Career Advice for Your 30s and 40s

There are a lot of listless midcareer professionals out there. Most younger millennials, those born between 1989 and 2000, feel detached from work: Just 35% say they are engaged, according to a Gallup survey. The figure for older millennials, those born between 1980 and 1988, is even lower: 32%. But both groups beat Gen Xers, only 31% of whom say they feel engaged with their jobs.

It can be very easy to turn inward and feel powerless about this, especially as the job market continues to soften. But if you’re in your 30s and 40s, experts say there’s a variety of ways you can make yourself feel more satisfied and engaged with your career. Perhaps most importantly, stop beating yourself up. “A career is not linear,” says Dennis Deans, Korn Ferry’s vice president for global human resources.

Here are five other pieces of advice for midcareer professionals.

Reassess your career goals.

Many people in the middle of their professional careers have hit the goals they originally set for themselves. Now they aren’t sure what’s next. Others find that for a variety of reasons their early ambitions are now out of reach. Either scenario can lead to professional ennui.

“It’s time to reimagine your career journey,” says Anya Weaver, a Korn Ferry principal consultant. A good first step is to write down a new set of goals. This will help you assess whether you have the necessary skills, or—if you don’t—what type of professional changes you need to make to acquire them.

Slow down.

Many professionals, having raced through multiple jobs and roles in their 20s, feel that’s still the way to go in their 30s or 40s. If they aren’t moving fast, they may feel that they’ve failed or stalled. But experts say that’s often not how higher-level jobs work. To succeed in these roles, experts say, a professional needs time to build relationships, determine which systems work (and which need changing), and show sustainable performance. So it’s OK to go slower. “View these roles strategically, because you need to have some longevity before you can get out of them,” says Miriam Nelson, a leader in Korn Ferry’s North America Assessment and Succession practice.

Learn something new.

Excellence in one niche can be an Achilles’ heel as you rise through an organization. “It really limits what one can do in more complex leadership roles,” says Sarah Hezlett, vice president of assessment science for North America at the Korn Ferry Institute. Consider learning something new. Plenty of skills that have nothing to do with AI, or even with tech generally, can be valuable to a midcareer professional. Many skills can be helpful across a multiplicity of roles, current or future, including resilience, the ability to negotiate, great communication, and data fluency (the ability to use data to solve problems).

Acquiring new skills might involve going back to school, and some organizations will support their midcareer workers in that journey. But plenty of employers have internal development programs. “This is a great conversation to have with senior leaders,” suggests JP Sniffen, practice leader of Korn Ferry’s Military Center of Expertise and Physical Security practice.

Think about moving sideways.

Always move up—that’s the conventional wisdom when it comes to a career. But for midcareer workers, experts say, this approach is actually outdated, and even impractical, since there are far fewer roles the higher up one goes. “Sometimes it’s not up, it’s across,” Weaver says.

Indeed, smart workers can develop a “career lattice” in which they can take roles at the same level—or even lower—in order to learn skills that will pay career dividends later. Such lateral career moves can help midcareers gain additional experience while also potentially making them feel more engaged. Whatever the role, consider asking to take responsibility for the profitability of a company product, team, or brand. “If you don’t have that P&L experience, you’ll ultimately really plateau,” says Moses Zonana, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Technology practice.

Learn how to job-search effectively.

Sure, a job search still involves scanning job websites for open roles, researching organizations, and networking with contacts to learn about positions that may be less publicized. But if you haven’t searched for a job in the last five years, you’ll find that a lot has changed. Midcareers should learn how to tailor a résumé to pass muster with AI-powered application screeners as well as how to come across well in a video interview. Candidates also should determine their must-haves, rather-haves, and absolutely-nots when it comes to pay, benefits, role responsibilities, and working conditions. “Having a compelling vision for what you want, in addition to knowing what you don’t want, can go a long way in making a sound decision for yourself,” says Val Olson, a Korn Ferry Advance career and leadership coach.

Experts also say that midcareers probably need to brush up on patience as well. Searches these days can be particularly frustrating. Plus, companies take an average of 44 days to fill a role, and far longer for higher-level roles, such as the ones midcareer people might want to pursue. 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s career-development capabilities from Korn Ferry Advance. 

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