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Starting a career at 40


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Any tips? I got married right out of school and have a bachelors degree, but I’ve mostly been a homemaker with some consulting jobs here and there. I started a non-profit twelve years that is doing great ($2mm/yr), and I do most of the cfo and coo duties, but I don’t know if that necessarily translates to other fields. I’m smart, I love to learn, I’m techy (for my age), and I’m good at sales.

 

Most of my friends in my situation are getting part time jobs at their kids’ school or a boutique, but that has subzero appeal to me. But I don’t really know who’s gonna hire me for a professional position either. Basically I think I’m more qualified than I actually am. And I’m in a small city.

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whatever you do, pics on your resume or GTFO.  I started my life over at 40, oh wait that's something different.

sounds like a better paying gig as a COO/CFO of a larger non-profit is a good place to start.  first objective is to simply get hired. then you start the improve your skills, your resume and your career prospects from there.  only caveat to the starting point is many times you get pigeon holed into non-profit and can't leap over to for profit, so be cognizant of that but other wise that's how I'd do it.

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Why not take a salary at your nonprofit? Any other job is going to detract from your time there and would probably cost the nonprofit more than a salary.

$2M+ per year certainly justifies a salary. I don’t think anyone would bat an eye at you taking at least $50K + benefits.

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Do you have a LinkedIn page? I think with your current qualifications at the non profit you could write a pretty good one. Promoting yourself is a art but with the little you said in the first post I think you have a lot to work with. 

Tech companies are looking to hire remote workers right now for all kinds of positions so the small town should not hurt you. I would look at some of those big tech company sites and see what looks interesting. You would be surprised at the breath of jobs they offer. 

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Do you have a LinkedIn page? I think with your current qualifications at the non profit you could write a pretty good one. Promoting yourself is a art but with the little you said in the first post I think you have a lot to work with. 
Tech companies are looking to hire remote workers right now for all kinds of positions so the small town should not hurt you. I would look at some of those big tech company sites and see what looks interesting. You would be surprised at the breath of jobs they offer. 

Yes I do—it’s a pretty much a requisite to getting meetings with donors. I set up some career alerts yesterday.

I may need to just start another company. Working for someone else may not be lucrative enough to make it worth my while with the flexibility I need. Other orgs like mine are often asking me for consulting, but all of my clients up to this point don’t have much money to pay.
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3 minutes ago, harpercollins said:

Also I’m hesitant to brag about all those CFO and COO duties when I’m just self-taught? I have very little formal accounting training. My bachelors is in a completely unrelated field.

Don’t be - in my career I read a ton of resumes and this is more legit then half the stuff I saw people embellish on. Seriously, use your experience and put yourself out there. 

You could start a consulting company, depending on the area there is a ton of need (my wife does some consulting in the finance sector and there is plenty of demand right now). 

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On 3/2/2022 at 11:37 AM, harpercollins said:

 

Any tips? I got married right out of school and have a bachelors degree, but I’ve mostly been a homemaker with some consulting jobs here and there. I started a non-profit twelve years that is doing great ($2mm/yr), and I do most of the cfo and coo duties, but I don’t know if that necessarily translates to other fields. I’m smart, I love to learn, I’m techy (for my age), and I’m good at sales.

 

Most of my friends in my situation are getting part time jobs at their kids’ school or a boutique, but that has subzero appeal to me. But I don’t really know who’s gonna hire me for a professional position either. Basically I think I’m more qualified than I actually am. And I’m in a small city.

 

well, first you have to lie on your resume and to your future employers. You have been running a non-profit for 15 years. End of story.

Get a job with a non-profit.

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What is this flexibility that you need? 

Just need to be free for my husband and kids and my friends. I love to work, I’m not lazy at all, but need to be able to get away to park city with a days notice if the opportunity arises. Or Chicago. Or Nola for the final four. That was annoying to my non profit last year when I ditched everything and flew to Indy for the natty.
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11 minutes ago, harpercollins said:


Just need to be free for my husband and kids and my friends. I love to work, I’m not lazy at all, but need to be able to get away to park city with a days notice if the opportunity arises. Or Chicago. Or Nola for the final four. That was annoying to my non profit last year when I ditched everything and flew to Indy for the natty.

I mean...that sounds more like a planning issue than a being spontaneous one. 

Can you not work remotely? If it's just like a day or 2 then that kind of flexibility is easy. If it's a week at a time at the drop of a hat you need to get a reality check.

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1 hour ago, harpercollins said:


Just need to be free for my husband and kids and my friends. I love to work, I’m not lazy at all, but need to be able to get away to park city with a days notice if the opportunity arises. Or Chicago. Or Nola for the final four. That was annoying to my non profit last year when I ditched everything and flew to Indy for the natty.

Yeah, nobody's letting you do that on a day's notice, for sure.  Better work for yourself.

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In all seriousness, I have a lot of respect for anyone who makes a midlife career change. My girlfriend did that after her divorce. She has a masters in social work from UT and worked in the nonprofit world in her 20s and 30s, until her then-husband worked his way up the ladder in Dell and they decided she would be a stay-at-home mom for their two kids. When he left she had to find a better way to make a living than social work, so she got into the commercial real estate broker business. It took a lot of bravery and resilience to remake a career in her 40s. 

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46 minutes ago, South Austin said:

In all seriousness, I have a lot of respect for anyone who makes a midlife career change. My girlfriend did that after her divorce. She has a masters in social work from UT and worked in the nonprofit world in her 20s and 30s, until her then-husband worked his way up the ladder in Dell and they decided she would be a stay-at-home mom for their two kids. When he left she had to find a better way to make a living than social work, so she got into the commercial real estate broker business. It took a lot of bravery and resilience to remake a career in her 40s. 

sounds like you have been defeated.

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