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Changing career in 40s


Elfie34

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Has anyone faced a redundancy in their 40s? What did you do as your next step? Retrain or find another job in your field?


I may be facing restructure/ redundancy and I have no idea what I would do next. I have a very specialised STeM role so there are not too many roles like my current one out there. I have project management and leadership skills but so do plenty of people.


I am paid relatively well so the thought of starting at the bottom is a bit scary but if it was something I thought I would enjoy and be family friendly I would consider it. I have a child with additional needs which impacts my hours etc.

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I was made redundant, went back to uni and re-trained as a teacher. Much more fulfilling and demanding than any previous job. Plenty of jobs but need to like kids.

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I was made redundant, went back to uni and re-trained as a teacher. Much more fulfilling and demanding than any previous job. Plenty of jobs but need to like kids.

 


This seems like a plausible thing for me to do too, especially with science and math background but I don’t actually think I like kids that much/ enough (apart from my own!). The hard work also scares me a bit!!

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I retrained, not due to redundancy but certainly career options were becoming limited. I changed to something flexible and family friendly that I love, so although it was a big (and ongoing) pay cut, I feel like this can be my into-old-age job.

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Could you do a quick postgrad course in something related to data science? That is in huge demand in the public sector - your maths skills would make you well suited and you could then keep learning while you worked.

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Fruitmincepies

Could you do a quick postgrad course in something related to data science? That is in huge demand in the public sector - your maths skills would make you well suited and you could then keep learning while you worked.

 

Data science - please tell me more! What sort of jobs require this?

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overlytired

I was made redundant, went back to uni and re-trained as a teacher. Much more fulfilling and demanding than any previous job. Plenty of jobs but need to like kids.

 


This seems like a plausible thing for me to do too, especially with science and math background but I don’t actually think I like kids that much/ enough (apart from my own!). The hard work also scares me a bit!!

 

Does your current career require certification? You could apply to be an instructor for the certification body (or a company that specializes in providing training)

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SmilingGirl

I took a voluntary redundancy whilst on mat leave. It allowed me to spend a few years at home with my baby and then I moved into a completely new career after retraining. The pay is much lower but the job satisfaction is so much higher. It is not uncommon for big career changes to happen at this age especially those who were SAHMs who now want to re-enter the workforce with children getting older

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Thanks all.


I would need training to do data science and I’m not sure if I have the right temperament but I should look into it. Is anyone here a data scientist and can tell me what a day of work looks like? I know the unis are spruking courses in it all the time so it is popular...


I do wonder if companies hire scientists with project leadership skills to manage projects in non science areas.


The other thing I am contemplating is career counselling. Has anyone done this and found it useful?

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I do wonder if companies hire scientists with project leadership skills to manage projects in non science areas.

 

Yes they do - my sister has done this.

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There was an article in the Guardian years ago about future proof jobs, and data/IT stuff was on the bottom of the heap. What I mean is, jobs that people will still be doing in 10 or 20 years time, rather than robots. Top of the list were social workers, nurses, counsellors, etc - the human stuff. If I were to re-train with 20+ years of work ahead of me that's something I'd consider.

Could you teach VCE? Those are kids that want to be there, so not as objectionable as younger kids.

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Data science is basically computing with a bit of statistics. The positions are very similar to what used to be called "data analyst", but with some new softwares and quite a bit of programming.

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There was an article in the Guardian years ago about future proof jobs, and data/IT stuff was on the bottom of the heap. What I mean is, jobs that people will still be doing in 10 or 20 years time, rather than robots. Top of the list were social workers, nurses, counsellors, etc - the human stuff. If I were to re-train with 20+ years of work ahead of me that's something I'd consider.

Could you teach VCE? Those are kids that want to be there, so not as objectionable as younger kids.

 

Can you actually choose what grades you teach in high school? I would probably not mind senior high school science preferably girls to help encourage an understanding and love of STEM. I’m actually not convinced that Australia has a stem shortage though considering how hard it is to actually get jobs in some stem fields but I do think everyone should be stem literate.


Teaching seems like very hard work though I really do notice how much stuff teachers have to do!

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Kiwi Bicycle

What about TAFE instructors? A friend of mine has just done a 12 month refresher on food hospitality ( being a chef, he was a chef 20 years ago). and then will do a 6 month intensive teaching course. However he is an older guy so qualifies as a special placement as they have a lack of male teachers in TAFE.

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There was an article in the Guardian years ago about future proof jobs, and data/IT stuff was on the bottom of the heap. What I mean is, jobs that people will still be doing in 10 or 20 years time, rather than robots. Top of the list were social workers, nurses, counsellors, etc - the human stuff. If I were to re-train with 20+ years of work ahead of me that's something I'd consider.

Could you teach VCE? Those are kids that want to be there, so not as objectionable as younger kids.

 

Can you actually choose what grades you teach in high school? I would probably not mind senior high school science preferably girls to help encourage an understanding and love of STEM. I’m actually not convinced that Australia has a stem shortage though considering how hard it is to actually get jobs in some stem fields but I do think everyone should be stem literate.


