Women who pivot: Why I started a new career at 49 | Canada Voices

Unroll the parsley from the damp paper towel. Place spice jars in the order they’ll be used and angle toward the camera. Turn the pan to medium and place the purple knife beside the cutting board.

It’s 9:55 a.m. and we go live at 10. I’ve been prepping for three hours and the next 15 minutes will be the most intense moments of my day as a food stylist on The Good Stuff with Mary Berg. It’s a wild rush and a complete joy.

Little more than two years ago, at this hour you would have found me hunched over a laptop in a chilly office, experiencing major burnout as an editor on a big grocery retailer’s marketing team. I started my career as a magazine editor and worked happily for 15 years before leaving publishing for content marketing in 2018.

There were bigger budgets and lots of creative opportunities, but the intensity and urgency of my work steadily increased as my confidence and sense of purpose plummeted. I left when my employer greeted me back from a health leave by explaining they’d eliminated my job.

Transitioning from that moment to where I am today was sticky and scary (and, it must be said, could not have been done without my partner’s solid income) – but those feelings were short-lived, and I have never looked back.

Every day I make a new recipe and sharpen a different skill. I feel energized even as my 49-year-old feet, neck and shoulders howl. I laugh all the time – TV people are fun – and I fall into bed not exhausted and full of dread, but happily worn out. As a dear friend who recently pivoted from communications work to health care said: “Work is way too long, and life way too short to be miserable.” And they became a nurse in the cardiovascular ICU.

“More than ever, women are seeing that time is finite and we’re less inclined to work out our last 10 years feeling lukewarm and then maybe get a part-time job doing something we love after retirement,” says Tess Singer, a certified career coach and consultant in Prince Edward County, Ont. The reasons women pivot careers are vast. It might be because we’re more protective of our post-pandemic work-life balance; we’re peri- or menopausal; our children need less while our parents need more; we’re experiencing burnout from all of the above.

Put another way, fellow pivoter Carmelyn Swan says women of a certain age adopt a more carefree attitude when they’ve had enough of the patriarchy, their relationships and controlling corporate employers. Swan made her pivot following years of working in corporate brokering and procurement and a painful divorce.

“At 52 I got OSAP and went back to school,” she says. Today, she’s a registered psychotherapist practicing in Winnipeg, Man. “It’s a huge risk, but when you’re miserable and burnt out, there’s not a lot to lose.”

It used to be that those who walked a straight line from school to career were envied. Today, career change is relentless and pathways abound. “There’s so much more nuance to employment,” Singer says. She gives the example of a woman in Prince Edward County who left her corporate media job to start a now-thriving infant sleep consultancy after hiring one herself as a new mom. “There are specialities that didn’t exist 20 years ago – sleep coaching, career consultant, design work in physical and virtual spaces,” Singer says. “There’s more possibility and accessibility these days.”

My path to food styling wasn’t premeditated, but in hindsight I was inching my way there throughout my career, moving from health editing into food and recipe content, planning photo and video shoots and working on sets among photographers, prop and food stylists. I’m a devoted home cook and I grocery shop for fun. Even though I am new to this job, I bring all of the knowledge, skill and passion I have nurtured over decades.

“It’s never starting from scratch when you’ve got 20-plus years of work experience behind you,” Singer says.

Sandy Johnson, a career strategist and executive coach in Toronto who pivoted from a career broadcast media in her 40s, puts it plainly. “You know more than you think you do. Many clients say to me, ‘I’ve always wanted to do this, but it’s too late now, I don’t know enough, I don’t have the skills.’ I am a really firm believer that none of that is true.”

On a set of younger stylists and crew, I often joke that I’m a mature student, like the keeners back in my Psych 101 lecture who did the readings and asked questions while I slunk low. I get it now: I am eager and cheery because I’m doing something that genuinely lights me up. “All our experience, our failures and perseverance create humility,” Swan says. “You’re humble because you know there’s a chance you can fail, but that doesn’t stop you – and that to me is wisdom, that humility and courage to do it anyway. I used to say, I did it scared.”

If you’re considering a pivot, career coaches insist that networking and research (especially job shadowing, if you can) are key. “Don’t keep it to yourself. Start talking about what you want to do and chances are there will be somebody, if not many people, who will say, ‘I can help you with that’ or ‘I know you can,’ or ‘You should talk to this person,’” Johnson says. “You can’t predict where your help is going to come from.” This describes my own journey perfectly; I knew a handful of the right people who were willing to bring me in.

I am obviously a big proponent of the pivot. I still have giddy pinch-me moments and I feel exceedingly proud.

“If anyone is looking for a sign or a reason, a moment of truth or a bit of evidence: it can be so rewarding,” Singer says. “When you decide to make that shift, it’s going to be abundantly successful because you’re getting closer to your true desire and passion.”