Commentary: My career race is in the home stretch, here’s what I know

What advice would those near the end of their work lives give those just starting out? Here's what the Financial Times' Simon Kuper would say.

As my generation enters the final stretch of the career race, I’m wondering: What did we learn about jobs, life and money that might benefit someone starting now?First, whatever career you choose will quite likely implode before you finish your race. I trained with local journalists in 1994. Do any of them still work in what remains of local journalism?

The big choice many people face at the outset is whether or not to pursue their vocation. Doing so is a class marker. Few people from poorer families can afford to spend years trying to become, say, a furniture restorer or a novelist. He said that with age, marriage and children, people become used to their income, draw identity from it and cannot give it up. They also come to realise that they’d be unlikely to become decent painters or winemakers if they start without any training aged 37. Anyone genuinely serious about those jobs would have a 20-year lead on them.

Given regional differences in house prices and the rise of remote work, young people today might be smart to take a job with a working-from-home future, then move to a cheap region when possible. A caveat: This strategy could backfire if you ever need to change careers, because the best place to do that is the big city.

One day the career will end, probably either sooner or later than you wanted. Don’t kid yourself that your institution cares about individuals.

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