Changer de métier après 40 ans : parlons-en !

Good evening, my friends. A lot of the questions I get on WhatsApp, which I share with you regularly, are about retraining. I want to change. Sometimes after 5, 10, 20 years in a career, people want to change completely. So what can I tell you about this? I know that this is a time in life when we start to consider these things. I know that it is a stressful time, full of worries and all that. So today we are going to try to address this question in depth. So first of all, if we want to change, it is because things are not going well. Why is it not going well? Sometimes it comes from us, sometimes it comes from the market. But suddenly we are at odds in our career. People contact me. Here I am, I am in the bakery. I am tired. I can't work nights anymore. It doesn't pay well, I am struggling less and less and all that. I absolutely have to do something else. You see, it's a totally legitimate question. Now, the next step, the next leap. We can't make any mistakes.

Why?

Because we're at a delicate time in our lives. We can't make a mistake when we make the leap and then we end up in a void. That's important, especially since I often see that people who want to change careers are because they were initially given the wrong direction. We have to admit it without it being a criticism. It's not just us. It's not a question of ego or anything. Sometimes people have chosen the wrong path at the beginning because when we dig a little deeper with them. Why did you choose that? I don't remember. Because a guidance counselor told me, because I thought I got to university with friends. What did you take? I took that. Well, I'll take it like this, too. We'll be together in the lecture hall, and then people find themselves in a less than brilliant situation years later. So the choice of retraining must be taken much more seriously than the initial career. Another thing, really, the most important question is, should we retrain? Because when we advance in our career, we have to think in terms of roi, return on investment. We invest time, money, we pay for training efforts. And at that point, well, we want to have a return. Because what we don't want is to just spend all that and then stay exactly at the same point. So the question is, do we have a hero in our career? Well, the problem is that very often we don't have one. Very often it doesn't make sense. If I give you an example of a path that doesn't make sense, I was talking about A divorced mother with children, all contacted by a school salesperson. There you go. You, you can become a data analyst. The industry needs, I don't know how many millions of data analysts. You take out a consumer loan or something, you pay it off, and you'll see in six weeks you'll have a job. The problem with that is that there are a lot of people who are trained in a hurry, who arrive in a market and they have absolutely no future prospects.

Why?

Because you always have to look at the bar, so you think in terms of investment. You have to look at the bar for entry into the field you want to target. If it's a field that requires a 15 year degree, you can see right away that very few people will be able to access it. I'm taking the extra example. I set a 15 year degree just to give an extreme example. Now you can see that if you have to pay €1,800 and spend six weeks somewhere, you can see that anyone can do it. So what's going to happen is that you're bound to do it. If you do it, you're going to end up with a lot of people who were told the same story and who six weeks ago had this wonderful idea, and today they're all looking for work like you. So you can see that the entry bar is so low that the probability of having a return on investment is extremely low. So very often, very often, if you have to invest time, money and effort, it's better to spend it in your field of activity. That means improving where you are. You have to think about it without prejudice or bias. You can't say, no, I'm absolutely going to change. No, you have to ask yourself, what do I want to change? Is it the title of my job that I don't like? Or do I not like this particular employer? Or do I not like working with this team? Or am I not paid enough? In fact, you always have to ask yourself what I am trying to avoid and what I want to achieve. If I leave a difficult job that pays the minimum wage to go to another difficult job that pays the minimum wage. But for two I have incurred a debt for training using. You can see that it is useless, that I am just wasting my time. I am just going around in circles. So in these cases, you always have to think about finding the right direction. It could be that direction in the same field that we are in. Sometimes, of course, you have to be imaginative. You have to get help. You can do it on your own, but ideally you should get help I particularly recommend a link that I will put in the comments of the video. The partner of this channel who reads them, they are based in France. They can help people who are asking themselves questions, who have doubts, who are looking for support for a professional retraining. They also help people who have lost their job, who are looking for a job. But they are also very good at retraining files. In some cases, their support can be fully covered by France Travail. Tell me more. The link is in the description or the pinned comment. But what I want to say is that this decision is critical and what I want for you is a return on investment. And I also want, and this is very important, credibility in your career change. I have seen successful retrainings and I have seen unsuccessful retrainings and I can give you examples. Look, I talked to a guy, I think he was in welding, something like that, a manual and arduous job. And then what did he become? I became a programmer. I generally advise against saying programmer. And anyway, how do you go from welding to programming? You see, it seems weird if I just tell you like that. It doesn't seem like it's going to go very far. However, it was an extremely successful conversion. What did he do? He discovered. I don't want to give too many details because these are people who talk to me. They allow me to talk a little bit superficially about what they did or their career. But I can't go into detail, but I can tell you two or three important things. He was in welding, right? Tired of welding after a few years. So the guy is pretty young, you know, he was under 30, so he spent a few years in this field. Then he wanted to become a programmer.

