Saying good-bye to corporate life at 55, after an unplanned exit (Aaron’s story)
An unplanned exit, at 55, turns from a potential disaster into a golden opportunity to design creatively satisfying work - with longevity.
Aaron, husband and Dad to two teenagers, had just heard that his role was no longer required.
The news created an unexpected pause, that showcased his misery.
His knee-walkingly exhausted misery.
Aaron's family had grown used to the leftover human shreds that arrived home each evening after his daily stretch at his tech prison.
And his monstrous commute had drained every last ember of energy from this much-loved family man.
Released from his corporate prison, Aaron's severance package offered a little space. If they tightened their belts, he could take time to work out next steps. Without financial pain.
Running from the giant tech prison felt freeing. But freedom can also feel fearful…if you’re alone and free.
Then fear set in.
He couldn't mess this up.
He couldn't waste the money…or this golden opportunity.
But he didn't know how to do it alone.
He knew who to ask for help, though.
He'd been part of the free Never too old, Never too late Midlife Unstuck community for a while and read regular insights on career design via email.
Click here to find out more about the career design programme Adrian joined.
When he’d finalised the details of his exit, Aaron booked in a call with Lucia.
After half an hour on the phone with Lucia, his worry eased.
They'd agreed that slaying the corporate demon would be hard…but worth the effort.
He took his first step away from feeling stuck. He joined The Fierce Emporium.
Early days in the programme
Aaron crafted his new career dream from many of the skills that he used to love using. Then he layered in the insights and wisdom from the rest of his life into a new picture of how his final decade of work could look.
His dream emerged earlier than others in his Fierce Emporium cohort. Because he'd only buried it in a shallow grave - just beyond his big tech prison.
He wanted to return to the kind of work he used to love.
Before he got swallowed by middle-management hell.
He whispered the dream aloud.
And when no-one laughed, a nugget of an early plan began to form.
A teeny tiny ember of energy fired up in his belly.
Enough to set him off on a learning journey. A self-awareness journey. A technical, educational journey. An experimental journey.
Learning to design his unique path forward.
This learning journey needed to be deep enough to make sure he'd never return to the corporate monster - cap in hand.
The Fierce Programme showed him how.
Results and the future
"My new work feels like a long-term, sustainable endeavour - and that’s simply because I really enjoy it."
Aaron designed his work to feel different - creative, stimulating and energising.
Aaron intensively refreshed his software engineering and design skills - these were key to his dream.
He joined an old friend and designed an app to solve an important problem for small companies.
Through some of the novel, Fierce networking techniques, learned within the Emporium, he also secured an interim CTO role.
This later turned into a full-time role in a small and rapidly-growing, innovative business.
He is no longer worried about the future because he now knows how to find and create career opportunities in ways he didn't in the past.
He feels creative.
He is stimulated by his field of work.
He is excited by the problems he gets to solve on a daily basis.
And learns new things, almost every day.
"I now feel that the next ten years are likely to be interesting, stimulating, fun, and yes - a bit uncertain. But I’m totally cool with that. I see uncertainty as the price you absolutely have to pay in order to get all those other things."
If you liked this, you might like these case studies:
I fear I’ll be in the same position in 5 years - and I’ll just be 5 years older! (Cilian’s story)
When boring became unbearable - a speedy redesign, including results (Joelyn’s story)
So many ideas, so little time - when lack of decision-making gets in the way of potential impact of work (Iona’s story)
Three potential next steps for you…
Book a free 30minute call with Lucia - what have you got to lose?
Not sure you have the time and energy to learn career design - just want to make it happen asap? Check out the one-to-one programme here.
Early days? Toe-dip into the world of career design by assessing your life-satisfaction here.
