In today’s rapidly changing career landscape, this has become much more common than in years past. People in midlife often feel lost, unsure, and very puzzled by or unaware of their career choices. Often it’s a process of exploring and then discovering what your choices are, then understanding and weighing those choices against your needs, desires, and goals. After discovering your choices and weighing them, there is process of developing a plan on how to acquire the specific job (or business) you desire to carry out your career objectives and make it happen. There is indeed a real sense of urgency when making a midlife career change for the obvious reasons, limited time before you plan to retire.

These can be single paths or some used together when they complement each other, such as starting a business on the side while working at your job, pursuing a degree in your spare time while working, or learning a trade. Midlife career change can include military as an option now with US Army taking recruits much older, up to age 42 at the time of this writing. Things are far more complicated than in years past. An effective way to deal with this complicated process is to explore options working from broad to specific. The broad choices are like the main arteries / highways and the specific choices within those categories are like the roads leading off the highway. This is like going from broad to specific in your career choices. What if you don’t know where to begin? A great place to start is thinking about what you love to do? Is there something that you love to do that would transfer over into a particular career? Think about what makes you feel good. What do you enjoy doing? You can only be great at what you love to do. Not everyone can do what they love to do for a living, but it should be your first choice to explore.

Changing careers can be a very difficult, especially in this uncertain economy. Your reason for changing careers will have a lot to do with how well you transition. Are you changing industries or just positions? Are you staying with the same company or moving to another organization all together? Have you made this decision because you want a change of pace or is the change based on unemployment?

In human nature it is a given when we are forced to take an action not otherwise considered, resentment may become a factor. Your attitude towards your career change will make or break your experience. Be sure you are at peace about the decision. Even if it is not your decision try to accept the potential benefits that will come from the change. Common career changes include industry change; position change and entrepreneurship.

Changing industries can be the most complicated. If you have 5, 10, 15 or 20+ years working in a particular industry, you might feel out of your comfort zone in a new industry. Not to worry however. If you are going to a new industry with the same position or title, then you will only have to become familiar with a new commodity and company. In such cases your acquired skills are transferable and the transition will be a smooth one for you. Your focus will be to learn and understand the product or service your new company offers. If your new position and company have nothing to do with your experience then you will need to prove how your experience and education can be used to succeed in the new role.

A new position within the same company or the same industry is the easiest of career changes to make. This means you already have a solid understanding of your industry and will only have to become more familiar with a new aspect of the business. Moving laterally within a company, adds to your overall experience, creates job security and keeps your benefits in place. You now meet the requirements for your old position and the new one. In addition, it always looks good on a resume to show that you took on more than one role in a company. Though a lateral move might not come with more pay or perks, it will certainly give you a new perspective, challenge and perhaps keep you employed if your old department is being phased out.

Entrepreneurship isn’t normally considered a career change, but it is. If for any reason you have decided to leave your full time or part time position to start your own business, then you are indeed changing careers. You may be branching off from your current occupation, or a side gig has turned into a full time opportunity. A career change to entrepreneurship can be extremely smooth if you were conducting business part time before taking to the next level. If your venture is brand new, be sure to conduct a lot of research.