How to Take Steps Toward a Career Change

If you're a member of the sandwich generation and thinking about changing your career, Caryn FitzGerald, our guest blogger this week, has some tips for you.

On our Monday post, Caryn asked you whether you want to break free from the corporate world and live the life of your dreams. Here's what she has to say about that. "The answer is simple, follow your heart and don't allow yourself to give up.

1. Ask yourself what is your true passion? What really makes your heart skip a beat or your energy soar? For me, it was helping others move through the challenges they faced in stepping into their own lives. As a woman who has recovered from eating disorders and broken free from abusive relationships, I knew what it was like to feel powerless and out of control. I used those experiences to help others and create the lifestyle I enjoy today. Those feelings effect all of us at one time or another and the ability to identify them and create a support system to assist us through them is crucial.

2. Find a mentor who has achieved the goals you are seeking to accomplish. There is no better mentor than someone who has been where you are and is now where you want to be.

3. Be honest with yourself. What are you willing to give up to make this dream a reality? Be specific! Are you willing to give up television? Eating out with friends? Four dollar a cup gourmet coffee adds up ($120 a month) quickly, are you willing to give up some of the luxuries you enjoy today, to invest in yourself for tomorrow? What is your ultimate goal? Again, be specific. Creating a vision board will allow you to envision the life you are truly seeking to live.

4. Create a business plan. Every successful businessperson has made a detailed plan of what steps they will take, monies they will invest in both the business and themselves and what result is desired.

Do you want to become self-employed with the freedom of working from home? Or purchase a franchise and be the owner while others work for you? Perhaps you want to become part of a team and create residual income as a network marketer. These are just three of many different avenues one can take to create independent income.

Be aware that replacing the income of a corporate job with an income as an entrepreneur can take time. One of the incredible benefits is that one can take small steps, a few spare hours each day, to build the foundation that will allow them, in time, to leave their job. This is not the lottery - it's breaking down and recreating a new way of living. Releasing the old habits and replacing them with new, healthier habits that will serve you in moving into a passionate life.

There will be failures along the way. The key is to remember that in order to succeed one must fail, get back up and continue to move forward. Ask anyone who has achieved the lifestyle they desire how long it took and how many failures they endured along the way and you will learn that success always come with a price. The price includes determination, persistence and resilience. The road to success involves hurdles and failures, yet how quickly you decide to get back up and move forward is up to you. The faster you get back onto that horse, the easier it becomes the next time and eventually you will reach the goal of living the life of your dreams!"

Caryn FitzGerald is a mother, wife, friend, writer, raw foodist, nature lover, teacher, blogger, entrepreneur, coach and overall lover of life! She is an eating disorder and domestic violence survivor. Caryn believes that a full, abundant life can be created and enjoyed regardless of one’s past. Today she assists others in creating the life of their dreams. Connect with Caryn.

If you want more information as you begin your search, these ideas and video may help. And here's material specifically for midlife career change. Sign the email list to the left of this post to receive our free monthly newsletter, Stepping Stones and download our ebook about how to reach your goals.

Career Change Questions Answered

We began this week with a look at what it takes to make a career change and how your passions, skills and resources can help you succeed as you work through the process. In this economy, where job losses are especially prevalent, it's wise to give some thought to planning for modifications in how you spend your day. You may want to sign up for classes from community colleges to help with a career change.

On Wednesday, were pleased to welcome Teresa Burrell, author of The Advocate's Betrayal to our blog for a virtual book tour. An educator, attorney, businesswoman and writer, Teresa graciously answered our questions and also responded to several readers' comments and requests for advice. We'd like to share those with you today:


One reader, Annette, wanted to know more about how Teresa went about making her career changes. She commented: "I am in awe of your courage in starting new careers. I would like to go back to school but I'm afraid to quit my job and start all over from scratch. How much did you have to plan ahead so you'd have enough money to support yourself after your career change?"

