Read the empowering career story of this baby boomer who is struggling to decide among several options for the next step in her career. Also included are the suggestions and resources from the Quintessential Careers team -- for this job-seeker and any other job-seeker facing a similar situation.

by Mary, as told to Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

Mary is a baby boomer who says she has never consistently earned a decent salary. Before her children were grown, Mary says she did not integrate her career and personal lives as well as she would have liked. "I was not career minded, but I was job minded. I was more focused on working less than full-time work so I could be home more." Still, Mary says, "I have an interesting profession even if it does not pay well."

Born in Grand Rapids, MI, Mary grew up wanting to be a mom and to help people. A relative with mental-health problems inspired her current career in counseling. "I chose psychology and mental health because I saw the pain of mental illness that a relative coped with, and I wanted to be able to do something that would help alleviate that kind of pain," she recalls. "I remember knowing this as a young child."

After obtaining her bachelor's degree in psychology, Mary worked as a psychiatric technician. Marriage and her three children followed. "My husband was a minister," Mary says, "so much of my time was spent working in the church and caring for my kids. I knew I wanted to do more than entry-level work, so I completed my counseling degree [master's degree -- MsEd -- in counseling] when I was 41." She is especially proud of having achieved the graduate degree in the top 5 percent of her class while raising her young children, working part-time, and serving in her additional role as a pastor's wife with its accompanying unpaid work.

Mary then worked in community mental health as a child-and-family therapist, operating a wraparound program, which helps families stay together by helping mentally ill or disabled children at risk of being placed out of their homes. Next, Mary was recruited to work for a startup business that provided crisis services nationwide, a job she says she loved. But when she was recruited, she was not ready for it, she notes in retrospect. The responsibilities of her position evolved into contacting businesses using a marketing approach and, she laments, "I was not trained or confident enough to do it." She enjoyed, however, the mental-health-oriented aspects of the job. "I loved supervising our case managers and coordinating crisis responses, as well as writing some advertising copy," she says. "My position was eliminated, yet I was exposed to business, and sometimes I would like to return to business if there was a 'just right' position for me," she says.

After her position was cut, she recalls, "I then started my own private counseling practice and worked part-time as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. I continue to do crisis interventions for businesses where accidents or robberies have occurred." Mary's practice grew to the point where she expanded to full-time, providing mental-health counseling.

With the kids now out of the nest, Mary declares, "I am finally goal-oriented now." She works as a counselor in a college. "I work there full-time now and continue to see some private-practice clients," she says. With this job, Mary's career began to evolve. "To get into a college is not easy," she says. "I started part-time and when [I was] ready for full-time, they offered it to me. The salary is substandard," she says, "but the experience is invaluable." She would now like to work on the academic side at a bigger university, perhaps overseeing an academic support center. She'd like a university job with a better income and more opportunity for professional growth. Another option is to "quit completely and develop and run some sort of business that has nothing to do with mental health."

She is also torn between promoting her private practice or finding a better job. "Do I promote my private practice in which I work mostly with individuals who are experiencing anxiety, depression, relationship concerns, among other issues -- or find a better job?" Mary asks. "I need to make a decision and pursue it. Being ambivalent just paralyzes me and does not allow me to accomplish anything."

"Sometimes I grow tired of working full-time and having my part-time private practice and would like to work just one position," Mary says.

Mary's interest in a business career stems from feeling she has not been financially successful in her current career. "I have never consistently made a salary that is commensurate with my education and experience in the positions I have had," she says. She attributes her under-compensation to having made career decisions based on the needs of her family instead of what was good for her career.

Mary also points to her many career changes as a reason she has not been well paid. She notes, for example, that if she had stayed in community mental health, she would be making a reasonable income now.

"Yet I have gained so much experience," she says, citing her community mental-health background, crisis experience, and vocational-rehabilitation background. "All have influenced the work I do now," she says. "I have worked with many populations and have an interest in those with disabilities," she says. "I have worked with many concerns such as depression and anxiety and also career and job development, which I believe makes me a much more marketable individual. I think the risks I have taken -- obtaining a master's degree as an older person, even all the job changing and applying for positions that I was partially qualified for, then learning in those jobs -- have made my work life interesting.

A Personal Glimpse LATEST BOOK READ Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder FAVORITE BOOK Jane Eyre INTERESTS/ HOBBIES Gardening, reading, learning, traveling FAVORITE MOVIE Walk the Line FAVORITE FOOD Pasta FAVORITE MAGAZINE O magazine BIGGEST THRILL Traveling to Spain by myself PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY "You get what you believe will happen."

Current obstacles include the ageism she faces at 55, and "attaining a decent-paying job that I like." She has also had a good job offer at another college with better pay and a different focus -- on career counseling -- that she turned down because she would have had to move.

