Re-inventing Oneself

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Rather than hijack the Job Hunt thread, I thought I would start one for those of us needing, or wanting, to forge a different path in our careers but who may not yet be on a specific job hunt.  

So, if you've been laid off and continued career prospects are dried up, or have hit a professional plateau, or are seeking new career challenges, or, like me, are returning to the workforce after staying home for a number of years, let's connect.  We can share thoughts, ask questions, offer advice, network, share resources, etc.  

I'll start: I'm GRG.  I have been a SAHM for 18 years and am ready to find a new use for my time and talents (as rusty as they may be).  I have a B.S. in Resource Economics and a professional graduate degree (for which I am no longer licensed and no longer care to pursue directly).  Along with the usual SAHM duties, I am also versed in advocacy in both special education and food allergy, although neither holds much appeal as my next adventure (burnout, too close to home, etc.).  

I am interested in advocacy in a general sense -- whether it be for a non-profit or at a state government agency level or even in the right corporate setting.  (I do NOT have any interest in running for any office.)  I have strong writing skills (particularly with respect to legal memoranda and briefs and position papers).  I enjoy CALM, REASONED, debate but have no interest in heated argument.  I'm no longer a naive idealist, and my life experience can cause me to see too many possible obstacles on a road ahead, but I definitely want to do something meaningful, leave a positive mark on this rock we call Earth.  

I am 56.  I'm healthy and still have a spring in my step.  I will soon be free of daily family demands, so can be open to all sorts of opportunities.  I am considering some additional schooling to help me refresh my skills, but also to use as a springboard to my next project in life.  Another graduate degree would easily add another 2+ years to my timeline, though, so might close more doors than open??  I don't see myself retiring for until I am 70 at the earliest, so I have a good 14-15 years at least to devote to cause/career.  I'll admit that I am only seeking paid positions at this point -- we have some retirement savings catching up to do because, well, life happens.  

Has anyone else re-invented him or herself at this point in life?  If so, please share your story.  What worked?  What would you do differently?  What resources did you use most (existing network, social contacts, career support groups, volunteer positions, career websites, etc.)?  

But, please, if you have re-invented yourself at any age, share your story, too!!!  One of the absolute best things about these boards is the vast wisdom and experience of the members.  Let's use that collective insight for good.  

[ners]

GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl when I found myself unemployed 6 years ago I was 48 and working as an office manager at a car dealership. I had held that position for over 20 years.  I had an accounting degree.  The mom and pop dealerships were disappearing and I was not finding any opportunities.  I reinvented myself as a payroll professional.  

My brother was unemployed around this time.  He did volunteer work to learn how to use a particular software program used by development departments.  He had been a executive director for a small not for profit.  He is working in the development department of college.

Best advice I can give you is network.   Use any resources you can find.  Perhaps a women's group at community college.  That is where I learned q-tip.  (quit taking it personally when rejected for a position).

[Sharon]

I have been giving this serious thought lately now that I am an empty nester.  I have been employed at the same company for 34 years and the thought of having to interview scares me yet I know that the company is not doing well at this time and that the owners are in their upper 70's.  There is about 10-15 years before retirement depending on $$$ and what I decide to do.

My degree is in computer science and I work in the IT department, but the company I work for doesn't place a great deal of emphasis on departments and titles.  I do very little programming and haven't seriously programmed in years.  When I do write code it is to maintain a legacy system where the software tool we use for development stopped being supported about 15 years ago.

What I do spend a lot of my time on is HIPAA X12 transactions doing analysis work and keeping up on the every changing HIPAA laws mostly relating to EDI and dabbling in privacy and security.  My dream job would be working for a company that allows their employees to sit on the X12 committees that help shape these regulations and actually uses these transactions for the betterment of their business rather than doing the minimum required to get insurance claims billed.  HOWEVER; those jobs exist with larger companies in bigger cities.  I do not want to move away from family and I sure as heck do not want a long commute.  So far I have not found anything like this that would be a telecommuter job.  I have casually kept an eye out but I have not gotten into serious job searching mode.

