This story on a career change at 40 was in the SMH Careers section earlier in the year. It’s written by Kimberly Gillan and has a strong female focus. When I was 40, I’d had a gutful of working at a university and its staff. So I threw the career helm over and never looked back
As Kate James approached her 40th birthday, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her days of business management and finance were numbered.
“I enjoyed it, but I really felt like I had a calling to do something that helped people,” says James, now 60, who lives in Mount Martha, Victoria.
An article about the rise of life coaching proved to be a light bulb moment, and she put an inheritance from her grandmother towards the course, embarking on an exhausting few years of full-time work, study and child-rearing.
“It put all of us under pressure for a few years but I needed that financial safety net [of a full-time income],” says James, now a career coach and author of Quietly Confident.
“I’m now 60 and I still have a zest for my career and imagine myself working for at least another decade, if not more, because I’m doing something I love.”
Louise Gilbert, leadership specialist and author of Make Work Work For You, says that like James, 40 is a “fork in the road” moment for many people’s careers.
“You’ve gone through your 20s where you’ve often had challenging pivotal career points, and moved into your 30s where you’ve really focused on authenticity and moving into leadership roles; you’ve made your mark and learnt a lot of things,” she says.
“[In] this next stage of your 40s, there’s a real opportunity to explore something new and see what’s possible. A lot of people are stressed – work is not working for them and they’re wanting genuine flexibility and fulfillment. They’re screaming out for more.”
As a result, Gilbert says there’s a big trend of people in their early 40s moving into the professional ‘gig economy’, working as independent contractors (typically) in knowledge-intensive or creative industries.
Former newsreader and TV presenter Talitha Cummins, 44, spent 10 years feeling at a career loss before taking a punt on a new business.
“After I had my kids eight years ago, I stopped TV and was doing a lot of consulting and media training. Nothing really excited me but I was scared to move away from what I knew,” she says.
“I have friends who really enjoy what they do [but] I just didn’t have that.”
But after her uncle, who was in the jewellery industry, suggested she start a jewellery label, she felt a small spark ignite and commenced a diamond grading course to see where it might take her.
“I was in London, studying alongside people who had been in the industry 20 years. I was flinging diamonds on the ground with my tweezers thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is mortifying!’ but I just fell in love with it,” she says.
As her youngest child, Riley, approached her school years, Cummins felt ready to dip into some savings and launch The Cut Jewellery, in 2023.
“Age has been a definite advantage – you’ve had the knocks and the resilience to deal with challenges. I’ve adopted a fairly philosophical approach to things and I don’t think it would’ve been like that 10 or 15 years ago.”