3 Tips to Manage Your Midlife Career

Have you been on your job more than 4.6 years? If the answer is yes, you are bucking a trend.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.6 years is the avearge job tenure in America in 2014—the most recent data available. The combination of midlife + career in search engines results in page after page of “changing you midlife career” and “midlife career crisis.” 

One career expert, Alison Doyle, estimates the average person changes jobs ten to fifteen times (with an average of 12 job changes) during his or her career.  Many workers spend five years or less in every job, so they devote more time and energy transitioning from one job to another. 

Whether voluntarily changing jobs or being forced to find a new career because of circumstance, stress is inevitable according to experts. Rather than making a move as often, try these three tips maintain your job as an experienced worker:

1)   Maintain your perspective

We all have tough days, bad years and challenging co-workers or bosses. When you have 20+ years of experience, you can look back on how you handled the less than perfect times previously. One medical device employee told me, “I had a boss who was a nightmare and he was rapidly advancing through the company. I knew he wouldn’t be my boss for more than 2 years at most. He spent most of his time managing to higher ups-we rarely saw him. Me and my co-workers decided we would focus on doing our jobs excellently. Fortunately, in 15 months he was gone.” The next department manager was markedly better according to the worker who now has been with her company for 11 years. As long as your manager is not abusive or harassing, remember your survival instincts. Do your job exceedlngly well and and seek internal opportunities first. It also helps to develop a strong network of positive people inside and outside work, Remember: This too will pass.

2) Keep learning

Never utter the words, “this is the way we have always done it.” Just because you run a report one way doesn’t mean the information could not be processed differently. Even if you have to learn on your own—go online, take a workshop, find your own mentor or coach, watch YouTube videos to update your skills or knowledge. If your company sponsors courses or training—remain open. One manager discussed his employee’s change in attitude, he’s coachable and it is great working with him. It was a pleasant surprise.” Remember all the information, processes and technical information you’ve learned over your long career. You’ve got this!

3) Attitude is Everything

U.S. life expectancy is 80 years and moving up annually. So those of us born in 1957, the largest year of the baby boom, have at least 21 years ahead of us if we remain healthy. Experienced workers may work longer due to economic necessity, a desire to remain productive or  for the social interaction. According to an American Psychological Association study, 80% of the people 55+ say they’re remaining on the job with their current employer because they enjoy the work they do. Many mature workers want to extend their careers and cannot because of health reasons or changes at the company. Optimism is a learned trait. Remember, if you work in your later years by choice, foster an attitiude of gratitude. You choose to work, found work and have an opportunity to expand your horizons.

Resilience: A Skill to Increase Your Employability

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Do you bounce back from career disappointments, setbacks and frustrations relatively unscathed? Or, are you still angry about the “Meets Expectations” rating on your performance appraisal three managers ago?  Resiliency is one of the most critical success factors to develop as you spend time in the workforce. Being resilient is important for workers starting out as they face their initial disappointments of not getting the job they preferred or experiencing their first layoff.  As your career progresses, the stakes get higher, acceptable job options become more limited and the idea of bouncing back and landing on your feet is crucial. Resilience is a learned trait. Some of us may be born with a more positive outlook on life, a more bubbly personality or openness to taking risk—resilience can be developed.

No one writes or discusses the fact that work is a brutal experience for many employees. Like the school years that preceded it---work has a hierarchy, in-crowds and cliques, bullies and sometimes a bully-boss; workplaces have class clowns, prom queens and teacher’s pets. The special needs employees are mainstreamed into your workplace—and you could be working for or next to someone with very real emotional or mental issues. All of these personalities are made more complicated by having four generations in the work place for the first time in history! Does it make you feel better about your situation, knowing that no one taught your manager how to lead a multi-generational workforce? The key to surviving this potential madness is RESILIENCY.

Think of it this way, a well-inflated ball will bounce when it encounters resistance or a hard surface. So, your first order of business is to find an appropriate level of self-confidence, belief in your abilities, knowledge of your intrinsic goodness/worth and remembering that you matter. Pump up your self-worth by thinking about the obstacles and challenges that appeared insurmountable and you have already overcome. This isn’t your first job or the first setback you’ve encountered. You’ve managed tough times before probably personally and professionally. I was recently at a mall in Dallas and a billboard showed a well-dressed shopper wearing lots of bling (aka jewelry) and the caption read, “Of course it’s Flashy, this IS Dallas!” That is called swagger. While rebuilding your confidence, remember what happens when the ball over-inflates!

