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I’ll be 40 years old next year and I'm really starting to panic about my future*as I am fast approaching middle age.* Mid life crisis I guess. *Recently, there have been changes in my current job which I’ve been in for 5 years now.* It’s been my intention to leave this role for quite some time, more than a year infact, as it is more or less a dead end now - there is no chance of progression or promotion.*
The biggest change is that I have a new boss who is several years younger than myself and at first this bothered me but now I’m ok with it.* What’s more he is instructing the team to return to the office on a rotation/hybrid style basis from having worked full time remotely at home.* Again this is fine although will be a strange feeling after having spent almost three years home working. *What is affecting me though the most is that he has removed me as the line manager for the four/five employees I was supervising.* And even though that management was relatively basic (approving certain actions, expenses, annual leave etc.) it was still part of my job description.* I think as it’s a very small team, he feels it makes more sense for him to simply manage us all, which I can understand logically.* However, this a kick in the teeth*because if anything after five years of service, it feels like I’m being demoted and penalised in some way.* He is a nice man and I know he's not doing this in a malicious way or trying to outpower me in some way, I think perhaps he's just trying to impress and start things off in the right way. Even so, I'm quite sad, upset.* I did agree to it initially but I’m now thinking whether I should push back and try and convince him that I should still be a line manager of the other employees without obviously being too forceful.* But perhaps this is really a sign that I do indeed need to move on.* I have worked hard for this company and feel I’ve done some good work and have enjoyed some aspects to it but doesn’t feel right.*
That leads me though to the next issue – what to do next?* My struggle with work and career has been an ongoing battle since my early to mid 20s and it’s only stressed me out as I’ve got older.* I still have no idea what I want to do with my life and it is painful. I can’t say that I have a set career.* I have a college/university BA degree which is from a good university but it wasn’t vocational.* My parents always encouraged me to get qualified in something vocational throughout my 20s and early 30s but I just never knew what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be.* Now regretfully, at almost 40, I wish I had specialised in something.* Both my father and brother are medical doctors, so even though there was never any direct pressure from my family to follow that path, I always had that internal pressure, knowing that I had to have a profession of similar status like a banker, lawyer, pilot etc.* In the end, all I’ve done is a series of casual jobs over many years, long periods out of work and just generally drifted through as time has passed by.* I finally decided to commit to this current job which I’ve just talked about.* It’s basically a glorified admin role but it pays well and that’s the other reason why I think I’ve simply stuck around.* I am worried whether I’ll find anything with that same salary bracket.*
Last edited by endoftheworld; 11-26-2022 at 02:33 AM..
I really have no idea why these asterisks have turned up! Perhaps because I wrote this out on Word and then copied and pasted on here...?
Your subconscious wants the post to look like a Craigslist ad?
Does your company offer any sort of career development and training (including paying you for the time you spend on it, and without strings attached)?
If not, it may be time to look elsewhere. Being stuck in a total dead end for more than a few years can be really bad for your future prospects. Even more so, if the tasks you are doing are stagnant, then what happens if you get laid off after 10 years? You'll have a tougher time finding a similarly paying job, because employers will look at your resume and think you are "out of date"/"not kept up with the times".
Career advancement and vocational path are really two different things and one can stand in the way of the other.
For instance, people who can rationalize that work is work and want to make as much money as possible generally do better in terms of career advancement because they will always do what is best for the company in an effort to advance.
If you're an accountant and you daydream of what it would be like to be a nurse, well ... you're not going to put the full effort into climbing the ladder.
If you decide a job is just a job, there are better paths. But just as an example, a dental technician is just a job. Hierarchical jobs are the worst in terms of 'a job is just a job' jobs.
The thing about a vocational training path is that once you're on it, it can be difficult to change directions. If you've trained as a vet tech, it's going to be pretty hard to convince someone that you have a burning desire to sell life insurance or work as a visual merchandiser. Your job prospects are vet tech, or.....vet tech. By contrast, a degree in business administration or history can go in many directions.
Your real issue is that you seem to have no interest in anything. If you haven't managed to come up with a single occupation that sounds interesting to you after forty years on earth, I can't imagine that we on an anonymous forum are going to succeed. Perhaps you should look into an aptitude test for suggestions about what you might be good at, and from that shortlist decide which occupations sound interesting.
