How to Do a Career Change at 40

When we at Waddyado talk about career change, we’re speaking from experience. I’ve drastically changed my career four times in my life - from high school teacher, to journalist, to recruiter, to coach. So when people ask me if it's insane to even think about changing your career at 40, I have many thoughts on the subject.

You’re not crazy to consider it. In fact, it might be the sanest thing you'll do for future this decade.

But let’s not beat around the bush… pretending that career change at 40 will be a fun, little, mid-life adventure is a fantasy. It definitely will be an adventure, but less like a treasure hunt in the woods and more like climbing Kilimanjaro.

Here's what I wish I'd known each time, and what I now tell every mid-career client who turns up to their coaching session, wringing their hands, fumbling their words and quietly asking if it's too late.

It’s never too late to change your career!

There's a persistent myth, often handed down from parents and grandparents, that careers are a one-way road. You pick a thing in your twenties, you climb the ladder in your thirties, and by forty you should be settled. If you're not settled, that's a personal failing and you should probably shut up about it.

It's a load of rubbish, of course. The reality is that most adults will have several careers across a working life that now stretches comfortably into our late sixties or beyond. The full-time, forty-year, single-employer career was created for a world where men provided and women took care of the house and the kids (and, let’s be honest, people died much earlier). Thankfully, that outdated rule has (mostly) packed its bags and exited the cultural narrative, and the possibilities for reinvention are almost endless.

People in their forties have decades of working life ahead of them, thanks to the rapidly retreating retirement age, so actually, mid-career is a great time to re-evaluate your priorities. The only difference between starting a new career at 25 versus 45 is that at 45 you actually know what you want, which is a stonking advantage and not a disadvantage at all.

Why your forties might be the perfect time for a career change

Psychologists talk about possible selves theory - the idea that we all carry around mental images of the various people we could become. In our twenties, those possible selves are fairly abstract and often borrowed from our parents, our teachers or whoever talked loudest at us at fifteen ("I could be a lawyer," "I could be an engineer," "I could be a vet because I used to really love my hamster" etc.). By our forties, those possible selves are sharper, richer and far more honest. Some versions we’ve tested, some we’ve ruled out, but importantly, we know what doesn't fit and that kind of clarity is a gift.

There's also self-efficacy, the term for the belief that you can actually pull off the thing you're attempting. In your twenties, self-efficacy is mostly hopeful guesswork. In your forties, it's earned. You've done difficult things - you've delivered projects, managed people, negotiated awkward conversations, survived setbacks that genuinely had you tearing your hair out at the time. That track record is gold when you start something new, even if the new thing feels alien.

And then there's crystallised intelligence, which is the kind of intelligence that actually grows with age. It's wisdom, pattern-recognition, knowing-how-people-work. Crystallised intelligence doesn't decline at 40 the way some other cognitive functions might. It improves. Which is why your forties can be one of the most powerful decades of your working life, not the gentle wind-down a lot of young people assume.

The wobble (yes, it's normal)

That said, midlife career change can be… wobbly.

When I transitioned into recruitment at 35, I had genuine moments of "What on earth am I doing?" I had no idea how to act in a fast-paced, office-based, sales-driven world. I felt like a total imposter.

When I left recruitment for coaching at 45, the anxiety was different but just as real. I was leaving a career that was reasonably stable and lucrative that I could do with my hands tied behind my back. I was leaving an identity I'd worn like a fancy coat for a decade.

This is what psychologists call role identity disruption - the unsettling stretch when you've left one identity behind but haven't fully arrived in the next one. It is profoundly uncomfortable, and it is also completely temporary. You don't go straight from one career to another, you evolve into it. And as Darwin explained, evolution doesn’t happen overnight.

Lessons from my own transitions…

The first big lesson was that transferable skills travel much further than you think. Teaching gave me great presentation abilities, classroom management skills and the patience of a flipping saint (all of which, hilariously, are excellent training for managing difficult and demanding clients). All of that fed directly into recruitment. I wasn't starting from scratch, I was repurposing.

The second thing I learned through the career changes I made, was that the financial bit is real and can be a challenge, but it's survivable. I had to be sensible about money for a while. I cut back on gym memberships (not a hardship if I’m honest), shopped at Aldi instead of Waitrose and stopped booking long-haul holidays. I built what I would now call a transition runway, even though I had no idea that's what I was doing at the time. It wasn't fun, but it didn't break me (for more on managing your money through career change, click here).

The third was that you might grieve your old career a bit, and that's allowed. Liking your new path does not mean you can't be quietly sad about moving on from your old one. You can love your current partner and still occasionally think wistfully about an ex. Two things can be true at once.

The biggest lesson learned with each new pathway I chose was that you don't have to throw the previous career away. My recruitment background didn't disappear when I became a coach, it deepened my coaching. It’s given me a perspective most coaches don't have, because I've sat on the other side of countless career conversations and deeply understand the job market. The careers didn't replace each other, they stacked.

Practical advice if you're seriously considering a career change at 40

A no-nonsense list, from someone who has been there more than once:

1. Stop asking, "Am I too old?" You aren't. Move on to the better question, which is, "What do I actually want next?"

2. Talk to people already doing the thing you think you might want to do. Not in a careers-fair sort of way, in a have-a-coffee sort of way. Visit our community to find connections with people who are in the know. You'll learn more in five honest conversations than in fifty hours of Googling.

3. Build a transition runway before you jump. Know your numbers! Money will not magically sort itself out and pretending it might is the fastest way to make a brave decision unsustainable.

4. Be honest about what's pulling you. Is it the new thing, or is it just not the old thing? Those two things can look identical from a distance but they require very different responses.

5. Don't throw your existing skills away. They're the foundation of your new career, not the leftover from an old one. Stack, don't scrap.

6. Find someone to think alongside. A friend, a mentor, a coach. Career change is much harder solo (have a look here for info on our coaching packages).

7. Expect the wobble, plan for it, then keep going forwards. The wobble is a stage, not an alarm bell.

The bottom line on changing your career at 40

Changing your career at 40 (or 35, or 45, or any other age) is not a crisis. It's your life nudging you and saying, "Hey, that shirt doesn't fit anymore - let's try something more colourful."

The first transition I did on a wing and a prayer. The most recent one I did with rather more support, far less guesswork and a real, sustainable plan. Both times it worked out. Both times I am so glad that I didn't listen to the voice inside that said, “You can’t do this.”

If you're somewhere in the middle of all this stuff right now, you're not lost, you're choosing. And future-you will be really proud of current-you for doing the hard stuff, even when it was scary.

If you're thinking about changing your career at 40 (or any decade, honestly) and want support from our career coaches and community, come and join us at https://www.waddyado.com/ for all the help you could ever need for your career transition.