Re-training at 40 - which industry/role?

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  • trailingspouse
    trailingspouse Posts: 4,035
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    As far as reporting to someone younger - my son became a section manager at a well-known department store in his early 20s and he looked very young for his age. I believe there were still a couple of spots. He had a few problems with people who were on his section who had been there years and were considerably older than him.

    When we discussed it, I pointed out that all of these people had made a decision (consciously or unconsciously) not to advance their careers. Those decisions had been made when they decided not to listen in school, of not to work for their exams, or not to apply for the job, or not to make an effort on a day-to-day basis. And those decisions were not my son's problem.

    If you've got to 40 without starting out on a career path then you are going to have to get used to having bosses that are younger than you. You're not entitled to anything, any more than anyone else is. You've made your choices - they may have been the right choices at the time - but don't blame the boss for your decisions.

    And you want a job that will take you through to retirement and beyond? If you're 40 now, let's say that will be in 30 years' time. Can you remember what life was like in 1987? That was 30 years ago. Is anyone doing the same job they were doing in 1987?

    I think you need a serious reality check. What are you doing at the moment? Is there a career path, what qualifications would you need, what additional experience would you need? And get over the whole 'younger than me' thing. If you live long enough, everyone will be younger than you.
    No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...
  • jdw2000 wrote: »
    If I'm reporting to someone younger as a means-to-an-end, short-term, because I am retraining, then fine. Anything other than that, not fine. And as I become more experienced in whatever I am doing I fail to see how I will be doomed to report to someone with a spotty face for very long.

    Because age is not a selling point in programming and there is probably always going to be someone younger than you who is better than you and more up to date than you. You are always going to be playing catch up. They can go for someone young with your level of experience, they can go for someone your age with much more experience than you, or they can go for you. What's the selling point of you?
  • jdw2000
    jdw2000 Posts: 418
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    As far as reporting to someone younger - my son became a section manager at a well-known department store in his early 20s and he looked very young for his age. I believe there were still a couple of spots. He had a few problems with people who were on his section who had been there years and were considerably older than him.

    When we discussed it, I pointed out that all of these people had made a decision (consciously or unconsciously) not to advance their careers. Those decisions had been made when they decided not to listen in school, of not to work for their exams, or not to apply for the job, or not to make an effort on a day-to-day basis. And those decisions were not my son's problem.

    If you've got to 40 without starting out on a career path then you are going to have to get used to having bosses that are younger than you. You're not entitled to anything, any more than anyone else is. You've made your choices - they may have been the right choices at the time - but don't blame the boss for your decisions.

    And you want a job that will take you through to retirement and beyond? If you're 40 now, let's say that will be in 30 years' time. Can you remember what life was like in 1987? That was 30 years ago. Is anyone doing the same job they were doing in 1987?

    I think you need a serious reality check. What are you doing at the moment? Is there a career path, what qualifications would you need, what additional experience would you need? And get over the whole 'younger than me' thing. If you live long enough, everyone will be younger than you.

    As I said above, I put conferences together and have previously worked in telesales. I have no idea what my new path is or qualifications needed, which is why I am here to gather ideas.


    I manage people too, like your son does. The older ones are fine. The younger ones are the problem.
  • fishybusiness
    fishybusiness Posts: 1,263 Forumite
    Nothing physical. Because whilst that's fine now, it probably won;t be in 10/15 years time when I am getting on a bit.

    That made me laugh, getting on a bit at 50!

    I'm 49 btw, became a gardener last year :rotfl:

    Think you will find the skill shortages, and/ or the skills sets required now will have changed in 10 years, and younger people will be more clued up.

    Their own training, and interests will likely surpass yours and there you go with a younger boss.

    Perhaps the only way to stay at the top of your tree is to find a way to enhance your skills and become self employed in some capacity.
  • jdw2000
    jdw2000 Posts: 418
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    That made me laugh, getting on a bit at 50!

    I'm 49 btw, became a gardener last year :rotfl:

    Think you will find the skill shortages, and/ or the skills sets required now will have changed in 10 years, and younger people will be more clued up.