The flip side to this is I would like to live in a more rural place than I am now.  Where I am living is rapidly growing with people who don't mind the commute to the larger city and traffic is getting awful.  I want either a small acreage or enough acreage that I could lease some of it out for additional income.  I know the income would be small on the leased acreage but the main hope is that someday in the future my DD and SIL would farm it.  My main goal is to have a large garden with enough extra to sell at Saturday Market.

I have two opposite types of things I would like to do, now I just need to figure out how to merge them or basically figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

ETA:  The people that I know who have the HIPAA type of jobs have grown into those jobs as the regulations came into effect.  They were already working for these companies and when all these new regulations started coming out their companies sent them to the conferences and they joined the X12 committee to work on the standards to meet the new regulations.  I expect in the next decade these people will start retiring and then there will be a real need for the second generation of people to work on these transactions.  It will also align with me wanting to retire.

[bean29]

I have a BS in accounting and my current job is Controller for a property management company. I work too many hours for what I make. I saw a book before I left on vacation that studied highly productive people and it's intent was to help you train yourself to be more productive so you have more free time. I so need to hunt down that title.

I get recruited a lot for controller positions, but would prefer 40 hours and done, no deadlines that require OT, employees to oversee. I am losing a half time employee at the end of this month, although management hasn't yet given me a heads up. I worked till 8:10 yesterday and 7:30 today. Could probably work similar hours all week, DH will not tolerate it. I am 52, I am afraid to change and be unemployable. In 4 years or so, 2nd Mortgage will be paid off, kids will be through college and it will no longer be so important.

My husband and kids plan to open another Ins Agency, I may help start up, or just manage financials for both agencies. I have P&C & Life & Health Licenses. Want to get Series 6/66 so I can sell investment products.

[MJ2.0]

Hi. I'm a FT worker in logistics and single mama to an awesome 4.5 year old boy. I wanted to go into law all throughout grade school, but I met (now) X in college and lost my drive. I thought that our relationship/marriage/kids would be all I'd need to be fulfilled. Apparently not. Professionally I've just found places to advance my salary, I really didn't have a specialty. Got hired by my current employer in 2008 and was promoted in 2012. I was happy to be promoted, but I started realizing that this isn't for me. One, I HATE people managing. Two, logistics is boring as all hell IMO. Three, I don't feel like I'm doing anything of any real value. What impact am I really making on people's lives? Getting them their shirts faster?

So I'm chucking all that and starting a program in civil engineering this fall. Full time, so yes I will be broke as hell. I've already registered for classes and filed the FAFSA. I'm not used to this much math and science, but I know I'm ready to put in the work. I am so excited about looking at bridge and building plans and really seeing the fruits of my labor. I'm also scared shitless, lol.

[billisonboard]

Apr 12, 2016 9:16:49 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

...

But, please, if you have re-invented yourself at any age, share your story, too!!!  One of the absolute best things about these boards is the vast wisdom and experience of the members.  Let's use that collective insight for good.  

My story:

I was in my early thirties, substitute teaching. I had just quit smoking and started to run. I was at a conference at a remote outdoor learning center which was just starting to operate a Ropes Course at the time. They offered hour tours of the course during the conference but also a 3 hour experience after the conference ended at noon the last day. To put off going home to my failing marriage which ended in divorce shortly thereafter, I signed up for the later. I ended up finding myself on the edge of a zip platform thirty feet in the air attempting to gather the courage to step off. I finally found it. I also found the courage to subsequently go back and be trained to help others find the courage in themselves to take that step. During that training, the instructor pointed out that if we were asking others to challenge themselves, we should be willing to do the same. The very next week, I saw an ad for the local parachute center. I thought, "This is what the instructor was talking about." After I did a couple of static cord jumps, I was talking to my father. When I told him about the jumps, he asked, "Didn't I teach you to leave jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" I thought, but didn't say, "Yeah, and it took me over a dozen years out of your house to do something that I should have done years before." Over the next few years, I starting riding a motorcycle and did a couple of bungee jumps. (One of my goals in life prior had been to ensure that I left life with all body parts intact.) I also started to apply for full time teaching positions, I had not been willing to risk the rejection of not being hire before. The position of manager of the challenge course opened up at that time and I applied for it. I got the job and moved to a rural area for the first time in my life. I subsequently took the risk of fully committing to a relationship - didn't have something on the side just in case. I also bought a house for the first time. That step off the zip platform was the first on a long journey of becoming a totally different person than I had been or even imagined myself ever being.