"I have taken risks, though, and gotten lots of experience." Mary credits Quintessential Careers with helping advance her career. "Your tips have helped me a lot. I tell my students about QuintCareers. I have gotten three really good job interviews using your tips. Now need to just get the jobs."

If Mary had it to do all over again, she says she "would have pursued training as an archivist and learned how to store, restore, and care for antiquities, art, and textiles." Or she would "have a travel business with coats and other items designed by my designer for travel and all sorts of travel-related themes."

Mary is not without regrets. "I wish I was more aware of all the possibilities earlier in my life. I regret not continuing on to graduate school right after college, but not many women did that back then. I have only a master's degree and got that when I was 41. I am limited as to what I can do. I love to learn, and I know having a Ph.D. would open up many more doors for me. I wish that I had gotten my Ph.D. right away."

For Mary, the best kind of boss is "encouraging, challenging, [does] not micro manage, and is available and clear on roles, while the worst kind of boss is just the opposite: A micro-managing individual who is very unclear on roles and tasks and not available when needed to review your work.

Mary's career advice to others? "Make smart decisions, and don't let being laid off or let go discourage you for too long. Balance as best you can family and career. Use as many resources as you can. You don't have to go to every event your child is in, and you will still be a good parent. Your kids don't have to be in every activity. Notice all the careers and jobs that people do. When you are watching TV, listening to the radio and hearing the news, [observe] what kinds of work people are doing. I have always liked working with my hands and thinking and problem solving. If I had paid attention to the work that was going on all around me, I might have realized all the possibilities. There are so many more careers that might use those skills and interests then you might realize. If you notice, then you might be able to get the training you need to obtain the positions of interest to you. Don't not go to graduate school or other training because of the cost. You can make the money to pay back the loans. There are foundations, and many programs have assistantships."

"Sometimes I feel as if my life is just beginning," Mary says.

Suggestions and Resources for Mary and Others in Similar Situations

We suggest that Mary:

• Stop holding negative feelings about her career changes. Until the early 1990s, employees were expected to have long and loyal careers with their employers, and employers were expected to keep workers on until gold-watch time. That contract changed when employers began to downsize to cut costs. Today, it's fairly common for workers to change jobs -- and even careers -- every few years, and employers are less and less concerned with job-hopping. Mary could put a more positive spin on her career -- both in her own mind and with outsiders -- by thinking of it as a "portfolio career." In a portfolio career, instead of working a traditional full-time job, the worker has multiple part-time jobs (including part-time employment, temporary jobs, freelancing, and self-employment) with different employers that when combined are the equivalent of at least a full-time position. She could consider reading our article, Portfolio Careers: Creating a Career of Multiple Part-Time Jobs.
• Keep an open mind about her choices. Mary feels she must choose finding a better job, diving full-time into her private practice, or starting an entrepreneurial venture with a business (as opposed to mental-health) slant. While part of her wants to choose and focus on only one of those options, she could pursue two of them or possibly all three. Could she leave her job, build her practice, and look into a business that she could easily run on the side, such as an online business? Could she cut her job back to part-time (or find a different part-time job in the same school) while building her practice and starting a business venture? She has any number of combinations she could consider as part of her portfolio career. She may want to check out our Entrepreneur & Business Start-Up Tools and Resources.
• Consider career or life coaching. Since she may not be comfortable juggling her multiple choices, and she says her ambivalence is paralyzing her, Mary may want to have a few sessions with a career or life coach. She likely has access to professionals at her college she could talk with in confidence. She could also consult our Quintessential Careers Directory of Life and Career Coaches. And, with her background, Mary might consider becoming a life or career coach as her business venture.
• Ensure that her career-marketing documents -- resume and cover letter -- are leveraged for her situation as a mature worker. See our article, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers. A professional resume writer may be able to portray her situation in a better light than she can on her own. See also our Approaches and Tactics for Older Workers Who Can't Find a Job.
• Don't rule out a Ph.D. Mary says she loves to learn and regrets not getting her Ph.D. Today's distance-learning and low-residency programs make it possible for working adults of all ages to earn advanced degrees. She could take a look at our Distance Learning Resources for Continuing Your Education.
• Step up networking efforts and try informational interviewing. Mary doesn't say how much she networks, but most job-seekers can benefit from doing more than they do because networking is the most effective way to find a job. Mary may want to peruse our section, The Art of Career and Job-Search Networking. A subset of networking, informational interviewing will provide more exposure to her desired field and more contacts for her network. This strategy aligns with Mary's advice to others about learning what career possibilities are out there. If nothing else, she'll gain information that will help her develop a strategy for breaking into the organizations and colleges that interest her. She'll learn what she can do to get hired. Find out how to do informational interviews in our Informational Interviewing Tutorial.