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Midlife Career Change: Like Dating Again After A Long Marriage
If you’re looking for a new career, you may be wistfully thinking, “I keep hearing about dating apps and professional matchmakers. So wouldn’t it be nice to have a matchmaking service for careers?”
And in fact, over the years, I’ve met many seasoned professionals who expect career services to match them with their soul-satisfying work. They don’t even expect to wait. They expect a match within a few hours.
Lacking a matchmaking service, what do career changers do?
Why career tests don’t make good matchmakers
Some put their faith in career aptitude tests. The truth is, career tests don’t operate like fortune-telling cards. They might be helpful to someone who’s just embarking on a career right out of high school or college.
Once you’ve been in a job for ten to twenty years, you already have a sense of your own skills and talents. You probably know what you like to do (“travel for business but home on weekends;” “analyzing data;” “calling on a new customer.”) You know what drives you crazy (“being micromanaged,” “getting up at 5 AM”).
