ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Ready for your second act? Americans 45 to 54 are leaving one career for something entirely new, seeking meaning, flexibility, and purpose. Job tenure is at its lowest in two decades, signaling a growing willingness to pivot. <\/p>\n
From the comedy stage to the world stage, Volodymyr Zelensky became Ukraine\u2019s president at 41.<\/p>\n
Julia Child swapped copywriting for cooking fame in her 50s. Arnold Schwarzenegger traded Hollywood for the governor\u2019s mansion at 56. <\/p>\n
An \u2018encore career\u2019 isn\u2019t a comeback, it\u2019s a reinvention and it all starts with knowing one thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstand that you are a brand,\u201d said Betsy Gardner President & CEO, Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. <\/p>\n
That means translating hard skills you already have and pairing them with the soft skills you\u2019ve built on the job. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstand what differentiates you from another person who might be your age, race, gender, background, expertise, all of that,\u201d explained Gardner. <\/p>\n
Then move, before you feel \u201cperfect.\u201d Start small, test your pitch, and let the market respond. <\/p>\n
\u201cTry it out with your neighbor. And keep refining that elevator pitch as you keep telling people what you\u2019re all about. It\u2019s better to start than to wait to be perfect,\u201d said Gardner. <\/p>\n
And finally, tell yourself and everyone else, you\u2019re ready. <\/p>\n
\u201cMore often than not, these are incredibly talented people that people are like, well, \u2018I\u2019ll find a place for her if she\u2019s ready because she\u2019s fantastic,\u2019\u201d explained Gardner. <\/p>\n
Because the next chapter of your career could be the best one yet. <\/p>\n
Research shows mid-career changers in their 40s and 50s see an average seven percent pay bump and boost their odds of staying employed longer. And while many worry about the cost of retraining, only 37 percent of successful midcareer changers spent money to do it. Sometimes, your best next move starts with the skills you already have. <\/p>\n
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Bob Walko, Editor. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Ready for your second act? Americans 45 to 54 are leaving one career for something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,180,90964,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-203883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-jobs","13":"tag-morning-show","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}