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Tips For Seasoned Professionals: How To Reinvent Yourself For A Second Career

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Am I too old to reinvent myself? For the past year, I’ve been touring around the world in support of my book Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, and that’s one of the questions I’m asked most frequently. It may seem like reinvention is a young person’s game; no one bats an eyelash if you want to change careers at 30, but things become more precarious when you’re nearing retirement age. Who would be willing to hire you in a new field, or for a new type of job? Will people think you’re over the hill? And how will they respond to a seasoned professional who, nonetheless, is a rookie in certain areas?

But as I’ve researched professionals who have reinvented themselves, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s possible to reinvent yourself at any age  (click to tweet), whether in large ways such as a career change, or smaller ones, such as updating your skills and broadening your job description. If you’re a seasoned professional, here are four reinvention strategies that may prove useful as you explore your own reinvention.

Leverage Your Unique Background. If you’re entering a new field, there will always be people with more experience than you. Don’t let that deter you: you have broader experience than they do, given your previous career. Think through how your skills translate. The move from legal scholar to wine expert may sound like a stretch, but Lisa Granik – whom I profiled in Reinventing You - realized there were surprising areas of overlap that gave her a competitive advantage in her new field. That ranged from her language training (which allowed her to communicate with winegrowers in Spain, France, and Italy) to her ability to make oral arguments (essential for parsing and describing the nature of a specific vintage) to her practice in writing a dissertation (which was required not only in her legal studies, but also to receive the coveted Master of Wine designation).

Develop Your Narrative A common mistake in reinvention is assuming that other people will automatically understand your transition (click to tweet), or grasp how your previous skills apply to your new role. Odds are, they won’t – so you need to make the connection explicit for them. In Reinventing You, I profile a poet who became a management consultant, and an Army helicopter pilot who became an executive at a top consumer goods company. At first blush, their previous training might look like it had nothing to do with where they ended up. But by thinking through the connections and making them clear (a poet can add immeasurable value to a company that needs to communicate effectively, and an Army helicopter pilot has learned about leadership during enormously challenging times), you can ensure others “get it” and understand your value.

Take a Step Back in Order to Move Forward. Susan Leeds was an investment banker who decided to pursue a new career after taking time off to raise her family, taking a steep pay cut to accept a policy fellowship at an environmental nonprofit. She told me that you have to “accept the fact that sometimes you have to take one step back to take three or four steps forward. It would be incorrect if I said I made a lateral shift: I went backward. But because of the benefit of my years of professional experience in a competitive field, even though I went back, I was able to move forward fast – to leapfrog forward.” Before her fellowship was up, she had become a coveted speaker at major conferences and been headhunted by multiple firms. She went on to land a coveted job running a public-private partnership dedicated to spurring energy efficiency investments.

Prove Your Worth. Because many people assume older professionals aren’t conversant with the Internet, you can shake up those misconceptions by proving yourself an adept online communicator. Of course, you should have a robust LinkedIn profile. But you’ll turn even more heads if you show a real familiarity with other tools, such as Twitter or Instagram, or if you’re an avid blogger.

Professional reinvention can sometimes seem daunting. But if you want to challenge yourself and remain engaged in your career, it may be necessary. After all, nobody wants to spend the rest of their professional life doing a job that’s no longer fulfilling. Instead, think about how to leverage your past experience and develop a narrative that makes it clear exactly what value you can bring to your new endeavor. And if you commit to creating content that demonstrates your expertise – and aren’t afraid to temporarily go backward in order to advance your long-term interests – you’re well on your way to finding a satisfying second act.

Dorie Clark is a marketing strategist who teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of Reinventing You and Stand Out, and you can receive her free Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook