Many executives, particularly men in their late thirties and early forties, have second thoughts about their careers, and consider embarking on new and different paths at this stage of their lives. Often, these executives haven't succeeded in achieving their original long-term objectives. They figure that perhaps it's because they were wrong in choosing their first career paths, and that they would enjoy greater satisfaction if they pursued totally new goals, more consistent with their current interests and avocations. If you are an executive in this situation, one word of caution: in choosing alternative career paths, keep in mind the saleability of your new pursuits in the event that you find yourself wanting to get back to the track you were originally on. There's an enormous risk associated with switching careers if, as so many executives discover, you later wish to switch back. To minimize this risk, consider job titles and organizations that are consistent with your new goals but which still might be saleable in helping you secure a job later on that is more consistent with your original career objective. As a case in point, consider this true story. At age forty-five, the vice-president of an East Coast supermarket chain, whose responsibilities were primarily in the areas of distribution and warehousing, got fed up with the rat race and decided to go into business for himself. He had a number of options. One was to become a partner in a small consulting firm as the firm's expert in warehouse and distribution management. Another was to join a small food broker in his home town. (The salary in the brokerage firm would have been significantly less than he was used to making although there was a promise of equity in the next two or three years.) This executive decided to pursue the third alternative available to him. He went into the real estate business with a local broker and tried to sell both industrial and residential homes. Three years later his agency went bankrupt. The executive was forced to find employment again, his resources having dried up. He decided to try to get back into supermarket management. He had a devil of a time doing so! Why? His experience in the three intervening years were totally unrelated to distribution, warehousing, and food retailing. The sad fact is that either of the other alternative career opportunities could have brought him the satisfaction of being in his own small business. If things hadn't worked out in either of these positions, he would have been far better off because he could have "sold" his experience as he attempted to secure a position similar to the one he left three years before. This executive's search lasted much longer than it needed to, and involved far more explaining than would otherwise have been the case.
Unfortunately for all of us, hindsight is a lot sharper than foresight. If you are so fed up, with what you are now doing that you've made up your mind to switch careers, you may feel absolutely sure that you'll never go back to your original career. But if you keep in the back of your head that the possibility does exist and ask yourself whether the career change is "reversible," you may save yourself such much needless frustration later on.
At the same time, I urge you not to take a position that "compromises" going into a second career just because it's the safer route. If going into a new career is so important to you, try to get the best job possible in this new discipline. Just recognize that you might not be able to get back to your original path. If you are committed to a totally new pursuit, be certain the position you take now provides you with enough satisfactions to have made the switch worthwhile. If you didn't achieve the success you hoped for in your original career path, maybe you won't achieve the success you're counting on in your second career. So the job you take at the end of this search must provide you with sufficient rewards to be happy with it even if you don't manage to make any further steps upward in your second career.
