Career Change Help

March 17, 2006 4:06 AM

I'm 38 and I've finally decided to be what I always wanted - I just can't help feeling it's too late. I'm after some advice and some optimism.

I've been in administration all my working life, and this year I started studying Bachelor of Multimedia Studies via distant education (eta 5 years). I've created images for publication, and I draw and take photos, have used the net since it was in black and white, so this where my passion lies. I'm just afraid that I'm going to be competing with funky youngsters who were born with USB ports in the back of their heads and no-one's going to want to hire me.

What can I do over the next five years to improve my job prospects when I have my qualification?
Thanks.

posted by b33j to work & money (23 comments total)

Make yourself known. Create a website, with a portfolio, contact details and examples of your work in all media. Get involved in forums and online discussions about the areas you want to work in. Publiscise yourself. If you have a good style and some skill, it won't matter who you're competing against, your qualities will show through to potential employers.

Keep yourself up to date on modern technologies. Read slashdot, digg, ars technica, freshmeat and the likes. Diversify if possible. If you can find the time, learn a programming language. The more skills you have, the more employable you are.
posted by gaby at 4:23 AM on March 17, 2006

Find ways to do what you enjoy doing... volunteer, spend your vacation time on learning, join groups and read periodicals.
posted by ewkpates at 4:38 AM on March 17, 2006

Identify those who are doing well the things you want to do, and offer to buy them a cup of coffee and pick their brains to see how they got where they are today. Good luck!
posted by shallowcenter at 4:40 AM on March 17, 2006

Congratulations.

The key is to leverage the skills that you have acquired already in your working life and integrate those with your new skills. You obviously are going to have strong admin skills as well as a sure sense of the way the world works. Plus, you probably have a very strong grasp of the business sectors you have worked in. Your junior competitors do not have this and so you have a strong competitive advantage in these areas.

The hardest part is likely to be that the young bucks can work for less than you. I've seen this be a problem for friends of mine who did similar things. In every case the answer is to provide a value-added service using the strongest of your entrenched skills.

My personal formula for success in business: do what you find easy but other people find hard. So what do you find easy that the youngsters find hard? Leverage that.
posted by unSane at 5:04 AM on March 17, 2006

I don't know whether this would fit with your personal life, but if you could move abroad and become fluent in a foreign language during your five years of distance learning, you'd have a way to distance yourself from the crowd.
posted by hazyjane at 5:19 AM on March 17, 2006

Parlay your experience into a management position.
posted by lobstah at 5:21 AM on March 17, 2006

Your age is asset, never forget that. You have the maturity and experience that they young whippersnappers don't have. Combine that with your passion and you've got an almost unbeatable combination: maturity (ie reliability and a professional manner) and a love of what you do.

If you're worried about the younger crowd knowing more tech stuff, don't. What matters most is your personality and how you present yourself. You've excellent freelance potential, so make yourself known through out your community via the suggestions other have presented in this thread.

Seriously, your age is an asset, not a hinderance. Don't let it get in your way and think that it can stop. This is your passion, your life's blood, what you were born to do!


Also, I find Hugh Macleod "How to be creative" to be inspiring.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:39 AM on March 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Thank you very much. great ideas in here. Unfortunately going overseas isn't an option until I finish raising these teens I have at home.

I do have management skills, I do have people skills, I do know how businesses (and universities and government departments) work.

I'm okay to take a lower rate of pay to start. The thing is, unqualified admin positions don't pay that well anyhow.

I really appreciate the advice. I'll let you know how it all turns out in 5 years.
posted by b33j at 5:54 AM on March 17, 2006

Does your school have a placement office or a career planning and counseling office? I'd start there.
Trade associations... network, network, network.
Take on work for non-profits for free to build your portfolio.
posted by FergieBelle at 6:07 AM on March 17, 2006

Publicize yourself by getting a blog and post your photos, drawings, designs, school assignments, etc on there.

Find out where on the web people go who are looking for designers and hang out in the forums there, if they have them.

Do anything you can think of to be helpful to the people at your school, particularly in the career center. Offer to help your school with their web site even. Make sure your name is the first one people think of when an employer inquires whether any of their students are available for work.

Volunteer for open source projects and, as FergieBelle says, non-profits, ensuring that they will be willing to provide references for you and that you will have the right to add your work to your portfolio.

Join any multimedia professional organizations near where you live and go to meetings. Even less specific organizations such as those for businesswomen or IT professionals could be useful for networking.
posted by hazyjane at 6:27 AM on March 17, 2006

Live the Kaizen method of continuous incremental improvements. These are the things I do to stay ahead of the game at 38 also. Donate your time to a users group, schools, etc. Tutor some students. This will force you to stay up on the latest technology and keep your skills sharp. Read, read, read anything you can get your hands on related to your field. Join a users group, toastmasters (enhance your speaking skills) and other social groups to network. Let people know what you do and be proud of it. Build a portfolio by doing non-prof work. Even it you don't have cleints of your own tear apart and rebuild content that you have seen and would like to create. Find creative challanges to work on. Thats how I started trail and error. Become the expert to your friends and family. Be awesome at one app (i.e. photoshop, flash) and the others will be easy to begin using. Remember you have 30+ years of life expirence on your side use it to your advantage. Live your dream or die a dreamer. Good luck and congrats on the career change.
posted by johnd101 at 6:48 AM on March 17, 2006