Teresa had some practical advice for her: "I did a little financial planning for my career changes, but mostly I just remembered what it was like when I first started attending college. I didn't have anything then and I made it through. And each time it just got better. I've never been one to have a lot of debt other than school loans, and I didn't have any of those until I went to law school. I always knew I could find some kind of work if I had to, so I just dove in. I realize I took some chances but I had to in order to follow my dreams. I do have to admit, the older I get the more planning I do for a career change."

Another reader confessed that she was concerned about her internal motivation to stay on track. Suzanne commented: "I like the idea of working for myself - like you've done as a writer. But I'm afraid I wouldn't have the energy to keep going without someone (like my boss) pushing me. How do you get yourself to stick to your job on your own?"

Teresa shared some of her philosophy about taking responsibility for herself and her career: "Suzanne, keeping on task can be one of the hardest things to do when someone isn't standing watch. Many businesses fail for that very reason. This is a business, just like any other. If you take that approach, things will get done. If you look at it as a hobby, that's all it will ever be. For the most part, you have to schedule it into your day or your week and then stick to it."

One would-be author asked about how to move forward with her manuscript: "I've been working on a book too - a novel, not a mystery. This is all brand new for me. When I finish writing, how do I get it published? How did you decide on your publisher?"

In response, Teresa gave her some of the inside scoop about publishing: "Getting published can be a real nightmare. I've heard some horror stories from many authors, some well known, others not. I didn't have the typical experience. I went to a writer's conference, submitted twenty pages to a publisher, and she asked for my manuscript. My second book was picked up by another publisher who approached me. I think that was because my first book was doing well and they saw how much effort I put into the marketing process. When your book is finished the first thing you have to do is learn how to write a clean query letter and a great synopsis. Both of those things can be done at a writer's conference. And then you start the search for an agent or a publisher. Most of that can be done online or you can attend a conference and submit some of your work. There are a number of writer's conferences that give you that opportunity. Here locally we have the Southern California Writer's Conference which I attended and would highly recommend for both the learning process and for making connections. Just make sure you approach the process knowing there is a lot of rejection in this business and at the same time keep a positive attitude."

Our thanks, again, to Teresa Burrell for her candor and advice. You can learn more about her book, The Advocate's Betrayal, on her website.

Teresa Burrell author of The Advocate's Betrayal

Today we welcome attorney and author Teresa Burrell to our blog for a Virtual Book Tour. Her second mystery, The Advocate's Betrayal, centers on female sleuth Sabre Brown, a legal advocate for children, who is faced with solving the murder of a close friend.

Teresa herself has practiced law, both in her own private office and also in juvenile court, representing abused minors as well as juvenile delinquents. She's put in countless hours doing pro bono work with children and their families and earlier worked as a teacher.

NR: I see you have had several careers. Could you tell us a little more about them?

TB: My first career was as an educator. I taught elementary school for twelve years. My second was in the legal field where I practiced law for twelve years, and primarily represented abused children. I had a third career as a business woman for about twelve years. And, of course, my most recent one is as an author. My first book was released just a year ago, so if I consider that as my start date, I figure I have about eleven more years at this.

NR: Is there something magical about the twelve years? Did you plan to change careers every twelve years?

TB: No, I didn’t really plan to make any career changes, and certainly not for any specific time. I think it just happens to be the amount of time it takes for me to feel like I have mastered what I’m doing, at which point I seem to need a new challenge. It’s not like I start a career and think, “I’m going to do this for a while and then move on.” But there have always been so many things I’ve wanted to do with my life and so when I feel like I need something new, I just do it.

NR: You’ve made some pretty major life changes with your careers, were you ever afraid?

TB: Not afraid really, but anxious sometimes, especially when things didn’t go well for some reason. But I’ve always kind of done things because I didn’t know I couldn’t. The changes haven’t always been easy and sometimes came with a great deal of sacrifice but better things always seem to come with each change.

NR: How were your career changes more or less difficult than other major life decisions?

TB: I think my career changes were much easier than some of the other decisions in my life because they didn’t involve as much emotion. I could calculate the time and money it would take to make the change. I could estimate the financial payoff, and I could even factor in other things that I thought I would like or not like about the new career. But matters of the heart and family life decisions take a lot more out of a person. Those are the really important decisions one has to make in life.

