Changing careers after 40 rarely happens because someone wakes up one morning and decides to do something completely different.
More often, it’s the result of months, or even years, of questioning whether the life you’ve built still fits the person you’ve become. The challenge isn’t simply finding another job. It’s finding the confidence and clarity to make a change that genuinely feels right.
To protect my client’s privacy, I’ve changed her name and a few identifying details, but the story you’re about to read is real. I hope it offers reassurance that meaningful career change is possible, even when it feels like you’re too established, too committed or too late to start asking difficult questions.
Meet Sarah (name changed)
When Sarah first came to me, she looked exactly like the sort of person many people would describe as successful.
She was in her mid-forties and the General Manager of the Swiss branch of a global MedTech company, based in Zug. She had an impressive job title, a good salary, international travel and the kind of career that looked enviable from the outside.
She also had a young family, a calendar dominated by quarterly sales targets and regular trips across Europe and to the United States. Like many senior professionals, she’d spent years building a successful career and had reached a position that many people aspire to.
The problem was that it no longer felt like success to her.
From the Outside, Everything Looked Successful
When Sarah first came to me, she wasn’t talking about changing careers.
She was talking about feeling exhausted.
On paper, everything looked successful. She was the General Manager of the Swiss branch of a well-known global MedTech company, leading the sales and marketing function in Switzerland. It was the kind of title many professionals work towards for years.
Yet as we talked, a very different picture began to emerge.
She told me that although she carried the title of General Manager, many of the key decisions were made at the company’s headquarters in the United States. Much of her role revolved around delivering quarterly sales targets while trying to do more with fewer resources.
There was constant pressure to reduce costs because, as she put it, Switzerland was always seen as “an expensive country” within the wider organisation.
The previous year had been particularly difficult. Sales support had been outsourced twice, with Swiss German support moving to Poland and Swiss French support to Spain. While both teams understood their own domestic markets well, they didn’t fully understand the Swiss market or the expectations of Swiss customers.
The result was more pressure, more problems to solve and even greater demands on Sarah’s time.
Alongside this, she was travelling regularly across Europe and to the United States, often trying to juggle business trips with organising childcare at home.
Her eldest child was about to start school, and both she and her husband were beginning to ask whether the way they were living was still sustainable.
Perhaps the most telling thing she said was that she hadn’t lost belief in the company. She still believed in their purpose and the difference they made with their products. What she’d lost was her enthusiasm for the way she was working.
The constant restructuring, relentless sales targets and pressure to deliver quarter after quarter had gradually taken the enjoyment out of a career she had once genuinely loved.
As she spoke, it became clear that this wasn’t simply about wanting a different job.
She wanted a different way of working—and, perhaps more importantly, a different way of leading her life.
Why She Felt Trapped
As we explored what was happening, it became obvious that Sarah wasn’t simply looking for a new employer.
She felt trapped.
Part of that was practical. She had what many people describe as the “golden handcuffs” of a successful career. Her salary and benefits were excellent, she’d worked hard to reach a senior leadership position and walking away from all of that felt risky.
Another part was psychological.
Her job title suggested she was leading a business, but increasingly it felt as though she was managing the consequences of decisions made elsewhere.
The autonomy she’d expected from a General Manager role had gradually been replaced by constant pressure to deliver ambitious sales targets while adapting to one restructuring after another.
The outsourcing of sales support had become a good example of that. Decisions were made centrally, but Sarah was left dealing with the impact on customers, her team and the day-to-day running of the Swiss business. She found herself solving problems she hadn’t created while still being held accountable for the results.
Outside work, life was changing too.
Her eldest child was about to start school, and she and her husband wanted to be more present as parents. Regular travel across Europe and to the United States, once an enjoyable part of the job, had become something she dreaded because of the practical challenge of organising family life around every trip.
Perhaps most importantly, she’d lost the sense of enjoyment that had drawn her into the role in the first place.
She still believed in the MedTech products the company developed. She still enjoyed leading people. What she no longer enjoyed was living from one sales quarter to the next, with every success quickly replaced by the pressure to deliver the next set of targets.
By this point, the issue wasn’t whether she could keep doing the job.
