Acts 1, 2, and 3
You’ve been working for a couple decades or more and had a fair amount of success. You don’t have the same need to prove something that you once did and you’re more financially secure than in the past. Your career is doing great, and yet . . . while you don’t want to retire, you do want something new.
Is it too late to make a switch?
Can you really make a career pivot at your age?
Chances are, you have plenty of time to try something new. Even at the normal retirement age, by U.S. Social Security standards— 65 - 67—a 45-year-old has at least two more decades to contribute. Indeed, 10,000 Americans turn 65 every single day, as the 2020 Census reports. But does everyone even want to retire at 65? Many people don’t. With today’s longevity and improved health, it’s increasingly common for people to want to work far longer, seeking ways to stay actively employed and engaged.
For some, today’s new longevity brings a chance to focus on a next phase of work that gives back to society. A service-oriented second or third act might involve working for a nonprofit, volunteering or even starting a new venture that allows you to harness your experience in an unprecedented way.
Still, while the media is paying a lot of attention to our aging society, as an individual, it can feel a little daunting to step back in order to go forward. But as Yalda Uhls discovered, your years of professional experience may help you see a need that you can fill—by creating a program or stepping into a role that your younger self simply could not have envisioned.
From Studio Exec to Student
Uhls was working as a Hollywood movie executive, and rose to the role of senior vice-president at MGM. When she had children, she decided to move into a more flexible role in the industry, becoming an independent producer, a somewhat common pivot. Uhls also enrolled in a few classes in developmental psychology at UCLA, which she loved.
She decided to go full time, and got accepted into the very competitive developmental psychology PhD program at UCLA. She was 40; the oldest person in her group. A little awkward? Sure. “I was probably older than some of the professors,” she says. But right away, age had advantages. “Developmental psychology is all about kids. I had kids. It was ‘project-based’ learning. I thrived,” she says.
She graduated in just four years and won a national award while doing so. She started giving talks to parents about research on child development, and wrote a book about parenting. This certainly looked like a career transition, and she was engaged and fulfilled.
But her real “ah-ha!” moment and “third act” happened a little bit later, in her 50s.
One midlife transition leads to another
“A couple years after I graduated, I realized that in the world I came from, people making content often want to have a positive impact, particularly for young people,” Uhls says. “Researchers also want to have a positive impact on youth. There were shared values but not shared language. I felt I understood both, and that storytelling could benefit from this research.”
As is often the case with people transitioning in their 40s, 50s or 60s, experience brought a breadth of knowledge that youth could not replicate. “Most academics studying media haven’t been in industry. They’re young. A lot of people writing for youth don’t have kids. They know how to entertain and engage but not to have a positive impact,” says Uhl. But she had all of these things—industry experience, kids of her own, academic rigor. She was uniquely qualified to bring the research to the creators.
She was teaching at UCLA as an adjunct, just one class a year. That gave her an institutional affiliation with 501c3 status, which she needed to pursue grants. In 2019, she launched the Center for Scholars and Storytellers, a nonprofit think tank bringing the research on children’s mental health, diversity and inclusion to TV show writers, movie studio execs—basically anyone involved in making entertainment for young people.
From there, the idea blossomed. She added a for-profit consultancy and currently has six employees. One service they offer: bringing people together to create solutions to combat a specific problem, such as writing a tip-sheet for a TV writers’ room about fighting male stereotypes by creating male characters who are tough but also kind and vulnerable to other men.
Today, The Center for Scholars and Storytellers runs workshops with Disney, YouTube, Warner, Activision, LionsGate, Mattel and Nickelodeon. “I believe that storytellers know how to engage. Academics know how young people thrive. When you bring them together, you’re creating content that engages a lot of people and has a positive impact.”
While she relied on her own industry contacts to get clients originally, people move around a lot in the world of entertainment and young people constantly arrive. Today, clients come through referrals, reputation, and continued networking. “I think they come to us because I understand the entertainment industry,” she says.
Uhls said that she hadn’t realized how much her past would benefit her present when she made the first big pivot to pursue a Ph.D. “But it all applies so much in my new role. My ability to learn how to pitch things and tell a story applied to science. Research takes several years, movies take several years. You have to manage a huge group of people in both roles. I had thought, ‘Oh, all I ever did was read scripts.’ Now I realize that everything I learned can apply to a new thing.”
Uhls advice for other would-be second or third-act-ors: Consider volunteering in an area that interests you, something she did throughout her own transition. And don’t underestimate the power of your past. “We tend to go, ‘Oh what do I know?’ Recognise that all the skills you amassed are useful and can apply to a new career. There are probably more similarities than you think.”
Age brings other benefits when it comes to crafting a long and rewarding—and potentially winding—career. You probably have a network of mentors and mentees to tap for ideas and connections. You’ve mastered the art of stamina. You know how to set boundaries (or you understand the value of doing so, if you didn’t always succeed at this in the past). If you have children, they’ve likely become self-sufficient or are on their way to doing so. In other words, whether you’re 40, or 55, or 67, there’s no time like the present to reinvent your career.
