Making a career after your thirties is smarter

Do you remember what you always wrote in someone's friendship book as a child when asked ‘what do you want to be later?’. I do.

‘Writer’ was what I wrote. I believe I already made my own magazine called ‘Chocolade’ in the eighth grade, I'm not joking, and since then I've never let go of my love for writing and beautiful magazines. That doesn't mean there aren't still career dreams. And now that I'm almost thirty and still have those big wishes, I sometimes start to doubt. It's what fits my generation. It's recognizable for friends. Shouldn't we have had our own business by now, preferably with a building on the Herengracht and if possible also a small office in New York, where we often have to go to do interesting business with trendy people and expensive coffee to go? That sounds not only cool, it is cool. But yes. I'm still at home. Among the pacifiers and diapers, mind you.

Yet, it turns out you can better wait with all those wild plans in your career until you're a bit older. You don't have to conquer the world in your twenties; you can do that in your thirties too. Or even better: in your forties. According to psychologists, you can actually work best full-time on your career when you're around forty. That may sound intense and late, but it's proven. In those young years, you still have to search not only for yourself but also for your qualities. Each year you discover more about where your passion lies: what do you think about just before you go to sleep? What makes you jump out of bed with energy at seven o'clock in the morning? You learn that when you're young. You learn what makes you happy and especially what doesn't suit you.

According to experts, it's best to start working part-time after your studies. You then have the opportunity to not start having children too late, if you have a partner and want that (sometimes that's just not a party) of course. And also if you can afford it. But this is how you develop yourself: if you work a little less, you also see where you spend your free time. If you have a day off, what do you do then? What are your hobbies? And an even better question: who are you without your job? How do you introduce yourself to people? Exactly that is what you should do later, when you're grown up.

Once you're out of those busy baby years (or out of your busy years without babies), it starts. You know what you stand for, you know what you can do, you've built a network. You know what makes your heart race. Baking cupcakes? Designing your own clothes? Starting a webshop? Go for it. From your forties, it's your moment to shine. Moreover, we are working longer because we are getting older: so you still have thirty years from your forties to set up that fancy business overseas. After that, you can retire in the Bahamas – after all, that's just a short trip from NYC.

So, don't worry if you're not on the Fortune 500 list as a CEO right now or if you haven't invented the new Google yet. Your time will come. And who knows, in ten years there might be a magazine on the shelves called ‘Chocolade’. You never know.