Teaching seems like very hard work though I really do notice how much stuff teachers have to do!

 

Yeah look it's way too hard for me! I don't actually know much about teaching; it just seems like something to look into if you have good knowledge of a topic, and good people skills. I'd say teach uni, but I think those jobs are very thin on the ground.

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nom_de_plume

Thanks all.


I would need training to do data science and I’m not sure if I have the right temperament but I should look into it. Is anyone here a data scientist and can tell me what a day of work looks like? I know the unis are spruking courses in it all the time so it is popular...


I do wonder if companies hire scientists with project leadership skills to manage projects in non science areas.


The other thing I am contemplating is career counselling. Has anyone done this and found it useful?

 

I'm a data analyst (although that's not my official position title) with a background in business/project management and health sciences. I sort of fell into it as I have a general interest in and natural affinity for technology and evidence based decision making. I work in the public sector and at the moment most of my work concerns workforce planning and Covid-19. The sorts of tasks I do include meetings and research to understand various organisation and statutory requirements, liaising with IT or database administrators to extract data, cleansing the data in Excel, modeling the data in Power BI and Azure Machine Learning and then writing reports/recommendations based on the results.


Technically, data scientist, data analyst and business analyst are all separate and distinct roles, but in reality the lines are often blurred and one person takes on all these roles under one of those titles (that's what happens in my case). Data science is about looking at data to determine what an organisation might need from the data and conduct experiments to test hypotheses. It's generally concerned with cognitive and 'what if' analysis. Data analysis is about cleaning, transforming and modeling data so it is meaningful and useful. Business analysis is more concerned with using the end data model/visualisation for decision making purposes or to enact change.


You need to have good computer skills and an understanding of database management (in particular relational databases), the various platform technologies and how data flows between them. The more successful and sought after analysts are those who are skilled in multiple BI softwares, and are either experts in the underlying database/s or skilled at using the data to tell a story that is tailored to the audience.

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I’m a scientist with a SN child and swapped careers to a more niche field a few years back for a. Or flexible workplace. I like what I do but I miss the responsibility and pay and I think I may have to look around for something as I’m kinda bored.


It’s a fine balance.. hopefully getting some more skills will help get a role that pays the same, going down in pay sure has affected me more than I thought.

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I’m a scientist with a SN child and swapped careers to a more niche field a few years back for a. Or flexible workplace. I like what I do but I miss the responsibility and pay and I think I may have to look around for something as I’m kinda bored.


It’s a fine balance.. hopefully getting some more skills will help get a role that pays the same, going down in pay sure has affected me more than I thought.

 

Yeh this worries me too. Is youR job lab based charli73?


I know Money/ pay everything And we need flexibility for our kids but I actually quite enjoy my job. I just did my ndis review today and was saying to the lac that I wish I could work full time but there is just no way my kid could cope and how would he get to his therapies?


Maybe I won’t get Made redundant but I Definitely need a plan b...

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I’m a scientist with a SN child and swapped careers to a more niche field a few years back for a. Or flexible workplace. I like what I do but I miss the responsibility and pay and I think I may have to look around for something as I’m kinda bored.


It’s a fine balance.. hopefully getting some more skills will help get a role that pays the same, going down in pay sure has affected me more than I thought.

 

Yeh this worries me too. Is youR job lab based charli73?


I know Money/ pay everything And we need flexibility for our kids but I actually quite enjoy my job. I just did my ndis review today and was saying to the lac that I wish I could work full time but there is just no way my kid could cope and how would he get to his therapies?


Maybe I won’t get Made redundant but I Definitely need a plan b...

 

Yes it’s lab based and in the field sometimes. I work 4 days and have a very flexible workplace and DS is now doing 4.5days and he has coped well. We have OT come to the school now which is great, Speech weekly and psych once a month...


Could you wait until your child is a bit older and more settled until you go FT? What about FT with one day WFH? Would your employer let you do one day from home for admin?

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I'm a VCE Chem teacher and changed careers in my late 30's from research/academics. I'll share my (very subjective) pros and cons list that for teaching;


Pros:

Relatively high day-to-day autonomy - you will be constrained by your timetable and meetings schedules but you get to figure out your own teaching routines, student management and activities in the classroom.


Location is flexible - there are schools everywhere so you could potentially look at a tree-change/sea-change or city-change if you wished


Job security - it seems like most "decent" teachers get offered permanent contracts within 2 years of being at a school.


School holidays - generally the school holidays are non-contact time, you will need to use some of the time for prep but there is the flexibility to build in family/care time.


Part-time work is commonly available.


It can feel very rewarding to teach scientific literacy to young people. I think it's important to have a population that understands scientific processes and how scientific knowledge is developed. This feels more important to me than having students prepped for actual careers in STEM.


Cons:

Term-time is busy. There is a huge amount of work to do and its very easy to let teaching expand into crazy hours.


