How to Start a New Career When You’re in Your 50s or 60s

From exploring your options to finding your purpose, we show that 50 and beyond is as good a time as any to start building the career you desire.

1. You Have Options!

Wider society likes us to believe that once you’ve picked a path, there’s no following a new one. Yet our life experience, professional development and expertise opens us up to a plethora of opportunities.

Our 2022 study, The Unretirement Uprising, showed that a retirement rebellion could be the solution to the broken relationship between workplaces and the over 50s. 

Whilst 56% of over 50s want to continue working beyond 65, they’re still being met with discrimination in the wider job market, despite there being 1.2 million job vacancies in the UK between July and September this year alone and a shortage of candidates.

These shortages demonstrate that now more than ever, employers should be looking for employees with experience on their side.

However, there is a growing number of companies waking up to age inclusivity and creating some amazing options for midlifers. 

Life/Redefined is part of the 55/Redefined group. We show that success, happiness and possibility have no age limit, and champion the companies paving the way for age inclusivity. 

From Ipsos, hiring for rewarding roles in market research, to Hargreaves Lansdown, who earned our Age Inclusive Accreditation – these companies show that whilst we have a long way to go, starting a new career in your 50s or 60s is a viable option.

Don’t underestimate the value you could bring to a multigenerational team. Working on your terms, whilst embracing a new challenge could open your life up to a world of new possibilities.

2. Do Your Research

We get it, you’re rushed off your feet responding to work and home commitments, but you can’t push that need for change to the back of your head any longer. 

Researching your options doesn’t have to take hours out of your day. A gradual approach to starting something new will help you ease into a new way of life.

Try taking thirty minutes each day to browse career opportunities on your favoured platforms. If you’re a social media scroller in the evenings, why not search LinkedIn’s regular job postings?

Head to Jobs/Redefined to search a wide range of opportunities. We have a host of age-inclusive employers to explore across the UK. Why not sign up to receive regular job alerts, straight to your inbox?

If you’re still unsure on what a new career could look like for you, browse our career tips and inspiration section for advice-led content.

Find a Mentor

So, whilst you can search online at your own pace, why not get some insight into career options face to face? 

Don’t underestimate the value of mentors. Whilst you may know what you want to move on to, it could be really useful to get advice and guidance from someone outside of your family, friends or existing work circle. 

An impartial perspective can bring some clarity to your decision and even inspire ideas you never thought of entertaining.

Start by researching the mentors in your area. You may prefer to find someone that specialises in your field, or if you’re keen to branch out, why not find a mentor with knowledge in the position you’re looking to get into?

The Benefits of Networking

Getting out and speaking to industry professionals with an array of experiences can equip you with the tools you need to make the leap into a new career. 

Why not sign up to some networking events and attend with an open mind? Our article covers the benefits of networking for the over 50s, if you’re looking for advice on how to get started.

3. Assess Your Options

So, you’re aware that there are options out there, but which ones will work for your specific career path?

Don’t Rush to Decide on Your Destination

Whilst you may be unsure on how to get there, it can be equally as daunting when you’re not yet sure on which direction you want your career to head in. 

Completing the above steps can help you discover sectors that work for you, but if you’re still struggling to imagine yourself in a new role, ask yourself these questions to solidify your career goals:

• What kind of employer do I see myself working for?
• Do I need more flexibility in this new role?
• Am I looking for financial stability?
• Is this role more about the reward rather than the pay?
• Do I want to explore a new industry?
• Do I want to upskill in the same industry I am in now?
• Am I ready to come out of retirement?

These questions may not lead you to settle on your exact new job role, but they’ll get you to think outside of the box and inspire you to tap into options you may not have considered before. If you’re yet to settle on a specific role, this exercise could reveal which sector or industry you’re ready to explore.

Comprise a List of Your Capabilities

Once you’ve asked yourself the tough questions, it can be an affirming exercise to create a list of your capabilities. Take some time to list what you could bring to a new role.

If you’ve got the obvious skills down, your friends, family or former colleagues will be able to add to that list. Knowing your key skills alongside the positive traits you can offer will set you in good stead with potential employers.

Enter the Job Matrix

When deciphering your options for a new role in your 50s or 60s, getting things down on paper can prevent feelings of overwhelm. 

Taking emotion out of the equation and using a quantitative method can sometimes bring clarity to a tough decision. 

In this case, job decision matrixes are a great way to rank, rate and review your options.