    Their own training, and interests will likely surpass yours and there you go with a younger boss.

    Perhaps the only way to stay at the top of your tree is to find a way to enhance your skills and become self employed in some capacity.

    Good for you. I don;t want to be a gardener. I also have a bad back, and that's hardly going to get better as I get older.


    Yes, being my own boss would tick all the boxes. Again, no idea what to do as yet.
  • IAmWales
    IAmWales Posts: 2,024 Forumite
    jdw2000 wrote: »
    As I said above, I put conferences together and have previously worked in telesales. I have no idea what my new path is or qualifications needed, which is why I am here to gather ideas.


    I manage people too, like your son does. The older ones are fine. The younger ones are the problem.

    Are you sure it's the younger ones that are the problem? You're not coming across as the most flexible of people, you've lots of preconceived ideas that wouldn't make you an attractive employee.

    As for radiology, are you willing to take a degree, and possibly an access course before that? You are aware that you'll be touching a lot of people, including children and young people?
  • TBagpuss
    TBagpuss Posts: 11,198
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    Radiography may not suit you if you don't like touching people. Bear in mindthat people who have been in accidents, elderly people who have multiple medical problems (including incontinence), people who don't wash frequesntly enough etc al ned rays and scans, and you may need to move their limbs or other parts of the body into the correct orosition, not to mentionhelping them onto the table etc. You would need to do an access course and a degree, which is pretty demanding (my brother in law retrained as a radiographer a couple of years ago)

    You will ned to be prepared to work shiofts and unsocial hours (my BIL has wlorked 2 of the past 3 christmases, and regualrly works weekends) and of course many of the Doctors and other staff will be younger than you.

    In terms of being supervised / managed by someone younger than you, I suggest that rather than trying to find a job where this won't happen (which is virtually impossible) you re-frame it and think of it in terms of experience. Think of it as being managed by someone who is more experienced and/or better qualified than you, rather than making assumptions based on someone's age. If you are re-training at 40 then in almost any field, there will be plenty of people who started in that field at 16, or 18, or 21. It is unrealisitic to assume that none of them will be your managers, and more than a little prejudiced and arrogant to assume that they could not be effective managers or supervisors.

    I'd suggest that you think about your skills and strengths, what type of thing you enjoy doing, and work from there.

    If what you want s an indoorjob with no heavy lifting, then secretarial or administrative work may suit you. If you develop your skills you could move up to office management. Given your experience in putting together coferences you couldalso look at roles in the hotel or hospitality industries. within larger chains there may be opportunities to move up into mangement roles over time.
    All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)
  • jdw2000
    jdw2000 Posts: 418
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    IAmWales wrote: »
    Are you sure it's the younger ones that are the problem? You're not coming across as the most flexible of people, you've lots of preconceived ideas that wouldn't make you an attractive employee.

    As for radiology, are you willing to take a degree, and possibly an access course before that? You are aware that you'll be touching a lot of people, including children and young people?

    Yes, I've since learned that radiology entails a degree. That's a bit far for me. I would do it if I really wanted the career at the end of it. But I don't really want to be a radiologist.

    So, in the absence of really wanting to be anything (which I don't at this point), it's matter of finding something that I can train for and which leads to a definite job.
  • takman
    takman Posts: 3,876
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    jdw2000 wrote: »
    I manage people too, like your son does. The older ones are fine. The younger ones are the problem.



    In my experience older people who have been doing a job a long time are often more difficult to deal with than younger people. This is because as people get older they seem to be more resistant to change and take longer to accept it.


    So if you want to make a change of career then you will need to accept change and that may mean working for a younger boss.


    If your interested in programming then you can find lots of free courses online that teach all the main programming languages. So you can do some of them and see if its something you would enjoy.
  • IAmWales
    IAmWales Posts: 2,024 Forumite
    jdw2000 wrote: »
    Audiology sounds re-searchable...

    Radiographer (they earn lots, I hear)?

    Optician?

    I'd suggest you strike off anything healthcare related. You're not committed to the level of (ongoing) training involved and you don't have the people skills it requires (or the attitude/ aptitude to develop these).
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