How old is too old to not have a career yet?

Post Reply New Topic

...I have none .

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

I'm 24 and still haven't decided what I want to do when I grow up. Does that make me a loser?
Well, I'm not entirely sure. But I do know this much, I have seen and done things and been places
that most people NT or not will never. And it's thanks to my indecision... it's let to interesting jobs.
All I'm trying to say is that's it's different strokes.

I'm 54, and I don't have a career yet.

I have a job, though.

When I retire from this job, I want to pursue a CAREER in transitional assistance for autistic people on the cusp of independence.

Birdie: you're SOARING today!

Yep...me too!

Until a year ago I didn't start a career path despite having lots of work experience.
A friend of mine opened a gallery and pub in the last year and he's moving onto bigger things already (he's in his mid 30's).

I think what is important is not when you start in life but how and why.
There is a lot of passion and skill behind a career. It's not just completing another task or doing another job and taking money home. It essentially becomes your life or at the very least a core part of your life. That's what separates it from other work or jobs.

You don't need a career to be happy, but if you want a career start at a point that makes you happy to begin with and have enough motivation to be skilled at whatever it is you're doing.

I hope that was useful and wasn't too vague but TL;DR is you're never too old.

I wouldn't say any age is really too old. I have a couple of friends who actually went to college when their kids graduated high school and are now having a career in their "second life" as nurses. People are living longer now and the retirement age has been raised, so starting out at a career late in life isn't unusual anymore. I'm 51 and went to college twice but dropped out both times and now that my youngest has graduated high school, if there was something I really wanted to do I'd go back to school and do it. The only thing I can think of that I probably couldn't do now would be medical school. They wouldn't let me in, I'm sure. I'm too old to go through all those years of school and then do a residency and fellowship and then practice medicine. The spot in school would best be given to someone younger with more years of actual work ahead of them. And now, I don't think it's ageism on their part for that.

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I'm also a late bloomer. Won't get my Accountancy degree until next year and have very sketchy job history, with only my internship as relevant work experience in my field. I do wish I'd done the degree years ago.

I'm less bothered by my relatively under-developed career than I am about lack of progress with the opposite sex, which probably echoes what the OP was saying.