Thinking About Changing Your Career? Do It Before 50!

The Chicago Sun-Times series on midlife issues concluded with Career change rewarding -- until your early 40s. The key section:

... job experts say that if workers are determined to change careers or go back to school, they should do so by their early 40s.

That's because middle age is the peak earning period in most people's careers. It is the time when workers achieve their highest rank, their fattest salaries, their most prestigious achievements.

"Midlife is when everything converges," explained Bill Olson, president and CEO of MRI Network, one of the largest mid-market search firms in the world. "Employers see that you still have runway. You have experience. You have a lot of savvy based on practical learning."

But Sun-Times reporter Cheryl Reed agrees with what we've discovered and noted elsewhere at LifeTwo:

if you're middle age and out of work, it's more difficult to find a new job.

Unemployment lasts longer as one gets older, topped by people ages 45 to 54, (a) census report said. ... Younger workers possess more current job skills, are more flexible in moving and are paid less than older workers, the census researchers reported.

Those working also may feel the sting of discrimination ...

The turning point at which you become less desirable, according to an exec at one HR company: your fiftieth birthday. Or thereabouts -- the piece says "Most career experts believe that age 55 is the "cliff" -- the point at which it becomes impossible to recover a prestigious position and salary if someone loses a job."

Or figure out how to make it on your own.

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There is also a sidebar with questions to ask yourself if you're thinking about a career change. See the linked article above for the Sun-Times' take on each of these:

Are you tired of what you do ... or the people you do it with and for?

Is this the first time you've felt desperate in a job?

Can your present skills be transferred to a new field?

Do you feel like you're too old to make a change?

Are you ready for the ups and downs of looking for a job?

Who do you know who loves their job?