Change in career at 60 !

smallzoo2

Quick summary. I have been a software developer for 30 years, most of which I have enjoyed. The last 10 years or so though its been different. When my dad became ill I looked after him so started working remotely. When he sadly died we moved my Mum, who is 97 , in with us 5 years ago so I am her carer as well as doing my day job. The whole dreadful Covid 19 pandemic has brought me to re-think my life. With my mum's age, my age, my mother in laws illness it has brought life into perspective. 

Am I so wrong to decide I want to now work at something I enjoy ?

Of course, there are some provisos...I still need to bring in about £2k a month to cover the house and  historical debt but our mortgage will be paid off in 4 years. ( thank goodness for payment holidays at the moment )

Of course I shouldn't dismiss my skills but at my age my wife and I have noticed I get offered much less work. I am also good at sales and problem solving and helping people out with personal issues.... my ideal job ?.... if software then remote working with the NHS, if not then buying and selling antiques or writing music for people !

How on earth do I go about making this a reality ?

In this horrible time we are living in I am hoping for positive replies so be kind...

Dox

smallzoo2 said:

Quick summary. I have been a software developer for 30 years, most of which I have enjoyed. The last 10 years or so though its been different. When my dad became ill I looked after him so started working remotely. When he sadly died we moved my Mum, who is 97 , in with us 5 years ago so I am her carer as well as doing my day job. The whole dreadful Covid 19 pandemic has brought me to re-think my life. With my mum's age, my age, my mother in laws illness it has brought life into perspective. 

Am I so wrong to decide I want to now work at something I enjoy ?

Of course, there are some provisos...I still need to bring in about £2k a month to cover the house and  historical debt but our mortgage will be paid off in 4 years. ( thank goodness for payment holidays at the moment )

Of course I shouldn't dismiss my skills but at my age my wife and I have noticed I get offered much less work. I am also good at sales and problem solving and helping people out with personal issues.... my ideal job ?.... if software then remote working with the NHS, if not then buying and selling antiques or writing music for people !

How on earth do I go about making this a reality ?

In this horrible time we are living in I am hoping for positive replies so be kind...

Why does your age impact on the amount of work you are being offered? How would clients even know your age? If you are selling yourself as 'very experienced' you don't have to quantify that you date from last century, or words to that effect!

If you enjoyed your job until you started working remotely (which I think is what you are saying), then how would remote working with the NHS solve the issue if it is the 'remote' bit that made you stop enjoying it?

Do you have the skills and contacts to buy and sell antiques, or write music for people? If not, could you build them up while continuing your current job, which as you say now provides less work, so presumably more time to do that?

Sounds like you've had a tough time in recent years, so I hope it works out well for you.

smallzoo2

Thx a lot..
I have to work remotely as I look after my mum but no its not the fact I'm remote that's changed my desire... Its the developer role... And yes my age does make a difference.. It is on my cv and I know it has an effect..

I am always positive but maybe need a bit of advice at making a break and moving to a new career... 

Tealblue

smallzoo2 said:

Thx a lot..
I have to work remotely as I look after my mum but no its not the fact I'm remote that's changed my desire... Its the developer role... And yes my age does make a difference.. It is on my cv and I know it has an effect..

I am always positive but maybe need a bit of advice at making a break and moving to a new career... 

Then take your age off your cv; there is no requirement to include it and people aren't entitled to request it. That's been the case for 15 years or so.

jonnygee2

 It is on my cv and I know it has an effect..

What this says is that you aren't up to date on how to write a CV. People started leaving things like ages out of CVs yonks ago.

If you write your job applications in an old fashioned format, employers will think 'this person is out of date' and move on! There's lots of basic CV advice around, try  https://www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/how-to-write-a-cv/ for a start, and work from there.

There's nothing wrong with a complete change of careers at any age, but it sounds like you can't afford it. You'll need a salary of about 30k/year to bring in 2k/ month after tax - starting salaries are generally nowhere near that.

bouicca21

TBH it sounds to me more that you should have a major push to free yourself of debt and mortgage, so that you are free to do what you want.  How much is the mortgage and other debt?  The debt free board is the place to be!   

And yes, vamp the cv.  People stopped putting date of birth and other age-identifying characteristics on them well over 30 plus years ago.  It probably needs a visual makeover too.

TELLIT01

If you are trying to move sectors into a completely different job, as an employee, then it is going to be extremely tough to find any job which will pay above minimum wage and that isn't going to come close to the level of income you require.  Irrespective of what the law states, it is more difficult to find work as you get older - not impossible, just more difficult.  The likelihood of making a good living from scratch in either antiques or song writing is absolutely minimal.  A good friend of mine has been sending music to many publishers over the years, and I think he is pretty good at what he does, and rarely even gets a response. 

Sorry if that all seems very negative, I'm just trying to be realistic.

smallzoo2

Thanks for all the comments. I must admit I didn't realise about the age on the cv.  Don't get me wrong I've never been out of work since I was 21. I am very good at selling mysdlf to potential employers but obviously not writing cv's.. Lol

The £2k was an initial figure but I reckon with some ducking and diving I could get that down. As a developer I am VERY lucky in that I can get on average £250 per day so if I can find the right job I could fill most of my finacial needs with 8 days work.

Maybe you are all right.. I should carry on doing the job I don't enjoy and treat the antiques and music as a hobby unt it makes fiancial sense.... Its just that life can be so short so why wait

Thanks again

pjcox2005

Sorry, again the post is not that focused on the career change, but have you reviewed your pension position. I'm guessing it may not be great given reference to the debts, but given your age it may be worth seeing what you can access now and the impact of taking it early.
That may allow you to earn slightly less and therefore change either the way you work e.g. less days or more occasional project basis to supplement, or to change careers and work in a different role you may enjoy but pays less given a starting salary of £30k may be challenging.

jonnygee2

The £2k was an initial figure but I reckon with some ducking and diving I could get that down. 

How far? Starting out in a new career, you can probably expect 18-20k for 40 hours a week (a bit more if you are in london), so about £1300 a month.

Are you sure you want to go back to this kind of hours/salary when you can earn that much in under two weeks?

If this is really the way you want to go, you'll have a less cold start if you contact firms that you've worked for before and have some relationship with. They may know/appreciate some of your skills so may be able to start you a little higher too.

p00hsticks

smallzoo2 said:

buying and selling antiques or writing music for people !
How on earth do I go about making this a reality ?

Are either of these areas that you already have some experience of as a hobby / sideline business ?

I'd suggest that both are the sort of thing that if you were really keen on you would already have been developing for many years whilst carrying on your main career.If so, then you should already have built up some contacts and have a good idea about how much (or how little) money you can make from it.

If it's something that you've only just thought of as something that you'd like to do, then I'm afraid that in my opinion it's probably more of a pipedream than a realistic aspiration. Sorry if that comes off harsh.

I do know how you feel but  I think I'm with bouicca21 on this - you may be better off focussing on looking at your finances and pension and seeing if there's anything you can do financially to bring forward your retirement from your day job, and then start pursuing your antique dealing and music writing as a hobby to perhaps bring in 'pin money' if you're lucky.