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[http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/afeffb3e-a43e-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2] As we live longer, retire later and employment becomes less secure, it seems likely that future workers will have two, three or even more careers over their working lives. Yet switching careers is daunting. How do you decide which job? Should you retrain? What if you make a mistake? And where can you find reliable advice? In The Career Changers, a new series, the FT meets five people who have made, or are about to make, a mid-life career leap, to help find the answers to these questions. Sometimes their decisions were deliberate and based on little more than educated hunches. But not everyone changes careers by choice, redundancy often forces a hand. Most of our switchers have adjusted to lower pay. We will catch up with our career changers early in 2018 to find out how they are progressing. Follow their stories at ft.com/career-change. FOREX TRADER TO COSTUME DESIGNER RENY MORSCH, 51 Reny Morsch who is studying costume making at RADA after a career in Financial Services. [http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/410e398e-a217-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2] © Charlie Bibby/FTBecame a forex trader at 21 in Frankfurt, before moving to London in 2001 to work for Deutsche Börse. Ended up working for Eurex. Now studying for a postgraduate diploma in costume making at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reny Morsch could never shake a latent interest in fashion and costume: “Whenever I saw a costume I liked in a film I wanted to make it,” she says. Ms Morsch took costume and fashion evening classes at Morley College, an adult education institute in London, as “entertainment” in 2008. Three years later, she cut her working week to four days to pursue a course in corset-making. On a supervisor’s advice, she attended an open day at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for a postgraduate diploma in theatre costume. She says she had “tears in [her] eyes. This was the place I wanted to go.” In 2016, she was accepted on to the course, which prepares students to make costumes and supervise production wardrobes, primarily for theatre but also television and film. She handed in her notice and dyed her hair pink, something she would never have dared do in her previous job as senior vice-president, business development, at Eurex. As a costume supervisor she will earn roughly a quarter of her former salary. Of course, becoming a student comes at a cost — fees of £6,200 a year plus living expenses. She has saved enough to live for two years. At 51 she is older than her fellow students, but she is sanguine: “I don’t feel old. It’s a positive difference. I’m used to stress.” What worries her most? “Not a lot, really. Excitement rather than worry.” GOOGLE EMPLOYEE TO ENTREPRENEUR THOMAS DAVIES, 43 Portraits of Thomas Davies to go with a Work and Careers piece [http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/1e807c78-a3a8-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2] © Charlie Bibby/FTWorked at Google for 10 years, most recently in London as director of global partnerships at Google Cloud. Left his job this year to set up a technology consultancy business -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With a six-figure salary, Mr Davies felt trapped in a gilded cage at Google, his employer of 10 years. He was director of global partnerships at Google Cloud, selling products to multinationals and mid-sized companies. “It’s hard to walk away from that kind of stuff [money and job titles],” he says. Based in London, he travelled abroad almost every week. He was curious about life off the corporate ladder, so in 2014 he found an executive coach. The experience gave him “time out of the everyday noise to ask myself questions. Career change was something I hadn’t spent enough dedicated time to explore.” He became so enamoured by the process that he decided to train for a year with Meyler Campbell, a leadership development programme, to become a coach himself, while still working for Google. In February the father of three left to set up Temporall, a technology and cultural change advisory consultancy. The executive coaching helped him understand how to match technological change with psychology. He has invested £17,000 of his own money in the business. Before leaving, he made a big effort to network, make contacts and refine his ideas. It took three months, he says, to forget about life at Google — helped by his girlfriend’s ban on conversations about his old employer. She works at Google as a senior manager. During that time, Mr Davies says he would swing between self-doubt and almost manic enthusiasm. What worries him most? “I wake up really early with my mind racing. I used to fight it, but now get up and just write things down or think.” CORPORATE EMPLOYEE TO FREELANCE CONSULTANT KIMBERLEY DAVENPORT, 44 Financial Times Commissioned by Helen Healy Portraits of Kimberley Davenport for a FT feature on people changing their careers. PICTURED: Kimberley Davenport who is now a Freelance drinks specialist at Davenport Drinks Consulting © Zachary Culpin/Solent News & Photo Agency UK +44 (0) 2380 458800 [http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/cd9a29a4-a216-11e7-b797-b61809486fe2] Worked at J Sainsbury after joining its graduate scheme. Made redundant after 22 years in March. Now using her contacts to offer freelance PR and marketing services to the drinks industry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After university, Kimberley Davenport joined J Sainsbury’s retail graduate training scheme. Some 22 years later she was still there, with no ambitions to leave. But in March she was made redundant from her job as marketing and PR manager for beers, wines and spirits when her department was restructured. “I had absolutely no idea. It came as the biggest shock,” she says. The news came two months after she returned from maternity