Your administration experience is an asset, too. Use the skills you have learned there to increase your efficiency and productivity as you move into a new field. Generate proven ways to maximise your personal strengths and generate proven ways to increase your flexibility.
posted by By The Grace of God at 6:55 AM on March 17, 2006

Congratulations, that sounds like a good step in a direction that pleases you. I agree with what people have said, your level of maturity and experience on the job will definitely help you move forward, in this new direction or in any direction. Since you have an ETA that is a ways off, I'd look at the job you have now and see if there are ways you can work your education into it. You do administration? Try to get working on the intranet, or coordinating some sort of office somethingorother that has a tech/display/presentation angle that you can use your skills in. Design custom PowerPoint templates for everyone in your office, make new letterhead be the boilerplate for your website. Have a multimedia presentation be part of your annual reporting. If you play your cards right, you may come out of this educational program with not only the degree and experience you want, but also a few years of related project work under your belt that will make a nice looking portfolio AND recommendations from people at your current place of work as well.

The born with the chip generation is going to have much less experience going in to the job market, and you may find yourself in a position where your admin background makes you a project manager in a larger job working with them not against them. Best of luck, this sounds like a good plan.
posted by jessamyn at 7:24 AM on March 17, 2006

Give some consideration to the idea of starting a business. The administrative nous, technical skills and passion that you have could stand you in good stead. Of course it is hard work - but the state of internet technology means you may be able to get started gradually while working as something else.
posted by rongorongo at 7:43 AM on March 17, 2006

Per Wikipedia, it appears as if Albert Einstein didn't quit the Patent Office until 1911 — that was age 32 for him. He didn't present his theory of relativity until age 36.

Actor John Mahoney — the dad on "Frasier," but also heavily employed in many films — didn't begin his career until a Steppenwolf production in 1977, making him 37 when he started that phase of his career.
posted by WCityMike at 7:53 AM on March 17, 2006

So many excellent suggestions... I want to especially second the notion that with age, you have a mature sense of how things really work in the real world. You can offer clients stability, wisdom, good management and communication skills and instill a sense of trust, which goes a long way.

I am a freelance web designer and I say GO FOR IT. There is definitely a lack of talented and reliable multimedia designers. My best piece of advice is to network with anyone who can partner or refer work to you -- like a web designer! Let them know who you are, where you are, what you like to do and how to get in touch.
posted by traderjoefan at 9:17 AM on March 17, 2006

Do you really need that degree in order to work in that field?
I don't know much about multimedia production, but I would imagine that won't learn the core competencies at university, but that either you have the artistic talent or you don't. A degree will give you some theoretical background and maybe bring you up to speed on the latest tools, but I would think that an inquisitive mind can do that as well.
(A campus environment also has the advantage of bringing you in contact with like-minded people and potential collaborators, but you won't get that with distance education and might as well join some newsgroups for that.)

Not trying to talk you out of getting the degree, but you should realize that clients won't give you work because of it. They'll look at your portfolio and give you work because they like what you do.
posted by sour cream at 9:23 AM on March 17, 2006

Brandon Blatcher wrote...
...reliability and a professional manner...

DING DING DING! We have a winner....

If you were in your fifties I'd be worried about the age issue, but in your early forties you're in your prime, and you bring years of work experience with you.

Brilliant young whippersnappers are all very nice for edgy avant garde work, but for the daily bread and butter you want someone who will answer the phone when you call, and not wander off everytime they see something shiny.
posted by tkolar at 9:27 AM on March 17, 2006

What can I do over the next five years to improve my job prospects when I have my qualification?

First step is to realize that while your current studies may be valuable in teaching you how to do the job, the actual qualification/certification (the paper diploma) will mean exactly zero to employers. They will want to see an actual portfolio of projects. In my industry (video games), we generally tell people to get OUT of school and actually start working (QA, mod communities, etc) in order to be successful.

So, focus energies on things that will actually help you to develop a real portfolio of work.
posted by frogan at 9:47 AM on March 17, 2006

You're not too old.... my mother is 55 this year, and she's going back to graduate school for something completely unrelated to her previous career.
posted by fvox13 at 10:12 AM on March 17, 2006

Everyone is covering the advice very well, so for optimism: She started her own photography business at 33 after receiving her first digital camera at 30.
posted by like_neon at 1:34 PM on March 17, 2006

You're not too old. In fact, the experience you've acquired will be of great value to you. It'll make it much easier to learn your new skills and know how they will be relevant in your future work.

I have the job I've always wanted, and I have to tell you it's a great feeling. Even when I have a lousy day or week or year, it's still in the context of "this is what I've always wanted to do." I got an old out-of-print textbook in my field in the mail yesterday, and it was like Christmas come early. I strongly recommend pursuing your passion.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:34 PM on March 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hey, I left a successful career (sheesh, that sounds like an infomercial, but it really was successful) at age 34 to go back to school to work in academia. Talk about a pay cut... and right now my colleagues are a decade younger than me. Last year I made less than 1/5 of what I'd made before.

My experience really has made a difference. Yes, there are some downsides, and yes, I'm starting off somewhat behind my younger colleagues. But with my experience, I smoke them in terms of my confidence, interpersonal and networking skills, and my perspective on what's important. Sure, they can pull all-nighters and don't have family commitments the way I do: but I wouldn't trade it for the world. And I'm better now than I would have been as a fresh-off-the-farm kid, like everyone I'm competing against. I think age and experience are assets, personally.
posted by terceiro at 9:28 PM on March 18, 2006