Radical career changes of middle-aged professional, technical, and managerial workers in the New River Valley area of Virginia

The specific problem of this study was to determine common characteristics of midlife professional, technical, and managerial workers who have made voluntary radical career changes, to identify positive and negative experiences faced by these individuals, and to identify coping strategies used by the career changer and families of the career changers.

Data were gathered by the participant observation method of qualitative research. Twenty purposively selected career changers were interviewed using semi- structured interview questions. Questions were categorized as follows: personal background, schooling, career history, the career change, and after the career change. The interview sessions were tape recorded. Responses to the interview questions were assembled, codified, and examined for similarities. A profile of a middle-aged professional who has made a radical career change was developed. Excerpts from the profile follow. This individual: (a) is about 43 years old, (b) has worked in the same career for about 13 years prior to the change, (c) experienced no major traumatic event before the change, (d) received no assistance from a "help" agency during the time of change, (e) had few barriers to overcome in making the transition, (f) adjusted to the change with a minimum of effort, and (g) remained financially stable after the change. A major finding of the study was that 17 of the 20 subjects said they were better off psychologically after making the career change.