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Is 30 too old to start a new career?
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
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At what age do you think it is too late to start out on a new career?
The question has enormous personal significance for me.
Those who care to know the details may click and read; the rest are free to scroll indifferently to the end of the post.
Hello,
My name is Poliphilo and for the last 9 years I've been blowing with the wind.
I graduated from college at the tender age of 21 and got on the first plane to Asia. The plan was to spend a year or two here. But you know how it is. By the end of my second year I had a cheap and comfortable apartment in a great city, an easy job, an accumulation of crap sufficient to sink several ships, a social life. It was so easy to say, "just one more year." I met a great girl, got married. In 2005 we had a beautiful daughter together. The beer was cheap, the subways clean. Yes Sir, life was palmy.
Until a few days ago when I woke up in a cold sweat and said: "Holy shit. I'm thirty!"
On a personal level, I don't regret it because I've seen a lot of the world and undergone a sort of cultural and emotional coming of age. But my job (while easy and reasonably remunerative) does nothing for my resume; on the occupational front, that is, I have been happily and stupidly vegetating.
Thank you for listening.
I wonder what my reader thinks. Is there an occupational shelf-life?
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Sounds like you don't yet have a career. So, 30 is a great time to start one.
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Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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30 is young.
Wait until you're in your 50s are you're forced to start a new career. You'll look-back fondly to when you were 30 and had so many doors open to you.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: UK
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I should hope that 30 isn't too old to start a new career. I don't think you're ever too old. Unless you want to be a pro athlete of some kind.
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I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA
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30 is certainly not "too old." As they say in the south here, bless your heart.
The question becomes "how do you do this?" Are you dropping the current comfy but tedious job to go back to school? Or are you going to night classes? Or are you just dropping what you're doing to jump feet first into a new opportunity? You have the added concern of having a wife and a daughter that are impacted by your decision, as well. '
But no, you're not too old.
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
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That's reassuring.
I guess have been acclimated to the Korean job market.
Korean men go through school, college, then two years of military service. After all that, they usually land a job at around 25-27. Chances are they get made redundant or forced into retirement in their late thirties to mid forties.
I didn't believe it at first, but it's true.
15-20 years of preparation, 10-15 years of employment.
Bleak.
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Originally Posted by -Q-
30 is certainly not "too old." As they say in the south here, bless your heart.
The question becomes "how do you do this?" Are you dropping the current comfy but tedious job to go back to school? Or are you going to night classes? Or are you just dropping what you're doing to jump feet first into a new opportunity? You have the added concern of having a wife and a daughter that are impacted by your decision, as well. '
But no, you're not too old.
Thank you, Sir.
For simplicity's sake, I omitted the fact that I went back home for six months in 2004 and worked in commercial television production as a digital video editor. I hated it so much I quit after 8 weeks, panicked, and returned to Korea.
I majored in Film and Television, but alas, TV, and especially post production, are not my thing.
I'd like to find work in print media. I can see myself involved in marketing, perhaps writing copy. I'm still kind of scoping it out. But if taking a course would improve my prospects, I'd have no problem with that.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Boston, MA
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Cheap beer and clean subways. Why rock the boat?
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Emergency Medicine & Urgent Care.
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2001
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I certainly hope it's not too old. I just turned 27 after coming off a few years of traveling abroad, have no college, a fairly crap job and am planning to leave the country again next summer on another youth visa.
With life expectancies climbing into the 80s, I figure I've got another few-to-several years to figure stuff out.
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I like chicken
I like liver
Meow Mix, Meow Mix
Please de-liv-er
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Addicted to MacNN
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30 is too old for anything. You should be arguing with fellow trigenarians about who gets the best spot at the duckpond staring window.
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My sig is 1 pixel too big.
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Addicted to MacNN
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I don't think its ever to late to start a new carrier or go back to school. That said turning 31 was the most depressing day of my entire life
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Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2002
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I'll be 26 next month and I haven't even started my first career, so I'd say that 30 isn't too old at all.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2002
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Don't think so. However, I did start having chronic bursitis in my shoulders at 37.
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To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”
Sun Tzu
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
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I'm glad I started this thread.
It's just something about hitting 30 that makes me nervous. I feel like I really ought to be getting my act together.
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Addicted to MacNN
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I'm 26. I have not started a career. I just finished law school, and I'm joining the military.
In other words, I've made a living out of doing nothing, and I plan to continue this until someone pays me to retire.
In other news, I've been on MacNN for more than a decade.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I changed careers at about 50. It's not about age, it's about will and drive. And endurance; changing takes a LOT of work. But if you're up to that challenge, any age is "not too old" to change careers. Or to start one, for that matter.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Originally Posted by Kerrigan
I'm 26. I have not started a career. I just finished law school, and I'm joining the military.
In other words, I've made a living out of doing nothing, and I plan to continue this until someone pays me to retire.
Well, or you get killed, of course.
