While true that there are more twentysomething career seekers that Career Counseling Connecticut helps, there are a surprisingly high number of fifty somethings that need career help.
Beyond the obvious – those who have been downsized and need to get a job – the most common type are those who are seeking work/career happiness.
While I try to be gender-neutral in my writing and even in my examples, I can say with certainty that more of our clients of this type are women.
I’ll use a client from a few years ago – “Valerie” – as an example. She had the beginnings of a vibrant career when she left college. She worked in New York for a movie company. When she and her husband started having children, she left her job. She stayed home for several years and then at some point worked retail at a local mall. The job fit with her main purpose – being a mom – because she didn’t have to think about anything related to her work after work and because she could choose hours that enabled her to be there for her kids when most needed.
As her children became older and were of driving age, Valerie became an assistant manager at the store. When her children went off to college, Valerie went through the common blues of empty nesting and then started thinking about herself.
She never aspired to be in retail. She was fortunate that she liked her colleagues when she started 20 years back. She realized she would have left far earlier if she didn’t. Now, she noticed that she was dealing with demanding customers more than ever and her current manager was far more challenging than any prior manager. With her children gone, she felt purposeless.
When she met with Career Counseling Connecticut, she felt absolutely stuck. Three months later, she was working with her friend in a small business and feeling entirely revitalized.
What happened? She went through our career revitalization process. We clarified her values, what she wanted from work, and provided a plan on how to get there.