Posted 10/28/2009 - 11:32:13am by David Bank in Encore Nation, Life Planning Network

Bronwyn Fryer in the Harvard Business Review has a vivid account of the psychic (and practical) obstacles to making an encore career transition in this post on the HBR's editor's blog. She asks readers to share their experiences with "career menopause" and how they got through it.

Bronwyn writes:

"I've always loved my job, but for ages I've been feeling something else — call it a longing for greater self-fulfillment — tugging at me. Relatives and friends have had brushes with death, or have died. I, too, have felt the shadow of my own mortality. I've been aching to write The Great American Novel, or volunteer for the Peace Corps, or sing in my own band, or do some other as-yet-undefined-thing — before it's too late.

"I've spent sleepless nights wondering whether I could possibly afford to make a career change — an especially crazy idea in a down economy.

"Those of us in Jethro Tull's "Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die" cohort are caught in a bind. We're working at full-tilt because we have dependents and financial obligations — we can't afford to retire early. At the same time, we're getting tired and thinking of downsizing. We are proud of our well-honed experience and skills, but we're also yearning to polish long-neglected aptitudes or build new ones. Many of us are frustrated and restless."

At the end of the article, Bronwyn supplies the epilogue: "I finally hit on a solution that works for me. I've changed jobs — I'm no longer a senior HBR editor but a "contributing" editor. I love the title. (Hey — I'm contributing!) In my new role I'm off the payroll but working on freelance projects for my company. I'm also diving into new undertakings — volunteering in a hospice, songwriting, and catching up on the part of me that's been ignored for a very long while."

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