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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Someone who just finished law school and joins the military has a high probability of being placed in the Judge Advocate's office, either as a paralegal or in a program that gets him through the bar with a commitment of several years service as an attorney for the military service. Neither of which generally gets a person very near harm's way, but with the way the US military has changed over the last couple of years, that could also have changed.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Heck, I'm 55+ and I've already HAD multiple careers. DJ, Audio Engineer, County Gov't Assemby Programmer, Relational Database/Schedule Management programmer&Instructor, Customer Service rep, Office Manager, Mac Consultant, Gov't contractor. I also took off for almost 3 years and painted Brass model Steam engines for collectors.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Northwest Ohio
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There were about 10 people in my class in medical school who were in their 40s and even 50s who wanted to change careers and become doctors. So it's never too late to start a new career.
Off the top of my head, there was a computer programmer who wanted to become a doctor, two pharmacists that decided to change, one was a high school English teacher, one was a mechanical engineer, and another was a chemical engineer. So you don't even have to have a heavy biological science background either.
Not to mention the number of doctors who go to law school to become lawyers and the number of lawyers who go to medical school to become doctors. One of my colleagues here is a lawyer-turned-doctor who keeps BOTH degrees current, even though he practices medicine full time. He apparently practiced law for only two years before going back to school. He keeps his law degree current in order to do legal consulting for our clinic.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
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Meh. Make a solid plan so you can retire without worry, then take it easy. Life's short. Some people worry about careers and "shaping up," I figure these are the best years of my life and I'm going to enjoy them.
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Senior User
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Martha's Vineyard
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
30 is young.
Wait until you're in your 50s are you're forced to start a new career. You'll look-back fondly to when you were 30 and had so many doors open to you.
Funny - I was thinking exactly the same thing - with 50 in mind too.
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Senior User
Join Date: Sep 2002
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Egads! I hope it's not too late. Count me in on the 50's-and-changing-careers bandwagon.
I've read that the average educated worker can expect to change careers several times nowadays.
Younger people have this idea that they should have this official path laid out sometime before they're 30 but life often doesn't work that way. And some of those people who drive like crazy to get some career going then find out they hate it. I'd hazard that change is more the norm than not.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
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I knew I'd be okay when I told a guy I'd met in a hotel bar that I was fresh out of high school and had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, and he replied that he was 42 and had no idea yet what *he* wanted to do when he grew up.
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Senior User
Join Date: Sep 2002
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I hope I don't grow up for at least a few decades.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Brantford, ON. Canada
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I've been pondering the same.
Turning 30 in November and it feels like I'm having a midlife crisis.
I am comfortable where I am with my job, but honestly, bored and looking for a new direction.
Hope its not too late lol.
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot
I knew I'd be okay when I told a guy I'd met in a hotel bar that I was fresh out of high school and had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, and he replied that he was 42 and had no idea yet what *he* wanted to do when he grew up.
lol
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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Originally Posted by Person Man
There were about 10 people in my class in medical school who were in their 40s and even 50s who wanted to change careers and become doctors.
Wow. My proverbial hat is off to those folks! That is taking "career change" to a new level.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Addicted to MacNN
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Originally Posted by ghporter
Someone who just finished law school and joins the military has a high probability of being placed in the Judge Advocate's office, either as a paralegal or in a program that gets him through the bar with a commitment of several years service as an attorney for the military service. Neither of which generally gets a person very near harm's way, but with the way the US military has changed over the last couple of years, that could also have changed.
I have little or no desire to practice law. I was nudged into law school by my family, and my heart just isn't there. Despite what people may think about the profession, your typical attorney is underpaid, overworked, and not nearly as intelligent as he or she thinks.
Joining the military was a way for me to change gears, pay back the massive debt accrued in law school, and take some initiative in my life. Despite joking about only wanting to retire, I actually want to get out of the military when my contract is over, and start a business--any business. But who knows what will happen?
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / gang aft agley
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Originally Posted by hart
I hope I don't grow up for at least a few decades.
Having a kid does worlds for focus (though it doesn't necessarily induce long-term career planning).
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Originally Posted by Kerrigan
I have little or no desire to practice law. I was nudged into law school by my family, and my heart just isn't there. Despite what people may think about the profession, your typical attorney is underpaid, overworked, and not nearly as intelligent as he or she thinks.
Joining the military was a way for me to change gears, pay back the massive debt accrued in law school, and take some initiative in my life. Despite joking about only wanting to retire, I actually want to get out of the military when my contract is over, and start a business--any business. But who knows what will happen?
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / gang aft agley
Whatever you do, you're far less likely to be exposed to even peripheral combat than the news makes it seem. I volunteered to go to the desert twice but was turned down because I was "essential" where I was...which was a pretty lame answer since I didn't have a tasking at the moment either time. Depending on which branch you go with, you could wind up advising some young lieutenant on the proper language for a contract, or helping an overworked captain manage a mob of young people who would rather be in front of a big screen playing Gears of War than doing whatever it is they're supposed to be doing...
But I highly commend you for going with the military option. Among other things, it will give you a sense of accomplishment and teach you ways to do things (other than your military job) that will be helpful in whatever you do afterward.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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