There was once the idea that when somebody found a job, that would be their job for life. These days, it has become the norm for older generations to have worked several jobs and to even change careers throughout their life. It’s estimated Australians will have five career changes and over 17 jobs in their lifetime. Data shows that career changes were also escalated by the pandemic, with 1 in 5 workers, or over 2.5 million Australians, having changed careers in the last two years.

Katherine Riddoch, a mature-aged career specialist, who runs her own executive coaching business, says there is no need to keep a single career for life anymore. In fact, she recommends experimenting with different jobs before easing into retirement.

“I love the idea of late career changes and people transitioning to retirement effectively,” she tells upstart.

Riddoch provides information and advice for mature age workers and focuses on helping those in later parts of their work lives who are seeking a different career path.

“[Work life is for] experimenting … thinking what do I really enjoy?” she says. “When am I at my best? What would I want to be doing in the latter stages of my career?”

Fiona Wells is a senior advisor for the State Planning Office. She says that, in her experience, finding a sustainable job can be very difficult.

“Jobs change or disappear quite often,” she tells upstart. “It’s harder to find something that can pay you enough money that is something that you really want to be doing for a long time.”

Wells is an example of those Riddoch helps and advises. She transitioned from a career in environmental science, to a project officer, a coordinator, and planner. Wells struggled to find a career which could support her and her family. It was not only finances which led Wells to seek new careers, but the desire to find what she enjoyed and was genuinely passionate about.

“[I] found myself working in planning, I wasn’t sure if I liked planning, but didn’t know what else, it was all very difficult,” she says.

Helping people with these difficulties is what Riddoch does within her role, encouraging people to make their own decisions.

“The work that I do in my coaching is giving people the data and the information so they can make empowered career choices and decisions,” she says.

“You can shift your career into something that you want to be doing, rather than something you have to be doing,”

However, not everyone has these uncertainties. John Elcheikh has had about 12 different jobs within his working life, all within the one career of engineering. Influences from family members allowed him to find his interests and passion from a young age.

Beginning in the rail sector, he then moved to designing wiring systems, working in defence, and is now involved in mining and energy projects. Elcheikh remained within the engineering industry throughout his whole working life, however, he continued to learn and challenge himself.

“I always knew what I wanted to do,” he tells upstart. “I was never going to be that person that did law, or medicine and definitely was not interested in accounting or business streams.”

Elcheikh has noticed more uncertainty around future careers in younger generations, though.

“I find in general, younger people are unclear on what they want to do, or do not have hobbies or interests that they want to turn into a career,” he says.

There are many different factors that can influence how someone chooses and finds a career, from tailoring your passions and interests to simply the number of jobs available.

One of the factors that guides people’s decisions is how fulfilling the work is, or, as Wells puts it, it’s “job satisfaction”.

Riddoch has found that sometimes the most common influences can be the simplest.

“In later careers,” she says. “People sometimes just want to do something different.”

Article: Charlotte Lim is a second-year Bachelor of Media and Communications student at La Trobe University. You can follow her on X at @CLim124091

Photo: by Drazen Zigic found HERE and used under a Creative Commons licence. This image has not been modified.