NR: Your second career, you worked with abused children in juvenile court. I see your protagonist, Sabre Brown, is also a child advocate. Why did you choose to do that?

TB: I chose to work with abused children because I can relate to many of things those children have suffered through. I chose to make Sabre a child advocate because I think it’s important that people know about the amount of child abuse that still exists in this world. As a result, hopefully they will help to prevent it or give their time to help deal with it. But I don’t think many people would want to read a book that just tells us about the awful things that some of these precious children have to endure. It’s just too heart wrenching a subject. But writing it in a mystery, without being too graphic, will hopefully teach something, and at the same time, provide entertainment.

NR: What have you found most fulfilling about each of your careers? And have you enjoyed one more than the rest?

TB: In my first two careers I was able to work with children and hopefully make their lives better. I still hear from a lot of the students I taught as well as minors I represented, and they often surprise me with their wonderful comments that indicate I did make a difference in their life, and that is certainly rewarding. But having my own import business was exciting and very different from anything else I had ever done. And of course, writing a novel has been a dream for some time, but the dream was to put it all down on paper in a logical order from start to finish. The dream wasn’t to become a published author. That came after I wrote the novel and realized how much fun it was to write. Now, the thrill for me is when I hear from a reader that they enjoyed the book. That inspires me to keep writing.

NR: Your most recent career, writing novels, how has that been different than the others?

TB: There’s more alone time, but not entirely, because I do a lot of book signings and speaking events where I get to interact with people. But the writing part is definitely done in complete solitude, which I enjoy. I never had that with the other careers.

NR: Where do you get your storylines? Your characters?

TB: My plots have been based on real cases, but they are definitely fictionalized. My characters are compilations of people I have met over the years and people I see in everyday life. I like to people watch and when I see something odd or a little different, it often ends up in one of my characters.

NR: Have your earlier careers helped you with your writing?

TB: Everything I’ve ever done or seen in my life has helped me with my writing. Readers are smart and fiction has to ring true or readers won’t accept it. My careers have really helped me to understand human behavior and that certainly makes it easier to develop a fictional character.

NR: Are there any careers you wanted to do, but didn’t?

TB: I always wanted to be a flight attendant. I even applied once when I was in college, but they had a height requirement and I was about an inch too short. But I think the attraction was really about being able to travel the world. And now as an author I can do both. I get to travel a lot to book signings, speaking events, and conferences and I can write anywhere. So, I think being an author has taken care of that particular need.

NR: If you were to do it over, what would you change and why?

TB: I wouldn’t change much in my life, especially in my careers. Any changes I would make would be in my personal life. I made a few mistakes along the way that I would certainly do differently, not that I would change any end results but I might change the way I handled things. I would spend more time with loved ones. That’s one of the reasons I stopped practicing law—to spend more time with my family.

NR: What do you see for your future? What are your goals - both practical and absurdly hopeful?

TB: I think this is probably my last career change. That’s not to say I won’t keep fulfilling dreams and having adventures. My present goals are to keep writing the Advocate Series until my readers don’t want it any longer. I have hopes of one day being on the New York Times Best Seller list, but then doesn’t every published author?

NR: What advice do you have for other women who want to make career changes?

TB: I’d say, “Go for it! Consider your family and your personal commitments, but other than that don’t let anyone get in your way. It’s your life, live it!”

NR: Teresa, thank you for sharing, so generously, your experiences with us. We've enjoyed reading The Advocate's Betrayal and look forward to your next mystery.

Readers, now is your chance to ask Teresa about her careers, her book, her life. Just click on the "Comments" link and let her know what's on your mind.

Thinking About a Career Change?

This week we'll be hosting a virtual book tour with Teresa Burrell, an author who has worked at several different jobs and has also enjoyed careers as an attorney and a teacher. She's not alone in her journey. According to a national longitudinal study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, baby boomers in the workforce tend to have an average of about 11 different jobs during the first 25 years of their productive work time.

Although the conventional wisdom has been that people change careers today somewhere between 3 and 7 times in their life, the Bureau has never tried to determine the number of times Americans actually do change careers because it is hard to define exactly what constitutes a career change.