From the sounds of it, I don't think the team lead option is much of an option. Even if granted, it still sounds like a dead end job. But really, the company probably brought in a younger manager because they would work for less than the previous manager, and eliminated the team lead role because it also saved money (even if you kept your wages, it streamlines the process and that increases efficiency and revenue). I doubt your new manager made the choice to eliminate the team lead role on their own.
The thing about a vocational training path is that once you're on it, it can be difficult to change directions. If you've trained as a vet tech, it's going to be pretty hard to convince someone that you have a burning desire to sell life insurance or work as a visual merchandiser. Your job prospects are vet tech, or.....vet tech. By contrast, a degree in business administration or history can go in many directions.
Your real issue is that you seem to have no interest in anything. If you haven't managed to come up with a single occupation that sounds interesting to you after forty years on earth, I can't imagine that we on an anonymous forum are going to succeed. Perhaps you should look into an aptitude test for suggestions about what you might be good at, and from that shortlist decide which occupations sound interesting.
From the sounds of it, I don't think the team lead option is much of an option. Even if granted, it still sounds like a dead end job. But really, the company probably brought in a younger manager because they would work for less than the previous manager, and eliminated the team lead role because it also saved money (even if you kept your wages, it streamlines the process and that increases efficiency and revenue). I doubt your new manager made the choice to eliminate the team lead role on their own.
Once you reach OPs age, it's hard to switch no matter what the degree.
If you have a history degree and you want to be a research historian and you've been selling insurance for the last 15 years, then your odds of getting a job as a historian are low anyway.
If you just want 'a job', go in and do several hours of work, some days are heavier, some days are lighter, I believe a vocational path is the best way.
Your real issue is that you seem to have no interest in anything. If you haven't managed to come up with a single occupation that sounds interesting to you after forty years on earth, I can't imagine that we on an anonymous forum are going to succeed. Perhaps you should look into an aptitude test for suggestions about what you might be good at, and from that shortlist decide which occupations sound interesting.
This is EXACTLY what my issue is and has been, the story of my life. I have never had any specific interest in a career or burning passion for a certain cause or vision. More aptitude testing might be the way to go but like the last poster alluded to, it does become more difficult as you age and at my age it may be too late to start something from scratch. I did try, I applied for plenty of grad schemes and programmes but nothing materialised. During my 20s my parents did their best to encourage me to do further study and get a vocation of some kind. It's not that I didn't take their advice, deep down I knew it was the right action to take, I just had no idea what exactly I wanted to commit to. I should have just chosen something, anything reasonably suitable infact. Instead I choose nothing and ended up drifting for so many years, in and out of casual, dead end jobs which got me some money and enabled me to travel to many countries.
Is it too late to redeem myself and create a life for myself...No wife or family either.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by endoftheworld
This is EXACTLY what my issue is and has been, the story of my life. I have never had any specific interest in a career or burning passion for a certain cause or vision. More aptitude testing might be the way to go but like the last poster alluded to, it does become more difficult as you age and at my age it may be too late to start something from scratch. I did try, I applied for plenty of grad schemes and programmes but nothing materialised. During my 20s my parents did their best to encourage me to do further study and get a vocation of some kind. It's not that I didn't take their advice, deep down I knew it was the right action to take, I just had no idea what exactly I wanted to commit to. I should have just chosen something, anything reasonably suitable infact. Instead I choose nothing and ended up drifting for so many years, in and out of casual, dead end jobs which got me some money and enabled me to travel to many countries.
Is it too late to redeem myself and create a life for myself...No wife or family either.
I mean, ok. I can't relate. So there is that, but like, you had no real interests growing up in anything? It's hard to fathom. How did you spend your time? What did you do? I mean, there must have been things you put energy into.
I took the Strong Interpretive Test when I was starting college (which steers you to several options that may work for you). I took Myers Briggs after starting my career and I also took a long weekend and completed the entire workbooks in "What Color is Your Parachute."
That's kind of a left brain way of figuring it out. If you are too right brain you may need to take some time away at the beach or something and think about it , journal about it, etc.
There's a tremendous amount of material out there on this subject, there's testing, there's coaching and counseling, etc., etc.
It seems to me having doctors in your family you are smart enough to know all this. And, maybe you are just stuck because if you're never going to be a doctor you are never going to impress anyone with what you do. What you need to do is figure out what is going to make you happy (probably having something to do with what you are good at).
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