I have known people enduring terrible situations at work while they looked for a new opportunity. When I ask how they survived their passive/aggressive boss or harsh treatment by co-workers all of them have mentioned strong relationships and interests away from work. Whether it is being involved in your children or grandchildren’s activities, volunteering for an organization you are passionate about or doing activities with your family that bring you joy; don’t make your life about work.  If you do, you are setting yourself up for inevitable disappointment. Reaching out to others outside your workplace so you are not constantly focused on the situation is a critical step in building resilience. Seeking professional help through a therapist to build problem-solving skills and gain perspective is also an option. Therapists also provide an objective sounding board to the situation. Counseling services are confidential and often free through an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) or the cost of a co-pay through medical insurance.

It is also important to exercise adaptability and flexibility in building your resilience skills. Personal change management skills work together creating resilience as a core of our emotional intelligence. Researchers report empathy, compassion and self-awareness are attributes of resilient people. These are also components of emotional intelligence.  In today’s challenging work environment change is the only constant. Resilience is the only answer.  One of the greatest benefits of developing resilience is that it is a skill you can model for the children in your life because as we all know, these are even stressful times for kids.

You’ve got 168 hours, make it a great week!

Career Tune-Up? 3 Adjustments for Continued Success at Work

August 1977 was a warm, beautiful sunny month filled with news. While the world mourned Elvis Presley’s death at age 42, my career was beginning. The first in my immediate family to earn a college degree and merely 20 years old; the job possibilities seemed limitless. I was idealistic, excited and enthusiastic about the future. Often in August, it is an opportunity for a reflective career evaluation.  Since 1977 I’ve met so many great people living in California, Arizona and Indiana on corporate transfers and traveling the world for work--- these three consistent traits are shared by people I've met along the journey who enjoy resilient careers throughout their lives.

#1---Adjusting their Expectations: I’m not saying that as you get older your career has to be a downward spiral. I can tell you, that if you want to be a manager, Director, Vice-President or CEO and it continues to allude you where you are---resilient people have the confidence to look outside their current company. Some have found they won’t get to the next level anywhere and that’s a tough adjustment—others move on to achieve the dream somewhere else. While others find they have “maxed out” and as long as they work for someone else they will always be a level below what they think they deserve. “Brenda Tip” if you haven’t made it to that next level by age 42—the odds are against you. Sometimes, people adjust their work/job/career expectations because they learn to separate who they are from what they do. Getting older does NOT mean we lose the “fire” or competitiveness or passion for work---our experience just provides a new lens, a different perspective and a different way to view what happens in an organization.

#2---Adjusting their Skills: While the July unemployment rate hovered at 9.1% there is a hiring boom in the tech sector. CDNet reported the July 2011 unemployment rate for tech professionals is 3.3%. Cloud computing, social media and data security continues to drive the market for software engineers, tech sales people and others with tech backgrounds. We’re not all cut out be a tech guru. That’s certainly not my calling, but I have strengthened my skills tool-box this year in the technology area (at my own expense) by attending local workshops and webinars. Even if it is not tech, we have to continually update our skills to stay relevant if you want to stay in the job market. If your field has a certification—earn it. That designation could be the keyword in an applicant tracking system that brings your resume to the recruiter's attention. Make it a point to learn something new every three months.

#3---Adjusting their Attitudes: Every career has trade-offs.  You didn’t take the expat assignment in Asia and it may cost you an opportunity. You decide not to the transfer to Kansas City for a promotion so your kids can finish school in Dallas. Sometimes as we get older, we think about what could have been and “what if” scenarios. There are no guarantees and we can only live with the decisions we make based on the information we have at the time. So it is better not to look at what you missed and focus on what you experienced, who you met and what you learned. One of my favorite quotes about endings comes from Dr. Seuss. “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”  The resilient people, the ones who are enjoying jobs in their 70s, having fun in their 80s and performing volunteer work in their 90s---they smile through it.

It is a warm, beautiful, sunny August day in Indianapolis, thirty-four years after graduation.  I remain idealistic, excited and enthusiastic about the future and I hope you will too.