Sometimes, it’s hard to switch jobs, especially when you are older but flexibility is key to charting a new course.

LAST week, I held a contest on my Facebook page and the winner was allowed to suggest three possible topics for this week’s column. Wong Yoke Wah, a reader from Kuala Lumpur, emerged as the eventual winner after answering three simple questions correctly. Her topic appealed to me most: “Is it possible to change your job/career when you are in your 40s?”

You see, changing jobs is something that I’ve become quite adept at over the years – mostly as a result of circumstances. Although I trained as a journalist after leaving school and have been writing this column for 15 years now, I haven’t always been employed as a writer. In fact, there was a period of 12 years when I wasn’t employed at all. And, this was not by choice.

As the foreign spouse of a Malaysian citizen, it took me 12 years to be granted permanent resident status, during which I wasn’t allowed to work.

Bending over backwards: Swapping jobs will be easier if you are flexible and willing to stretch your limits.

So I went back to college, studied business, had two children, and then took up a creative writing course.

Way back then, I was passionate about writing short stories. But before I could begin the course work that dealt with this format, I had to complete an assignment that required me to write an article for a local publication and try to get it published. That assignment piece appeared in The Star two weeks later. Then, one year down the road and after 25 freelance articles, I was offered a weekly column with the newspaper.

Suitably encouraged by my minor success, I tried to find some other writing gigs, but my contract with The Star made it almost impossible to do that locally. Instead, I began working for a motivational speaker, selling his programmes to multinational companies (MNCs). I have a background in Toastmasters and public speaking, so I entertained the idea of becoming a motivational speaker myself. Unfortunately, I hated making cold calls to the MNCs, and after a few months, I gave up because I couldn’t take the constant rejection and rudeness on the telephone. That’s how good I was at motivating myself to keep going.

Shortly before my 40th birthday, after I’d been writing this column for a year, I came to the sad realisation that my marriage wasn’t working. I wanted out. But in order for me to do that, I needed to find another job to supplement my meagre income from The Star.

That’s when I was offered a job as a relocation consultant with a company that specialises in moving expatriates in and out of Malaysia.

I knew nothing about this line of work, but the woman who ran the company had confidence in me. I augmented my training by learning as much as I could about the industry. The work wasn’t difficult, but the hours were sometimes long and the clients demanding. I would often work seven-day weeks, leaving home early in the morning and returning late at night.

Then the relocation business became very competitive, with more and more companies competing for a diminishing number of clients, and more and more people clamouring for consultancy positions. As I was being paid on a per-client basis, I soon found myself with insufficient funds to pay my bills.

To supplement my income, I began giving English lessons to two Dutch ladies. After each lesson, I would put together the material for the next lesson based on several teaching modules that I’d bought. That way, I managed to stay one lesson ahead of them. Those two women have since moved back to Holland.

And as far as I’m aware, they still speak English with a slight Scottish accent.

During this time, I thought about taking a professional course to qualify as a teacher of English as a second language, but I was offered a job writing about information communications technology. Almost overnight, I had to become an expert on the subject. I communicated with a lot of technology experts through this work – and once again I survived by keeping one step ahead of what was required of me.

Since then, I have had to reinvent myself several times and acquire knowledge on a number of disparate subjects to be able to carry out my work well. I currently work as a communications consultant for a large international agricultural consortium. So I’ve had to learn about agriculture in developing countries, and the impact of climate change and a growing global population, and how the developed world can best help to alleviate the suffering that we see unfolding in places like the Horn of Africa.

I suspect some people get stuck in a comfort zone at work, and are too complacent or afraid to try something new. Even if your work is very specialised, you will probably have skills that can allow you to transfer to another industry. Also, if you don’t baulk at the idea of retraining yourself and learning new skills, and possibly taking an initial drop in salary, there’s no end to what you can achieve.

Flexibility is key. That said, life is short, and work can take up more than half of your waking hours. So, I think you owe it to yourself to enjoy yourself as much as you can in whatever profession(s) you choose.

I’m now thinking that I would like to focus on writing short stories again.

Thank you, Wong Yoke Wah, for a great column suggestion.

● Check out Mary on Facebook at facebook.com/mary.schneider.writer. Reader response can be directed to star2@thestar.com.my.

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