look at it. This is something specific a coach can help you with. Humans don't look at most job applications -- computers do. So you need to draft everything in a way that will make it computer friendly, like using certain key words over and over and over again such that your resume, letter, etc. comes up as a high frequency match. A very targeted session with a coach can help with that given your price range.
@Anonymous Thanks. I think it's identifying the job I want that's the real problem. I don't really want to do corp comms - it's just the only thing I can think of that readily matches my skill set. (or at least seems like it should - though, as mentioned, I can't seem to get those jobs either).
Who do you work for now? Could you apply for a lateral move into a different role. Most companies will take more of a chance on a good performing employee in a new role than a new company will take on an unknown quantity.
Marketing. Unfortunately there is no option to move into a different role at my current job (don't want to out myself by explaining - there just isn't).
dorie clark, reinventing you