When I was talking to a friend who was 8-10 years older than me about the changes in my life a while ago, sympathetically she said to me: ‘’My sweetie, you are going to experience the awareness process of being 40 years old… We all have gone through these periods, it’s not explainable without living it.’’ It really isn’t… Some people live this in 40 or 43, some of them around 45. In general, we are the ones triggering ourselves.
Let’s visualize our lives for a moment. At this age, a large majority are married and have at least one child. Children are obliged to study at private schools. An important part of our income goes to the education and socialization of the child. The companies we work with have a social identity based on corporate prestige. We live in a comfort zone by being engineers, experts, managers, directors, general managers and ultimately all of us will receive a salary, by the end of the month. We are even stretching this area a bit more and we have multiple lives exceeding our financial reality.
On the other hand, the companies we work with are experiencing constant change. You stay for 3 years in your current position, or 5 years max, and the worries of the next stage begin to wrap you up even before spending your first year in position. What will happen after my career? You think about it but it’s hard to find an alternative to spend your life. You cannot get out of the comfort zone, the salary you receive at the end of the month, the respect you see in social life according to your institutional position, and of course, the monthly bill you will pay. You stay, but on the other hand, you are making a difference, and the work you are doing is starting to make you unsatisfied. You say you want to do things that will add value to your existence. You like the other possibility, but you are looking at an incredible young generation rushing in, the institution is getting younger and you are thinking about how long you can stay here. You are right in the middle of a change frenzy, you can prefer to sustain the voluntary or involuntary game, you can stay out of corporate life and continue unplanned, just with your own identity. This is a separate crisis, because you do not have the identity of a company to lean on. With the best odds, around 70-80% of people you know can come together with a sympathetic smile, have a short coffee break with you and then disappear. In general, these people are also painful because they are not caring about the people but the profits that accumulated in the business world.
I have been chatting with so many of my friends about it, so I could not do it without sharing my views as a professional who’s 40+ years old.
When I am talking to university students or young professionals, I generally underline two golden principles;
Do not expect institutions to plan your career. You are the one who is planning your career.
Binding to only one company in the business life, the single career period has come to an end. Identify alternative focus areas according to your hobbies and interests.
Now I think that these trainings and instructions have to be made towards the employees, even the managers who are on 35+ age period rather than young professionals. It is very difficult for people who have lost their enthusiasm and the intensity of business and pressuring private life also tough to cope with besides this feeling of confusion. Organizations need to encourage their employees to become more aware of their individual leadership programs and to direct their personal careers by placing them in areas such as self-management, recognition, life goals and values, global trends and future forecasts about work life.
Let’s move to the matters we must handle as individuals… “We are halfway through age 35” as Cahit Sıtkı said, it is an important age for planning life, starting middle and long-term alternative plans. Everyone has a clearer career goal that they generally set for this age. Promoting from department manager to director, working abroad, managing a team, being married and having a child, etc. I think in the first place you need to work on this projected career’s ‘What If Not’ scenario and plan an alternative personal life strategy.
The other topic is getting help… Invest in someone else’s professional support to get to know yourself and manage your life. I think that person should be a mentor in business life, a psychologist in private life or a really experienced mentor-coach support will make a significant contribution too. At least, you are thinking with a loud voice, systematically guided and directed to evaluate and manage your life and listened to by someone. It has the benefit of reducing and dispersing your stress at least. You also get a chance to get to know yourself.
Go deep into a hobby or a topic of interest and start thinking how to make money from it. Like how the civil service has lost its charm in Turkey in the past, nowadays the interest towards being paid in corporate life / work time employment constantly decreases too. It is still a dream for our generation. We are thinking about how to be an entrepreneur while working in future guaranteed jobs is available. This is not so impossible with the development and growth of technology and the sharing economy. Micro entrepreneurship, freelance, shared work, etc. it is possible to earn more money than you think with methods. Just remember that you do not have any additional benefits other than your project income, and you have to think about social security individually. In addition, it is necessary to start small work to be one of the first names to come to mind about this interest.
The epilogue of this writing is from Friedrich Nietzsche; “You must beat yourself ten times a day; it gives you a good tiredness and it feels like opium in your heart.”