A recent article about career change in our 50's has prompted me to blog again about the sterotypes of this age bracket.

The article made an excellent point about ensuring that the obvious retraining that may need to occur needs to be specifically geared for people with loads of  varied experience and the need to transfer and adapt these existing skills. Let’s not see this as education but as building capacity for areas that we may lack recent experience such as using social media or IT.

The real barrier is still the stereotypes by some younger employers of older workers and the view that they are a lost cause- too expensive to retrain and too time consuming to manage.

But we counter these stereotypes with endless stories of high achievers in their mid life. Whatever you think about their food, “Colonel Sanders didn’t start the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise empire until he was 65 and Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s at 52”.

There’s a growing view that it’s actually easier to start a new career in your midlife because of the accumulated wisdom, skillsets and maturity you have developed by then.

I’ve interviewed many successful men and women who have succeeded in redefining themselves and their careers in midlife.
There’s stories are at http://www.careerredesign.com.au/case-studies.html

The article that prompted this post at:
http://www.itbdigital.com/opinion/2014/02/21/considering-a-career-change-after-50

In finding our career sweet spot..... that place where we can add value, love what we do and be rewarded… we must also find meaning.

Recent studies have focused on what makes us feel good at work. A recent TED talk by Dan Ariely concluded, “We really have this incredibly simplistic view of why people work and what the labor market looks like.”

His research found:

• We must see the fruits of our labor and knowing our work has made a difference will make us more productive.
• It seem obvious but the less appreciated the less motivated we are at work. This study also found that if we don’t feel appreciated we want more money to do the work.
• When we are faced with interesting problems to solve and the harder these problems are, we feel prouder and will continue to put more effort into a our work. My reading of this one is to not shy away form the difficult problems…embrace them.
• Giving value to others, knowing that our work will helps others will increase our motivation.

For more go to
http://blog.ted.com/2013/04/10/what-motivates-us-at-work-7-fascinating-studies-that-give-insights/