So be careful.

Be careful. Where most people go to a six week school, learn Java and then end up in a market that is saturated by Indians anyway, and not by relocation to Bengaluru and others. He did something else. He discovered that in certain industrial niches, in certain industries, there are certain programming languages that are extremely rare. It's not that they're extinct. I might say that they're extinct because they'll still be used in 20 years. You know, industry, industry is very slow. I've worked with German car manufacturers, for example, and sometimes you're really surprised by what you can find there. That means even today as I record this video, you won't be surprised if you find, I don't know, machines running on Windows 2000, 2008 or things like that. They have no problem. Sometimes they use really old but robust stuff and they use it for decades. So he looked into it in detail then, mind you, he was a welder. So he started to get curious. He looked around him, he works as a welder in industry. He saw that some of the programming languages they use to program machines and equipment and everything are extremely rare. Not very well known, very few professionals master them. And he said to himself, I'm going to become one of them. And so what did he do? He spent two years, not six weeks. He spent two years training himself, partly by self taught, partly through paid online training and all that. In the end, not only did he manage to quit his job as a welder to become a programmer, but then you're going to say, yeah, but that lacks credibility. Yes, someone might say that. Because one of the big problems for people who do, what do you call it? I'm talking about the words who decide to retrain in something else, redirect themselves in something else, make a professional change is credibility, right? Ah, I was a baker for eight years and suddenly, boom, developer is no longer an option. You see, when a recruiter comes across a resume like that, well, they'll say, I don't see the experience, I don't see the background, there's an inconsistency. And you know, unfortunately we have this problem with a lot of recruiters who are a, who are not very, how should I say, very. I say people, you see, they're not very open minded people and as soon as they see a background, they look at the academic level, the plan, the experience and all that. They feel like what they want to see is that your entire career, literally since birth, your entire career, your studies, all that should logically flow into the position they have. If they see something in the career path that seems irrational to them, well, they don't want to continue. By the way, let me tell you something. I read the other day about a guy who was looking for a job. He got to the interview and the guys told him, there's a gap in your CV between 1997 and 1999. They went back almost 30 years where there were two years missing. So you see, sometimes you can come across little corrections of that level. Yes, but what's the strength of this guy who changed career path? What's his strong point? The strong point was that he trained in something rare. Because when you have a rare training, impossible to find professionals at that moment, when you give your cv, they will look at you differently. Then he will say, wow, have you seen this cv? Call him, call him, call him.

Why?

Because yes, we know that he was a craftsman bolter before. We know that he drove buses. We know, we know, we know, but we don't care. Yes, hello. Oh yes, your career path is original. Yes, it is original. But hey, I decided to change. I have already done open source projects, I already have super ops. I am very active in all that. Yes, I master that. Yes, of course, of course. I have already done stuff. Look, here I am. And so at that point, at that point the they are more open and the guy, he found a job, he managed to significantly increase his salary and all that. And there you have it. He even got great working conditions. So just to tell you that you can retrain, but you shouldn't do it in the ordinary way. You shouldn't do this retraining that millions of people do. I'm a data analyst, you know, data analysts practically every day. I've already had people contact me saying, yes, hello, Aldo. I just finished a data analysis training course and I can't find a job. I have bad news. I mean, there are millions of young people out there today who are selling them data analysis training courses and they have the impression that companies spend their time recruiting masses and masses of data analysts, which is not true.

Okay.

So look, you can do it in six weeks. Yes, but that will add another brick to a building that is already under construction. In your career, it. But starting from scratch with a brick that took six weeks to build makes no sense. So another thing, another thing too. Ah, always, and this is a big problem is that for example, you are 40 years old, you have worked for 15 years in a field you have reached, you have reached a certain salary. It is not a huge salary, because in any case you want to change. If you had a big salary, you would not want to change, but you have a salary that you have obtained after a certain number of increases over the last 15 years. Now if you make a conversion to a sector that you do not master at all and you agree to become a junior in that sector, it will be difficult.

Why?

