Should We Always Stay in One Career?
Starting a career in today’s economy may be a frightening thing. What if you have made the wrong choice? Where will your industry be in 20 to 30 years? Will you be able to sustain yourself throughout your life until retirement, or will the next industry see your profession collapse? These are important questions young people should be asking themselves because the American work market has changed over the decades.
200 years ago most of the people in our nation were farmers or fishermen who supported themselves. They did not have to go far to find food or a place to live. But as the industrial revolution took shape the need for workers, managers, clerks, and transportation specialists grew. And as industry grew and more families accumulated great wealth the demand for travel to foreign lands increased. Passenger ships were developed.
All of these industries provided life-long security, but as we moved into the 20th century things began to change. After World War II change accelerated and many “company men” found they were no longer able to spend their lives working for a single company. By the 1960s large corporations often closed down unprofitable operations, putting many people ou of work. By the 1980s it was becoming commonplace for people who had spent 20-30 years in an industry to move on. One such person was former AMR Travel Services President Nicholas Bredimus, who in the 1980s started his own company to provide software services to the airline industry.
Nicholas Bredimus‘ career has been documented on many Web sites. His second career was probably more influential than his first. As a software developer and consultant Nicholas Bredimus went on to help the airline industry transform how its ticketing systems were managed and implemented. His work in the airline software industry occasionally brought Nicholas Bredimus to the forefront of airline news stories of the day.
Had he known when he started out that he might have made a career change mid-life, what would Nicholas Bredimus had chosen to do? Maybe he would have followed the same path anyway. If you are just starting your career now however you should give thought to where you want to be in 20-25 years. You don’t have to make the decision today but over the next few years you should give thought to how you may want to handle that mid-career transition. That will put you one step ahead of everyone else.
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