Is a career change actually easier when you're older or just harder? I'm conflicted.

I quit my accounting job at 34 to try plumbing, thinking life experience would make it smoother. Three months in, my body aches way worse than it did at 22, but I'm way better at talking to clients and showing up on time. My coworker Mike, who started at 19, says I overthink every pipe run while he just gets it done fast. But my foreman told me older guys usually stick around longer because they know what bad jobs feel like. So here's the debate: does starting a trade later in life give you maturity points, or does youth make learning physical skills easier? Has anyone else switched careers at 30+ and found their age helped or hurt more?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley93925d agoMost Upvoted

Oh yeah, nothing says "maturity points" like spending your lunch break on a heating pad while the 19-year-old is doing pull-ups on the scaffolding... real winning strategy there. I switched from desk work to electrical at 36 and my back filed a formal complaint with my knees after the first week. The whole "life experience makes you smarter" thing is great until you're trying to figure out if the pain in your shoulder is just soreness or your body finally giving up on you. But hey, at least us old-timers don't quit after getting yelled at once, we've been yelled at by bosses for years so it just slides right off.

ben43625d ago

OH MAN, I used to roll my eyes so hard at the older guys complaining about their backs and knees. I thought they were just being dramatic, you know? Like, "Come on, it's just work, stretch it out." But then I hit my early 30s and switched from sitting at a desk all day to doing actual physical labor on job sites, and HO BOY was I wrong. Now I'm the guy with a heating pad in my truck and I get it. That whole "life experience makes you smarter" thing is real, but it comes with a price tag of aches and pains. You're dead right about the yelling thing too - after a decade of getting chewed out by bosses who think they're drill sergeants, you just shrug it off and keep working. Funny how the young guys quit over one bad word while we're just like "yeah okay, can I go back to my job now?