Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming about what else you could be doing with your life? Maybe you’re staring at an excel sheet, feeling the itch to ditch screen life and do more hands-on work, or you just want to do something more creative.

But then you come along a wall of questions, doubts and hurdles:

• Am I being foolish for walking away from my hard-earned job title, benefits and pay?
• How can I make sure I don’t start at the bottom?
• What else can I even do that will make my heart happy and pay my mortgage?
• What employer will take a chance on me if I don’t have 10+ years experience in the field?

I get it. I’ve worked with countless professionals who have gone through the same emotional rollercoaster of daydreaming of a better future only to come crashing down after coming up against the challenges of changing careers.

And to answer question number 1: you’re most definitely not foolish for having a good enough job but wanting more. You’re also not alone. In fact, a recent study by Personnel Today showed that 49% of professionals are considering a career change, and that number is even higher for those over 40.

Why is that?

Because when we first enter the work force, we just want to prove to ourselves (and maybe others) that we’re capable, we’re good at things – we can get promoted! We become ‘Yes’ people, ‘Can do’ employees and we never stop to think whether we WANT to do this work.

Then, we get older and our needs, motivators and desires change. We reach a point in our lives where we don’t want to carry on climbing up that particular career ladder. Instead, we want to explore our untapped potential, our long-dormant dreams or pursue our emerging hobbies. We seek fulfilment, purpose, meaning and impact.

But change feels hard because we’ve got more to lose. Starting at the bottom and working our way up again? Ugh, even the thought makes you tired.

But I’ve got good news: you don’t have to start at the bottom. And it won’t take you as long as you think to establish yourself in a new industry.

You know why?

Because you’ve got something incredibly valuable that your younger self didn’t have: experience. Real, meaningful, can’t-be-taught-in-a-classroom experience. You’re also really good at things. The trick is identifying your strengths and seeing how these could be transferrable skills.

Discovering your strengths

There are a few things that get in the way of discovering your strengths.

The first one is that certain things come so easily to you, that you don’t even classify them as skills or strengths. It would be like listing ‘breathing’ as a skill – you just do it. You don’t even have to think about it.

The second thing is that you are too humble my dear friend. You bash away compliments and so you don’t see yourself like others see you. You don’t have perspective.

So I’ve designed the following questions to help you overcome these problems.

Start by asking yourself these questions:

1. What parts of your current role make you lose track of time?
2. Which tasks or situations energise you?
3. What do people always come to you for help with?
4. What do you see others struggle with that feels like second nature to you?

You absolutely can, and should, get help with these questions. It’s not cheating, it’s being smart.

The Hidden Gold: Your Transferable Skills

When you have your answers, you have your unique strengths: the things that come naturally to you. Now, if you haven’t done so already, let’s phrase them in a way that makes them universally applicable. So instead of ‘I’m good at navigating Bob and getting along with Tracy when others seem to struggle’, you can say ‘great at managing difficult stakeholders’.

Also, don’t forget to look outside of work. Remember – your strengths are there in plain sight all day and night, not just Monday to Friday 9 – 5. Maybe you have the following transferrable skills:

• Managing complex projects (even if they were just family vacations)
• Mediating conflicts (between team members or teenagers – honestly, it’s the same skill)
• Breaking down complicated information (whether it’s technical specs or recipe modifications)

These aren’t just random abilities – they’re highly valuable transferable skills that could be your ticket to your next career.

Even if you feel you don’t have loads of experience in them, they can often be an excellent jumping off point.

It’s all about seeing value in the skills you have and want to use more of in the future. You know the ones that you don’t dread doing, the ones where you happily sit down and crack on with them.

Those are your transferable skills and thats what we want to build on more!

Uncovering Your True Passions

Next, we’re going to answer that question of ‘But what can I do?’

Maybe you have lots of ideas and don’t know which one to pick, maybe you have zero ideas.

My advice is: don’t think about what’s realistic or how you’re going to do. That game plan will mean you land on something that makes sense in your mind, but doesn’t make your heart happy. Fire up that imagination and lay out all the ideas on the table, without judging as you go along. You have plenty of creative ideas in that wonderful mind of yours, if you bypass the pessimist and inner imposter. So hold off on editing, keep thinking of ideas until you run out of them.

Better yet, pin them up on a wall on post it notes so you have a wall of dreams you can look at. Something will jump out at you….

The best career change to make is one that pivots into an area that you’re passionate about – one where you WANT to learn more about that skill or industry. This will reduce the friction in the career change. It won’t feel like pushing a boulder up a hill when you know something already about the industry or you’re super keen to learn (so much so that you do it in your free time). So let’s find out what lights you up!

Now, people get really stuck on what their passions are, so I say, ditch the word ‘passion’ and look for your interests, your curiosities. From my experience, these are hiding in plain sight: in the books you read, the podcasts you listen to, basically how you spend your time and attention.

Examples

My interests has always been learning, but specifically about psychology and self-development. So why did I not think of that when I was struggling with my career change?? Because people kept saying to look for your passions and I didn’t really count reading personal development books or watching countless YouTube videos on growth as a passion. It was just what I did.

One of my clients also had a blind spot in that respect too. He worked in the e-commerce industry in retail and really wanted to leave, but didn’t know where. He said he liked travel, restaurants, interior design. But it wasn’t until I asked him what podcasts he listened to that he revealed his big big obsession: the airline industry. He listened to airline industry podcasts ALL the time! But didn’t think to mention it because it was just an interest, not a passion. Like I said, it’s sometimes hiding in plain sight.

He’s now working as an e-commerce manager in the airline industry and couldn’t be happier. And do you know what I celebrated the most? How he had zero airline industry experience on his CV, and he must have beaten so many other applicants who had experience through his zest and passion for the topic (honestly, his eye lit up when he spoke about it) and his strengths of course.

Try this exercise:

• Look at your browser history (yes, really!).
• What topics do you find yourself reading about when no one’s watching?
• What YouTube rabbit holes do you fall down?
• What themes do you keep returning to?

These aren’t just random interests – they’re clues to what truly lights you up.

Real People, Real Changes

Need some inspiration? Look at Vera Wang, who didn’t start designing dresses until she was 40. Before that, she was a figure skater and journalist. She used her eye for movement and storytelling to revolutionise the bridal industry.

Or Julia Child, who discovered her passion for French cooking at 50 and became one of the most influential chefs in history.

The common thread? They all followed their interests.

Your Next Steps

Ready to start mapping out your own second act? Here’s what you can do today:

1. Create list of the tasks and responsibilities that you are good at and that you want to do in your next job = these are your transferrable skills
2. Create a separate list of skills you want to learn and tasks you want to do = this is your area of growth
3. List out all your interests
4. Insert into Chat GPT or equivalent to see if it knows of any jobs that match those 3
5. Look through LinkedIn for companies with your interests and see what kind of jobs are out there
6. Look for ways to test-drive your interests (volunteer work, side projects, online courses)

Remember, this isn’t about starting from scratch – it’s about building on the foundation you’ve already created.

You’re not starting over; you’re starting with heaps of hard-earned experience.

Want some extra guidance? Here are three ways I can help.