Because you will go back to treatment, you will go back to the way things were. Secondly, the sticking point is that what you don't want to do is end up with juniors. That means, let's say you're 40 and then you're going to do some training, you retrain, you start looking for junior jobs and you're going to apply. The problem is that employers ageism, I'm telling you, it's discrimination and everything. Yes, but it's quite universal. And I can tell you, we haven't even started to fight against it. That means as much as you look at discrimination today, we're increasingly aware of it. Companies train their law enforcement officers and everything. We're trying to do the same. I mean, on paper, in reality, it's a disaster. But while there has been progress in this area, there is one discrimination that even if it is not technically legal, there is not even the beginning of a solution or even the beginning of an age. Age discrimination, I would say, is the most normalized discrimination today. This means that if, for example, you arrive and there is a junior position, I mean, the guy is 40 years old. Well, he wants a junior position. He wants a junior position. I mean, he has just started a career. Well, let's give him a chance. No. The majority of employers, almost all of them, will say no.

Why?

Because when they receive the CVs and candidates, they will say to themselves, well, this one is 21, this one is 22, this one is 23, this one is 41. I can say that the guy in his 40s is already excluded at this stage. He won't go any further in the conversation.

Why?

Because he thinks that young people are no longer malleable. They're not going to take time off because a child has a fever, or they don't have custody of their children and their mother didn't want to give them up or things like that. They don't have that kind of story, you see. They have a simple life. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, just in parentheses, I'll give you an argument that might help you. Look at the bosses today. When I talk to them, many have problems, the opposite of what I just described. It means that they had a very positive bias towards young people. They tended to discriminate against older people. Except that today they have problems with young people. Yeah, it's really serious. Many young people consider it a privilege to come to work in the morning. If I come to work for you, it's because I've already done you a favor, you see? So we have a lot of young people who don't show up on the first day or who show up on Monday morning. Right? They show up on Monday morning and then at 10am they take their break and disappear. Or sometimes on Monday morning, the first Monday, they're supposed to start their shift, they don't show up. And it's the mother who calls in the afternoon to say, I'm sorry, he won't come. He didn't want to call you. Well, he's a bit shy, but he tells you he won't come.

Okay?

I even saw a young person recently. Honestly, I don't want to start a generational war. That's not my goal. But I'm just giving you a little bit of what employers are faced with. Uh, an employer told me the other day, there's a young person, he came for an interview. There was a misunderstanding about the hours, the date, all that.

Okay?

There's a secretary who kindly says, listen, the boss will be here tomorrow, so if you come tomorrow, I'll set you up with him face to face, and you can have your interview tomorrow. And do you want to come tomorrow at 10am and what does he say to him? I'll come if I have time.

Okay?

That's a job seeker. I'll come if I have time or I'll come if I want.

Okay?