Here are some tips on how to build a decision matrix grid:

• List your areas of interest or expertise: Start by writing down the sectors or job roles you might be interested in in a column format.
• Define your criteria: Write around five of the key criteria that you would like your future job role to meet – be it an increase in flexibility, more challenging or higher pay – in the top row.
• Rate your areas of interest against the criteria: Score your sectors or job roles against the criteria you have listed.
• Rank your criteria: Which criteria is the most important? Which is the least important? Grade your criteria using a score system between zero and five.
• Multiply the criteria rankings: Multiply each score by the weight of the option, then add each option’s scores together.

This method should show you what job role or industry scores highest against the most important factors for you, taking emotional hang ups out of the decision making process.

What’s Your Purpose?

If you’re looking for a less methodical approach to starting a new career, our Purpose Finder could be for you.

This is a tool to assist you in stepping out into a new phase of life, one where you design the life you love. 

Whether you’re ready to let the abundance of success stories in the form of our Redefiners inspire you, or ask the pros, there’s a lesson for every midlifer starting a new career path. 

When it comes to finding a new purpose, try to accept that it’s going to take time. In this story about finding a fresh start, Dave Woods recalls it took him a good few years to start a new career:

“I'd been kind of hovering for a while, maybe about six years. I just needed the right opportunity. I knew I didn’t want to do it on my own, so I had patience. Passion and patience.”

Society has instilled in us a need to have a purpose to drive productivity. Yet, you’ve worked for many years to build the life you have for yourself. You don’t need to slow down if you don’t want to, but try not to charge ahead into a new role without giving it much thought in the name of productivity.

Finding a new purpose is an exciting opportunity that should be carefully considered, enabling you to put your best foot forward when you decide on that dream career.

4. Begin Your Job Search

So, you’ve done the research, you may even have discovered a new purpose. It’s time to begin the job search. 

Searches typically begin with deciding on what exactly you want out of your new job. You will have covered this whilst assessing your options, and prioritising your career goals. 

Gather your top priorities, your list of key skills and your decision matrix grid. These materials will have helped you narrow down which industry, sector or market you’re ready to enter into. 

Organise Your Approach

Most of us have busy home lives. Many put off moving onto something new for years simply because they don’t have the time to think about starting a new career or coming out of retirement. But, it’s time to stop pushing that dream career to the back of your mind, and carve out time for yourself. 

So, you need to organise your search in a way that’s manageable. 

If you’ve been looking on LinkedIn, Indeed or our jobs board, start compiling a list of jobs you want to apply for and save them in a folder or spreadsheet to revisit. Be sure to make a note of the closing date and key points of contact for applications so you don’t lose out on any opportunities.

Reach Out to Your Network

This is where the networking you did in the first stages of your research will come in handy.

You may have stayed in contact with, or at least noted down the details of industry professionals you clicked with. Once you’re decided on a certain industry, why not ask if they know of any roles you’d be suited to? They may even be hiring themselves. 

Whilst asking around may feel uncomfortable, you likely will have laid the groundwork and built a strong community of professionals through networking. Learn to lean on them, as you’ll have the opportunity to help others out some day.

Put Yourself Out There

Today, putting yourself out there for professional opportunities means creating a LinkedIn account. 

Our recent study found that just 16 percent of over 50s are active on LinkedIn, but you could be missing a trick by not having a profile. 

Not only is it a tool for detailed, categorised job searches, it also enables you to engage with the wider professional community. Display your education and work history, write descriptions about your skills and goals, and create posts or articles about topics that inspire you.

Not only does this get your profile out there, but who you follow and the posts you engage with can indicate to employers whether you’d be the right fit for their team.

Dust off Your CV

It may have been some time since you read your CV, and if you’ve been with the same company for a number of years, or are coming out of retirement, candidate requirements are going to have changed. 

Remember to add the work and life skills you will have gained since the last time you sent it out, and remove the elements that are no longer relevant to the role.

For more information on updating your CV, read our article on how to write a CV for today’s workplace when you’re over 50.

Brush Up on Your Interview Skills

As with your CV, it may have been some time since you attended an interview for a new role.

Now is the chance to show that your age can really benefit the company. Go in confident in the knowledge that you have years of experience on your side. 

Employers today tend to value life experience alongside academic or professional qualifications. Where appropriate, apply how your life experience could fit into the new role.

If you want more advice, our article offers some useful tips on job interview skills for the over-50s.