If you’re thinking of switching careers, then the best book to read is probably Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success by Dawn Graham as discussed on the Suggested Reading page. In the meantime, it’s worth reading this new AARP article:
Monica Parker needed a change. She turned 50 during the pandemic and had a comfortable job on the leadership team of a nonprofit. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the job, but there was a nagging feeling that it was time for something different. And, in the labor market of the early 2020s, there is plenty of opportunity for workers to pick and choose what they want to do. “I’m a lawyer by trade, but more recently worked for an education nonprofit as its associate executive director. After turning 50, I decided to move into the diversity and inclusion space,” she recalls.
Parker calls herself “something of a career change expert” and has reinvented her career before. And she’s not the only one who feels the need for something new. A 2021 Bankrate study found that 55 percent of adults are looking to change jobs within the next 12 months, and a recent survey from Resume Builder found that 40 percent of workers age 54 and older have considered switching jobs because of the new opportunities available. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that roughly 4.2 million people voluntarily left their jobs in October, a decline from the previous month but still continuing a string of exceptionally high quit rates that have been dubbed “the Great Resignation.” Read the full article on AARP.