It can be emotionally demanding. Highschool kids (12-18) have high levels of anxiety, social stress, body insecurities etc. that they will bring into the classroom. Parents seem to have a high expectations around teachers' willingness and ability to deal with this.


Holidays are limited to school holidays.

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I’m a scientist with a SN child and swapped careers to a more niche field a few years back for a. Or flexible workplace. I like what I do but I miss the responsibility and pay and I think I may have to look around for something as I’m kinda bored.


It’s a fine balance.. hopefully getting some more skills will help get a role that pays the same, going down in pay sure has affected me more than I thought.

 

Yeh this worries me too. Is youR job lab based charli73?


I know Money/ pay everything And we need flexibility for our kids but I actually quite enjoy my job. I just did my ndis review today and was saying to the lac that I wish I could work full time but there is just no way my kid could cope and how would he get to his therapies?


Maybe I won’t get Made redundant but I Definitely need a plan b...

 

Yes it’s lab based and in the field sometimes. I work 4 days and have a very flexible workplace and DS is now doing 4.5days and he has coped well. We have OT come to the school now which is great, Speech weekly and psych once a month...


Could you wait until your child is a bit older and more settled until you go FT? What about FT with one day WFH? Would your employer let you do one day from home for admin?

 

Hey Charli thanks for the response it’s interesting to hear what other scientists do with parenthood demands. My current job is so flexible I can choose start and finish times and also if I work from home or not. The work load is demanding but I am holding firm at 70% for now.


Only problem is it’s science and so every few years a round of redundancies come through and I’m really worried my time might be up.


I just got an OT to come to the school too- it’s so so great to have one less appointment to get to!!!

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I'm a VCE Chem teacher and changed careers in my late 30's from research/academics. I'll share my (very subjective) pros and cons list that for teaching;


Pros:

Relatively high day-to-day autonomy - you will be constrained by your timetable and meetings schedules but you get to figure out your own teaching routines, student management and activities in the classroom.


Location is flexible - there are schools everywhere so you could potentially look at a tree-change/sea-change or city-change if you wished


Job security - it seems like most "decent" teachers get offered permanent contracts within 2 years of being at a school.


School holidays - generally the school holidays are non-contact time, you will need to use some of the time for prep but there is the flexibility to build in family/care time.


Part-time work is commonly available.


It can feel very rewarding to teach scientific literacy to young people. I think it's important to have a population that understands scientific processes and how scientific knowledge is developed. This feels more important to me than having students prepped for actual careers in STEM.


Cons:

Term-time is busy. There is a huge amount of work to do and its very easy to let teaching expand into crazy hours.


It can be emotionally demanding. Highschool kids (12-18) have high levels of anxiety, social stress, body insecurities etc. that they will bring into the classroom. Parents seem to have a high expectations around teachers' willingness and ability to deal with this.


Holidays are limited to school holidays.

 

Thanks so much for the detailed post. You make it sound quite interesting. I passionately believe that all student should have an understanding of stem too and I like the idea of helping that. I’m just not sure I can take on the emotional load that you describe that teenagers need, especially when I have a special needs kid that takes a lot of my emotional spoons at the moment. Maybe when my kids are older...

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Yeh this worries me too. Is youR job lab based charli73?


I know Money/ pay everything And we need flexibility for our kids but I actually quite enjoy my job. I just did my ndis review today and was saying to the lac that I wish I could work full time but there is just no way my kid could cope and how would he get to his therapies?


Maybe I won’t get Made redundant but I Definitely need a plan b...

 

Yes it’s lab based and in the field sometimes. I work 4 days and have a very flexible workplace and DS is now doing 4.5days and he has coped well. We have OT come to the school now which is great, Speech weekly and psych once a month...


Could you wait until your child is a bit older and more settled until you go FT? What about FT with one day WFH? Would your employer let you do one day from home for admin?

 

Hey Charli thanks for the response it’s interesting to hear what other scientists do with parenthood demands. My current job is so flexible I can choose start and finish times and also if I work from home or not. The work load is demanding but I am holding firm at 70% for now.


Only problem is it’s science and so every few years a round of redundancies come through and I’m really worried my time might be up.


I just got an OT to come to the school too- it’s so so great to have one less appointment to get to!!!

 

I’m not sure what kind of science area you’re in but I’ve only seen redundancy in areas where people are replaced by instrumentation or workplaces ‘restructure’ which I’ve seen in both fields I’ve been part of.

Having OT visit surely makes life easier for us too, trying to fit all appointments in was stressful but after lockdown having a whole day off DS was bored on our weekday off so I decided he should go back to school an extra half day in preparation for high school in a few years time and he is loving it, needs the contact time I think.


Could you work more hours over 4 days? If the kids are young I wouldn’t rush back.. my aim is to go FT once they are both in secondary school. My parents were never around when I was young and I want to see at least some of it...

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What kind of science?


If you can pivot into technology in some way, you could expand your options. Project management - you could do a scrum master course, seems to be a decent number of jobs. Not just in technology these days either.


Technology risk and cyber security are two areas that are always hard to hire for.

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