She knew she could.
The real question was whether she wanted to keep living like that for another ten or fifteen years.
The Hardest Part Wasn’t Leaving
One thing surprised Sarah during our conversations.
The hardest part wasn’t finding another job.
It was giving herself permission to imagine leaving the one she already had.
For years, she’d worked towards becoming a General Manager. It was a title that reflected years of hard work, ambition and professional success. Walking away from it felt as though she might be throwing all of that away.
There were practical concerns too. The salary and benefits gave her family security, and she worried about what would happen if she accepted a role that paid less or looked less impressive on paper.
Like many mid-career professionals, she’d reached a point where success had become closely tied to her identity.
When we explored those thoughts together, it became clear that much of what was keeping her stuck wasn’t the role itself.
It was the story she was telling herself about what leaving the role would mean.
Would people think she had failed?
Would moving into a smaller organisation look like a step backwards?
Would she ever find another position with the same level of responsibility?
These weren’t irrational questions. They’re questions I hear from many experienced professionals who have invested years building a successful career.
What Sarah gradually realised, however, was that she wasn’t trying to hold on to a job she still loved.
She was trying to hold on to the identity that came with it.
Once she recognised that distinction, the conversation changed completely. Instead of asking, “How do I keep this career?” she began asking a much more useful question:
“What kind of career do I want for this next stage of my life?”
We Didn’t Start With CVs
One of the first things Sarah expected us to work on was her CV.
Instead, we hardly talked about job applications at all.
It was obvious to me that applying for more roles wouldn’t solve the problem because she still wasn’t clear about what she actually wanted to move towards. Until we understood that, every opportunity would simply be judged against the job she already had.
So we started somewhere else.
Using a Career Lifeline exercise, we looked back across the different stages of her career to identify the patterns that had consistently given her energy, satisfaction and a sense of achievement. It reminded her that she’d begun her career in consulting with one of the Big Four firms, before moving into MedTech leadership. For a while, she wondered whether consulting might be the answer.
Rather than assuming it was, we tested that idea.
She spoke to former colleagues who had remained in consulting. Those conversations were incredibly valuable because they gave her a realistic picture of what the work still involved: long hours, frequent client travel and many of the pressures she was hoping to leave behind.
It was a good reminder that nostalgia can sometimes edit out the difficult parts.
We also explored her natural working style using DISC. One insight stood out almost immediately. Although she’d built a successful career leading sales organisations, her strengths were much more aligned with advising, coaching and guiding others than driving people towards ever-increasing sales targets.
Alongside that, we spent time exploring her values.
Sarah realised she was still prepared to work hard, but not at any cost to her family life. The constant pressure of quarterly targets, frequent restructuring and extensive travel no longer fitted with what mattered most to her.
Like many experienced professionals, she also considered whether setting up her own consultancy might offer the flexibility she wanted.
Again, rather than making assumptions, we treated it as an experiment. She spoke to people in her network who had already taken that route and even developed her own consulting pitch deck to see how it felt.
The reaction surprised her.
Instead of feeling energised, the idea left her flat.
That was just as valuable as discovering something she loved because it stopped her pursuing a direction that looked attractive on paper but wasn’t actually right for her.
By this point, Sarah’s thinking had become much clearer.
She realised she didn’t want to stop leading people.
She simply wanted to lead in a different way. She wanted a role where coaching, developing and supporting others mattered more than relentlessly chasing the next sales target. Just as importantly, she wanted work that allowed her to succeed professionally without feeling she was constantly sacrificing family life in the process.
That clarity changed everything.
What Changed
Once Sarah had a much clearer picture of what she was looking for, something interesting happened.
She stopped trying to find a role that matched the status of the one she was leaving.
Instead, she started asking whether a role actually matched the life she wanted to build.
That was a very different conversation.
A role with a prestigious title no longer felt automatically attractive if it came with constant travel, relentless sales pressure and little flexibility. Equally, she no longer dismissed opportunities simply because they looked like a sideways move on paper.
One opportunity came through her network with a boutique consultancy specialising in the Pharma and MedTech sector.
Her first reaction was disappointment.
