9 Career Change Ideas: Start a New Career in Your 40s, 50s and 60s

Changing careers into your 40s and 50s can be a challenge, but there are plenty of financially secure, low-stress, and fulfilling career options for midlife career changers.

Realising you aren’t happy in your current job — or that you no longer have a clear direction — can be scary. As an older career changer, you may feel like you don’t have as much time to work your way up a new career ladder as a younger person would.

That’s where we come in. Discover new career ideas that fit your needs, whether you want to step it up or dial it down.

One of the best places to start when imagining your next career move is to think about what work you’re suited to. This could mean thinking about your life purpose, making a list of things about your current career that isn’t working for you, as well as a list of things that are working and you’d like more of.

There’s a range of options to suit all these scenarios. Some involve building on your existing career, interests, skill set, and experience. Others may include retraining and upskilling – which those in their 40s and 50s are increasingly ready to do. Remember that you may have more knowledge and transferable skills than you think.

Idea 1: Self-employment

Many people who are unsatisfied with their working life are looking for more of a challenge. Self-employment is an opportunity to take your own life and career into your own hands. You’ll be happy to find out that older entrepreurs outperform younger entrepreneurs. This trend is likely because over 40s have had their entire lives accrue expertise and experience in various areas.

Self-employment can take many forms: from opening your own company or startup to consulting, coaching, or freelancing work as a sole trader. 

Some of the most common industries for self-employment include:

• Agriculture
• Construction
• Professional and administrative services
• Real estate
• The arts

There’s a vast range of niches for successful people.

A small business course can help you avoid common pitfalls faced by beginners and build a sustainable business from day one. The payoff is the freedom to design your own path.

Are you burnt out by the 9-to-5? Or 9-to-late? Burnout can make you feel like you’re in a rut, making it hard to get motivated and leading to procrastination. Over time, burnout is associated with mental health issues. There are many opportunities to change into something slower-paced, allowing you to lead a better life.

Idea 4: Financially secure employment

After decades of work, you may feel you need a career that will offer solid employment opportunities, enough money, and good superannuation and benefits. There is a range of options for financially secure jobs.

Some roles include:

• IT
• Trades
• Consulting
• Executive assistant
• Financial advisor

Both IT and trades offer secure jobs with good salaries. The idea of retraining in either of those industries may be overwhelming, but it is possible.

It’s common for people to have thrived in competitive industries only to wonder: how does this help the world? There are many dream jobs to help you leave a positive impact.

Idea 5: Work for a non-profit

The non-profit sector needs people from various industries – communications, marketing, accounting, finance, IT, strategists, and people who can raise money and awareness.

Moving to the non-profit sector could be as simple as doing a similar job to what you’re doing now, but for an organisation and a cause you believe in.

Idea 6: Turn your creative hobby into a career

Maybe you’ve been an avid photographer, illustrator, or basket-weaver in your spare time. Perhaps you love writing or playing video games. One way to get greater fulfilment is to parlay those creative expression skills into a dream job.

A range of creative roles are in high demand, pay well, and can form a full-time career. You can also sell items on websites such as Etsy or markets as a side-hustle, potentially turning into a full-time gig.

Idea 7: Teaching

Teachers give back by helping others learn essential skills. You can teach what you’ve already learned over your career life in TAFE or adult training environments or train to teach a subject you love to secondary students.

There’s also a huge demand for early childhood educators. These individuals play a formative role in children’s development and reap the satisfaction of encouraging children as they learn and grow.

Idea 8: Politics

Perhaps you have strong beliefs about how to improve the lives of those in your local area, state, or Australia-wide. In that case, you could enact significant changes through involvement in political life. Just as the non-profit sector needs a wide range of professionals, so do political parties and organisations.

You could also work directly as a politician’s staff member, helping them manage constituents’ feedback and get key messages across. This might also include managing their day-to-day life: from committee involvement, public event attendance, social media engagement, and media comments.

Idea 9: Office jobs with opportunities to climb the career ladder

Maybe you’re getting to a stage where you’d like more responsibilities, higher pay, and a key role in mentoring and managing others. In that case, you can make this progression relatively directly in a range of professions.

In his previous life, Ted was an AFL footballer for 16 years with the Essendon Bombers and the Sydney Swans, making plenty of memories and life-long friends along the way.

After retiring from football two years ago, Ted moved into investment management. Although he’s always loved football, Ted discovered that he has other passions too, and investing is one of them.

The average career span of a footballer is only around five years. Ted always knew that the statistics suggested that he should prepare for a new job if things didn’t work out. Whilst playing football, he went to university and completed a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Applied Finance. He also did work experience during the last four years of his career.

“This gave me great vindication that investing was the next career path for me. I prepared the best I could, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about entering a new industry too.”

The journey was a little bumpy. “I failed a few subjects, so it’s not like it was easy or I was perfect. I had to make sacrifices and miss out on exciting events, which wasn’t fun either. But I kept chipping away, and I think that’s what I’m most proud of. I didn’t give up.”

Ted is now the Director of Business Development at Six Park – an organisation that provides investment advice online, otherwise known as ‘robo-advice’. He prides his career and business on transparency in how it invests for its clients.