leave (she has two young children). Ms Davenport worried about paying the mortgage and whether she would find another job (her redundancy package was just over half her annual salary). But the deal included workshops and CV advice by Lee Hecht Harrison Penna, the out-placement and career transition company. This helped set her on a freelance path, offering PR and marketing services to alcohol companies and using expertise developed in her former job. While working out her notice she won a contract with the Champagne Academy, a training organisation. It is part-time work, but a “good start”.Things are going well, but she has reined in her spending. In March she will reassess. “For me, success isn’t making pots of money. I’m not doing it for that.” She wants to earn 50 per cent of her old salary, in order to spend 50 per cent more time with her children. If she fails, she will look for a job. What keeps her awake at night? “Worrying where my next job is coming from. It’s too easy to get immersed in the jobs you’ve got and not look forward.” MUSICIAN TO CODER ANTHONY RONDINONE, 33 App University Student Anthony Rondinone in New York City [http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/610a6856-a425-11e7-8d56-98a09be71849] © Pascal Perich/FTNew York-based former professional rock musician then recruitment consultant. Now retraining in technology as a developer and hopes to be hired soon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is not the first time Anthony Rondinone has switched careers. After working as a buyer and planner for department stores, in 2011 he left to tour with Jolly, his progressive rock band, for four years. When his bandmates settled down, Mr Rondinone returned home to New York and got a job in recruitment. Today he is finishing a full-time, three-month course at the App Academy, a college that teaches people to code. “You have to work so much, you have to do something you love. I want to enjoy what I’m doing,” he says. He hopes to get a full-time job as a junior developer in a mid-sized tech company. “It’s a scary thing to do to quit your job [that] pays your rent,” he says. But the allure is creativity: “You get to build something from nothing. It’s a lot like writing a song.” And technology is a growing industry, which he hopes will mean developers are in demand. He does not pay college fees — the App Academy takes a percentage of its graduates’ first year’s salary — but he is living off savings and proceeds from the sale of his artwork, an Instagram sideline. Despite some coding skills, Mr Rondinone found the first weeks tough. “It’s intimidating and the course is very fast-paced. I thought I wasn’t intelligent enough. I felt like an idiot from a state school in the Bronx.” On top of that he was the oldest person there. But he settled in, helped by the realisation that “everyone feels [inadequate], even people who went to the best schools”. What does he find most daunting? “Getting my first job in a new industry.” STAY-AT-HOME PARENT TO LAWYER COLLETTE ALTAPARMAKOVA, 39 25/09/2017 Picture by Charlie Bibby for the Financial Times, Collette Altaparmakova, a change of Career piece for Work and Careers. [http://com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-eu.s3.amazonaws.com/e798beaa-a3a7-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2] © Charlie Bibby/FTFormer scientist with a PhD from Cambridge university in cervical cancer research. Soon to be a trainee lawyer with Linklaters, based in London -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After studying natural sciences at Cambridge university, Collette Altaparmakova went on to do a PhD in cervical cancer research. During that time she had two children, now 14 and 12. Then she had two more, now 10 and eight, and became a stay-at-home parent. “I don’t think having children while a [postgraduate] student is what the careers advisers would advise. I never consciously thought I wouldn’t work. [But] there were times I thought it wouldn’t be possible,” she says. Despite her qualifications, law was always at the back of her mind. “It underpins everything. I wanted to do something hard.” When her husband, a computer programmer, began to work from home she started to think seriously about a career. As a former student she was able to access the Cambridge university careers service, attending employer presentations in 2015. “I treated myself as an undergraduate and went to everything they provided. I was the best customer.” It took 18 months from thinking seriously about entering the workforce to sending off applications. In the meantime, she read books such as Is Law for You? and Know the City by Christopher Stoakes. In the winter of 2015 Ms Altaparmakova went for interviews at law firms for training contracts. “I was very fortunate. Because I wasn’t studying while doing the applications I was able to prepare very well.” Credibility was an issue. “As a stay-at-home mum with a science background, I was asked, ‘Why law, why now?’” In February 2016, Linklaters gave her a training contract. Last year, she did the graduate diploma in law, a conversion course for those who have not studied law at undergraduate level. This year, she is halfway through the accelerated legal practice course at the University of Law in London (a standard qualification). She will start work at Linklaters in March. She does not have to pay for her course fees and has a maintenance grant. At 39, she has a long career ahead of her. “It is my first job and I would expect to start at the bottom,” she says. What keeps her awake at night? “That imposing such a change on my family was the right thing to do. The rest of the time I do believe it is the right thing.” Have you switched careers? Tell us about it in the comments field below. In your comments, please remember to maintain respect for the subjects of this story. You can review our guidelines here LETTER IN RESPONSE TO THIS ARTICLE: In a rut? This is the book you should read / From Christopher Golis, Mosman, NSW, Australia

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