It was necessary for me to start with physical risk taking as a way to overcome the extreme risk adversive training I had received growing up.

[sbcalimom]

I taught test prep for 10 years after college and was very successful at it. I made a really good living not working a ton of hours but the hours were killing me once I had kids since it was mostly nights and weekends. I knew I needed to make a change but wasn't really sure how to make that happen. I lucked into some freelancing work as a Virtual Assistant that turned into full time work as an Operations Manager for online businesses in a little less than a year.

I love what I do even if it can be a bit stressful at times. It's also nice that I work from home and have a lot of flexibity which makes working full time with two younger children a lot easier.

ETA: My network is what really made the transition possible. A friend asked me if I wanted to be a VA for her clients, which then turned into other clients they knew etc.

[cronewitch]

Apr 13, 2016 13:10:19 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Apr 12, 2016 9:16:49 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

...

But, please, if you have re-invented yourself at any age, share your story, too!!!  One of the absolute best things about these boards is the vast wisdom and experience of the members.  Let's use that collective insight for good.  

My story:

I was in my early thirties, substitute teaching. I had just quit smoking and started to run. I was at a conference at a remote outdoor learning center which was just starting to operate a Ropes Course at the time. They offered hour tours of the course during the conference but also a 3 hour experience after the conference ended at noon the last day. To put off going home to my failing marriage which ended in divorce shortly thereafter, I signed up for the later. I ended up finding myself on the edge of a zip platform thirty feet in the air attempting to gather the courage to step off. I finally found it. I also found the courage to subsequently go back and be trained to help others find the courage in themselves to take that step. During that training, the instructor pointed out that if we were asking others to challenge themselves, we should be willing to do the same. The very next week, I saw an ad for the local parachute center. I thought, "This is what the instructor was talking about." After I did a couple of static cord jumps, I was talking to my father. When I told him about the jumps, he asked, "Didn't I teach you to leave jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" I thought, but didn't say, "Yeah, and it took me over a dozen years out of your house to do something that I should have done years before." Over the next few years, I starting riding a motorcycle and did a couple of bungee jumps. (One of my goals in life prior had been to ensure that I left life with all body parts intact.) I also started to apply for full time teaching positions, I had not been willing to risk the rejection of not being hire before. The position of manager of the challenge course opened up at that time and I applied for it. I got the job and moved to a rural area for the first time in my life. I subsequently took the risk of fully committing to a relationship - didn't have something on the side just in case. I also bought a house for the first time. That step off the zip platform was the first on a long journey of becoming a totally different person than I had been or even imagined myself ever being.

It was necessary for me to start with physical risk taking as a way to overcome the extreme risk adversive training I had received growing up.

Good for you. Some risk are physical but the emotional and financial risk can be huge too and risk to other people you care about. My only huge risk was divorce, leaving an abusive husband who threatened my family if I left him. I knew I would lose my house and stuff and might have to leave the job and area so he couldn't find me but didn't know if he would harm my family and couldn't protect them. So I left and warned my family my brother told his kids my ex wasn't their uncle anymore. It was 32 years ago and turned out great. He couldn't live without me so died, at least that is what I tell myself he has been dead over 20 years.