Have you ever thought of making a career change yourself? What are the barriers standing in your way? When you are able to identify some of the challenges ahead, you can begin to outline the steps you need to take to move forward in your quest. You can learn more about how to confront these obstacles by consulting articles on our Her Mentor Center website.

What are your passions? Think about what has defined you, what raises your level of enthusiasm. When you are excited about what you do and the way you spend your day, you will experience the sense of flow that accompanies the energized focus you have in your activity.

What are your skills? You can build on the skills you have already developed as you transfer them into new areas. Brainstorm with friends about how your expertise in one sphere can be expanded into others. And look at the means at hand to educate yourself in new techniques, drawing on your innate abilities and specific aptitudes.

What are your resources? Just as inner character strengths serve as your foundation, you have external supports in the form of family and friends. You don't have to accomplish the transformation alone. Make a list of the reserves available to you and draw on them. It'll be a win-win experience for all of you.

Be sure to check in with us on Wednesday - you can join in the chat with Teresa Burrell about her own career change and the two mystery novels that have come out of it.

Investors in Wall Street were more optimistic yesterday as the buying pressure pushed the market up over 900 points, the largest one-day gain ever. Nevertheless, uncertainty about the current state of the economy continues to weigh on Sandwiched Boomers. Today we share more stories from readers who are looking for direction.

Barbara writes that she is concerned about making a career change in these uncertain times. She tries to gather information from people who work in the field she is interested in pursuing and she relies on her friends for support while she considers the change.

"I graduated from an Education program 10 years ago. Although I've worked in the position, I have never felt it was my calling. I have finally made the decision to leave teaching and want a career that pays more than I would make being a teacher. I would also like to enjoy my time at work and feel connected to what I am doing. I worry that I will not find a position because of my lack of experience and education in a new field. I worry that I will not make enough money to buy a home, enjoy life and retire comfortably."

Mary has spent years focusing on her family but now that she wants to look inward, she's not really sure how to do it. In the past, she often used humor to put things into perspective, but now her confusion about how to move forward is palpable.

"I'm a single mother of five children and frankly, the last 12 years have been spent surviving. I managed that and then some. As silly as this sounds, I have achieved all my long-term goals and the lack of new goals is almost as stressful as the journey here. I was so focused on stabilizing this family, I never thought about what comes after the right job, the right house, the right ratio of adults to children. I feel completely and utterly adrift. I've always been the most successful at coping by being able to triage incredibly well and only focusing on whatever crisis was going to cause one of the three H's, Health issues, Hunger or Homelessness. When it comes to things outside those three...I don't really know where to start."

We want to welcome Carolyn Howard-Johnson to our blog today. She is the author of a novel, "This is the Place" and a collection of poetry, "Tracings." Her series of nitty, gritty how-to books include "The Frugal Book Promoter" and "the Frugal Book Editor."

Q: Carolyn, we understand that your writing career didn't begin until mid-life. Looking back, what was it like for women in the 1950's and '60s?

A: Sometimes the big barriers in life aren’t abject poverty, dreaded disease or death. Sometimes it’s the subtle ones set upon us by time and place. The ones that creep up silently on padded feet and, if we sense them at all, we choose not to turn and face them. The decade of the 50s was a time when these kinds of barriers faced those with dark skin, those who lived in closed religious communities, and those who were female.

Living in Utah, I knew that women in that time and place had a notion of who they should be, could be and, mostly, they got it from those around them because many of them couldn’t see the difference from society’s expectations and their own.

“You can’t be a nurse,” my mother said. “Your ankles aren’t sturdy enough.” I also was told I couldn’t be a doctor because that wasn’t a woman’s vocation. The choice left to me was to be a teacher. My dream to write became a victim of the status quo.

When I applied for a job as a writer at Hearst Corporation in New York in 1961 I was required to take a typing test. I was piqued because I wasn’t applying for the typing-pool, I was applying for a post as an editorial assistant.

