Changing careers is difficult, lonely, daunting and expensive. I should know: after a decade in advertising, I switched to journalism in my mid thirties, which not only meant starting at the bottom (one editor helpfully pointed out that I was “the oldest intern ever”) but also halved my pay. It took me four years to catch up.
I pressed on because it was the right move, and it worked out. But there is always a niggling worry at the back of my mind: what happens if my job vanishes? I hope and trust it will not, but news organisations, like many sectors, are in a state of constant disruption. Should I work on a back-up plan?
More of us must be doing just that. In the UK, official data show we are increasingly likely to resign voluntarily. A survey by Investec found more than half of Brits were planning to change career in the next five years. In the US, according to a study by LinkedIn, young workers now switch jobs, though not necessarily careers, four times in their first 10 years after graduation.