The position was only one level above where she left her consulting role twelve years earlier. Before we’d worked together, she would probably have rejected it immediately.
Instead, she became curious.
She spent time understanding the organisation properly, speaking openly about its culture, its expectations and whether the work-life balance it described was something employees genuinely experienced rather than simply something mentioned during interviews.
She also talked honestly about progression. Rather than expecting to walk straight back in at the level she’d left years before, she and the consultancy agreed clear objectives and a pathway to the next level once she’d proved herself.
What struck me wasn’t that Sarah accepted a different job.
It was how differently she made the decision.
Earlier in our conversations, she’d been asking, “How do I find another General Manager role?”
Now she was asking, “Is this somewhere I can do my best work and still have the family life I want?”
By the time she accepted the role, the title mattered far less than it once had.
She’d stopped chasing what looked successful from the outside and started choosing what felt right for the next stage of her life.
The Outcome
Sarah accepted the role with the boutique consultancy.
On paper, some people might have questioned the decision. It wasn’t the highest title she’d ever held, and it certainly wasn’t the move she’d imagined making when she first started thinking about a career change.
But she wasn’t making decisions based on appearances anymore.
Before accepting the offer, she’d taken the time to understand the organisation properly. She wanted to know how people actually worked, how leaders behaved and whether the flexibility and work-life balance discussed during the interview process reflected the day-to-day reality of the business.
Having experienced the gap that can sometimes exist between a company’s messaging and its culture, that due diligence felt just as important as the role itself.
She also negotiated something that mattered deeply to her: a clear understanding of what success would look like and how progression would be measured. Rather than assuming she’d return to the level she would have reached previously, she agreed realistic milestones with the business and a pathway for taking on greater responsibility over time.
Most importantly, she found what she’d been searching for all along.
She was still working in an industry she believed in, but in an environment that better matched her values. She was able to use her experience without feeling that every decision revolved around the next quarterly sales target.
Business travel became the exception rather than the norm, giving her and her husband the flexibility they’d wanted as their family entered a new stage of life.
Looking back, Sarah didn’t describe the move as stepping backwards.
She described it as moving towards the career—and the life—she wanted.
Jane’s Reflection
One thing Sarah reminded me of is that people often rush to find the next job before they’ve really understood what they’re looking for.
When someone feels unhappy at work, it’s completely natural to want the feeling to stop as quickly as possible. That can make it tempting to focus on job titles, salaries or industries before taking the time to understand what’s really driving the desire for change.
In Sarah’s case, the biggest breakthrough wasn’t finding the consultancy role.
It was becoming clear about the kind of leader she wanted to be, the way she wanted to work and the role her career would play in her family life.
Once she had that clarity, decisions that had previously felt complicated became much simpler. She could recognise opportunities that genuinely fitted what mattered to her and let go of those that only looked good on paper.
I see this time and again.
People often want to rush through the clarity stage because they’re eager to move on. Ironically, it’s usually the time they spend understanding themselves that makes a successful career change possible.
What This Might Mean for You
Sarah’s story is unique, but the questions she was asking herself are ones I hear surprisingly often.
Perhaps you’ve worked hard to build a successful career, yet something no longer feels quite right. Maybe you’ve been telling yourself you’ll think about it after the next promotion, the next reorganisation or when life feels a little less busy. Or perhaps you’ve started wondering whether it’s possible to make a change without throwing everything away.
If that’s where you are, I hope Sarah’s experience offers some reassurance.
She didn’t find a better career because she took a huge leap or had everything planned from the beginning. She found it by slowing down, becoming clearer about what really mattered and making decisions that reflected the life she wanted to build, not just the title she wanted to hold.
You don’t have to know exactly what comes next.
Sometimes the most important step is simply giving yourself permission to ask whether your current career is still the right fit for the person you’ve become.
Ready to Explore What’s Next?
If Sarah’s story has resonated with you, perhaps it’s time to start asking some of those same questions about your own career.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before you begin. Sometimes an objective conversation is enough to help you see your situation more clearly and identify the next step that’s right for you.
If you’d like to explore your options, book a complimentary consultation. We’ll talk about where you are now, what’s keeping you stuck and what a successful next chapter could look like for you.