I was told, "No typing test, no interview." I took the test and was offered a job in the ranks of those who could do 70 in a minute. I had to insist upon the interview I had been promised. I was only twenty and had no real skills in assertiveness. I am amazed I had the wherewithal to do that.

Something similar was at work when I married and had children. I happily left my writing to accommodate my husband’s career and the life the winds of the times presented to me. That there was a time when we didn’t know we had choices is not fiction.

I had always wanted to write the next “Gone with the Wind” only about Utah instead of about the South. I had a plan that was, itself, gone with the wind.

Instead of following my star I searched for replacements. My husband and I built a business. For forty years I didn’t write and, during that time women became more aware. The equipment, gears and pulleys were in place for a different view on life.

Q: Can you tell us about how you dramatically changed directions in the second half of your life in a desire to fulfill your dreams?

A: In midlife I became aware that there was an empty hole where my children had been but also that the hole was vaster than the space vacated by them. I knew I not only would be able to write, I would need to write.

Then I read that, if those who live until they are fifty in these times may very likely see their hundredth year. That meant that I might have another entire lifetime before me--plenty of time to do whatever I wanted. In fact, it’s my belief that women in their 50s might have more time for their second life because they won’t have to spend the first twenty years preparing for adulthood.

That was it. I started writing "This is the Place." I had to relearn old skills and brush up on new, and I am proud that I did it. I’m glad that I waited until I was sixty. Forty years of experience gave it a dimension it would not have had if I had written it when I was young. That first novel has expanded into four books including a new book of poetry, "Tracings" and I am now working on one called "Best Book Forward: How to Edit for a Spotless First Impression." I like that I am doing something for other women and for other writers.

I also like being proof that a new life can start late - or that it is never too late to revive a dream.

Thanks for sharing your story, Carolyn. Although we are new friends, we can see already that you are as generous with your experiences as you are with your wisdom and excellent ideas. What you say resonates for us and we're sure it will for other women as well.

Readers, here's your chance to fire away. You may have questions about Carolyn's mid-life transformation and how you can begin your own process. Or maybe you have a book percolating and want some direction about how to serve it up. All you have to do is click on "comment" at the bottom of this post, type in what you have to say and then follow the simple directions. You do not have to join anything in order to make a comment. We look forward to hearing from you.

What's the old saying - if you don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going? Being comfortable in your relationship feels awfully good - but functioning on automatic pilot can get you into trouble. For some couples in the Sandwich Generation, the impetus to examine their partnership comes from the different energies that each wants to invest in family, career or leisure.

Don is torn between his own needs and those of his wife: "We're at different junctures right now.She worked part-time in nursing when our children were young. Over the years she has discovered a passion for business and recently started her own medical registry. The problem for me is, now that she's so immersed in her work, I want to cut back and spend more time together. I'm not sure how we can find a balance."

If there is mutual trust in your relationship, both of you can enjoy the freedom of exploring new options and goals. With her husband’s support, Rhonda, for the first time in 22 years, has achieved space within the marriage. "I have arrived at this crossroad with more confidence and trust in my personal choices. I just hope that my being stronger will not weaken our marriage.”

Think about where your marriage weighs in on the scale of transitions. Over the next couple of days we'll be looking at the various mid-life changes that can destabilize or re-energize a relationship.

Have you or your partner gone through a mid-life career change? When you're not on the same page about the significance of work, it can impact your relationship. It brings up issues around the division of labor - such as who assumes responsibility for daily chores and who controls the major decisions. Maybe you are once again struggling about who manages the checkbook and who does the laundry, just like you did early in your marriage.

When one of you has been diagnosed with an illness, either acute or chronic, the physical and emotional challenges to both of you impact and threaten the stability of your relationship. You and your spouse may be experiencing shock, fear, anxiety, depression - and at the same time, a sense of deep support and renewed strength.

As Sandwiched Boomers, do you have increased commitments now that either your parents or in-laws are getting older and need more assistance? Perhaps there's conflict about who takes care of what responsibilities or about not having enough time for the relationship or your own needs.

Are any of the above changes or challenges putting stress on your relationship? If so, acknowledge this to your parnter. It can be the start of new awareness and a shift in the relationship itself.