So employers, on the one hand, they prefer to look for young people, but on the other hand, they're also struggling with young people. So sometimes, sometimes they see people who are a bit mature, a bit stable, people who know what they want, people who have already had experience, who already have a career, who know how to respect a job, who know how to keep a commitment. Sometimes that can replace everything else. So don't hesitate to play on that. You shouldn't, you shouldn't. How should I say it? You shouldn't look for yourself. Because sometimes, look, there are characteristics, and I see this often when I talk to people, there are characteristics that we have. For example, you're a woman, for example, you're a man, or you're tall, or you're short, or you're 25 or you're 60 or whatever. Do you know what I mean? But sometimes you have an apprehension about a characteristic that can't be changed. And sometimes people try to hide that or keep it quiet or whatever. You have to use everything that can't be changed. Maybe if you read it differently, it can become an advantage for you, what I just told you. Huh? It's true that if you're young, well, you'll get there by putting forward your motivation, by putting forward the fact that you have cutting edge studies, by putting forward that you have all the faith of youth and etc. Yes. Well, that's good. You see, you can sell it like that. But if you're not 25, don't come dressed in sneakers and then with a skateboard under your arm to make yourself look younger. No, don't do that. I mean, at that point, accept that you're older, in a position that's usually open to younger people. But this time, try to sell your maturity, your stability, try to sell your experience and all that. So you see, it's important. It's important to say it. So now I was saying roughly, the problem will be this. We'll be going back to treatment. Because if you have a life, well, you have a standard of living that goes with it. If your salary goes back by 30% or, well. Well, that's going to be a pain. So it's essential, isn't it? It's essential to make sure that you don't go backwards. That means if you make a professional conversion, it's to go towards the top is not to go down. It's not to live life upside down. It's not to go back to square one, right? And then play again, go back up the boxes for 10 years until you reach your salary, your last salary, your. You know, that doesn't make sense because if you look at the loss of earnings, huh? If you look. If, for example, you advance for 15 years in your career and then you return to a salary that you had 15 years ago and then you take another 15 years to go back up, we can show with a sheet of paper, a pen, a calculator, taking everything into account, that you will probably never make this conversion profitable, that you will reach here at the end of your career, that is to say, at your retirement, without ever having validated, without ever having had a return on investment. So what if there is something on which there is no rui? Well, you shouldn't do it. You just shouldn't. That's it. So I'm giving you some food for thought in this video. I'm not giving you an ABC guide. Do step one, step two, step three. I'm raising your awareness. I'm giving you some angles to think about, because it's a decision. You're the only one who can make it. You're the only one who can make your decisions. Go or no go. I want to feed you. I want to put wood in your fireplace. I want you to know whether it's worth it to start or not. But personally, in most cases, I recommend doing something that continues what you're doing. That way you can take advantage of what you're doing, of your experience. I'll give you a simple example. At one point in my life, I made a career change. But not with a big smile, with a little smile. Let me give you an example. I was working in data storage. I was in data storage for a very long time. Then I wanted to move into cyber security because Cyber security was starting to become a very interesting, very sexy keyword for companies and all that. So I wanted, as they say, I hate this word, but I use it to pivot. I wanted to pivot to cyber. So you can see that I didn't start from a field or a vision of technology. These two fields are completely separate. You see, on the other hand, they are still in continuity. They are evolving. I'm still in it. And of course, when you do data storage for companies, there is a strong layer of cyber security because you don't want the data to be stolen for people to be able to access it. You don't want the integrity of the data to be compromised. Hey, I've already. We talked to people whose data was encrypted by viruses, okay? We ask them for a report. So data integrity, data confidentiality, okay? And we want the data to be available so that we can access it. We had clients from banks, for example, when one of their customers is at the supermarket, he puts his card and his pin, and whether the transaction goes through or not, well, the data link to the account was stored on machines that we provided and that we managed for the customer. So you see the importance of what we call the CIA triad. So the triad is data. Data integrity. Availability. Data availability. So you see, you see the triad, this triad was our daily concern in data storage. And this triad is also the one that defines cyber security. So you see, through this triangle, I was able to go from one to the other. But you see that there is a break. Yes, but at the same time a continuity, because the concern was exactly the same. And so I was able to work in cyber security for many years afterwards.

Okay?

So always pivot, but ideally it's like a boat. Well, making a 30 degree turn is much easier than making a 90 degree turn. So try to take a turn.

Okay?

I don't know, if you're a baker, you make bread, maybe you do pastries, maybe better, I don't know, I don't know the field, but maybe you do pastries, it's better. Or maybe you manage a bakery and then one day you become a programmer and you program software or a management tool, right? And you say, well, here it is. Now I offer you a SaaS, a software as a service. It's called Easy Boulangerie. And then when you log in to Easy Boulangerie, you can, you put your employees, you put your suppliers, your orders, your stuff, your customers, all that. And then all that exists under an interface that allows you to very easily manage Your stocks, manage your orders, build customer loyalty, offer discounts, etc. You see, and you say I put all my know how into this. There you're in the process of. You've seen that you're pivoting, right? In practice, you've gone from the one who had his hands in the mess to haven't you to the one who's programming. You've seen that you pivoted when I'm sleeping, but you can't see it. You see it's in continuity. So always there has to be continuity in your narrative. When people listen to you speak, they have to feel that it flows naturally. So you can pivot in your career, but you can make it invisible or make it logical or make it in continuity. So that's really it. You have to have what we call a personal story. A story that. Because today everything is based on stories, you know. So you have to have a personal story. That means that when you talk, you talk to a recruiter or a manager or someone else and they listen to you and they will find that, yes, what you are saying makes sense. It doesn't have to be logical, but you can always twist it. You can always look at it or put it from an angle where suddenly it seems obvious. Ah, for your personal branding and crafting your story, Kelu's, whom I told you about at the beginning of the video, can help you. So, my friends, there you have it. I think I've covered a lot of points again. I didn't want to do something like, well, let's start with the academic stuff. Point 2.3. I'm sharing my experience with you. I'm giving you raw data that has been partly analyzed, but I want it to be adaptable to various situations. So that's why I didn't put a rigid framework on the video on purpose. It's longer than usual, of course, but it's just us. There's no upload limit on YouTube. And I know that when people are looking to make the switch from one career to another, I know that the decision is very difficult. In any words, any shared experience can help in that direction. Thank you, my friends, for watching this video so far and I'll see you in the next one. And good luck with your switch. See you soon.