Mwima, a 38‑year‑old procurement officer in Nairobi’s Upper Hill, still treats his first accounting diploma like a lifelong stamp. Each morning, he squeezes into the same role, convinced that starting over in his career would squander the seniority he has accrued.
When the ministry he supplies hints at moving more tenders onto blockchain tracking, Mwima’s shoulders tighten and he politely declines the pilot team, reasoning that he is too far into his career to shift gears now.
His evenings are spent doom-scrolling job sites, feeling his skill set edging toward expiration but hemmed in by the one track he took when he was 22. The sulky frustration seeps into his performance reviews where the phrase that he needs fresh perspectives constantly appears.
Two cubicles away, though, is Namsonge, a decade Mwima's senior. She views every decade as a new chapter rather than a final act.
Having worked 15 years in logistics, she could feel the spark waning, so she started weekend UX-design classes at USIU, freelancing on small boda boda dispatching apps, and now leads her company's new customer-experience team.
She laughs that her own career is less a straight path railway track than instead it has been a matatu route with planned stops, re-direction, and scenic or choppy detours.
Colleagues are inspired by her accounts of doing something frightening and new every five years. Human resources has started sending graduate trainees to work with her in mentoring their adaptive career thinking.
Journalist-turned-therapist Erin Gray researched these reinventions and challenges professionals to go back and remember what as children they were interested in, then think within adulthood's categorical strictures and allow them to dissolve away the rigidity.
The research demonstrates that people who go back to childhood interests, whether it involves animals, computer coding, or painting, discover alternative career paths and experience greater day-to-day happiness.
She poses that someone’s twenties are like an experimental playground, their thirties as a strategic shift, and their forties as a quest for employment sprinkled with personal purpose, emphasising that there is not a master checklist dictating when each step must happen.
No stint in our CVs is ever truly wasted. Each career twist and turn adds diverse brush-strokes to the greater picture of purpose.
Assigning some statistical significance to the above, researchers Shun‑Tzi Lin, Juo‑Hsiang Sun, and Chao‑Ju Chen interviewed 471 workers between the ages of 45 and 64 and found a high positive correlation between job satisfaction and career‑transition competency.
That set of competencies, networking, and self‑management that drives successful career change. More veteran workers who actively updated their skills and created extensive networks felt better prepared to change jobs and were significantly more satisfied in their work. Their findings involved the reality that continued learning is not a youth luxury but a mid‑career necessity.
A related report - Older Workers on the Move – Recareering Later in Life, follows late‑life third career professionals and finds that workers who transition to a new field after age 50 list a renewed sense of purpose and that knowledge transfer is a major payoff. Their satisfaction surpasses the short‑term income losses that many initially incur.
Further studies caution that ageist recruitment myths, rather than talent, were still the greatest barrier, with companies missing out on experienced know-how eager to reinvent.
So, what should our Kenyan business do? First, treat career mobility as a strategic asset. Invest in modular up-skilling programmes in data science, renewable-tech, or agri-commerce ecommerce that employees can take at any stage in life.
Second, create transition sabbaticals whereby employees intern in a different department for three months, piloting new skills without losing pay.
Third, collaborate with alumni departments at local universities to run cross‑generational career‑hackathons, allowing veteran professionals to cross‑pollinate with graduates on live client projects.
For workers, start with a decade diary. Jot down the careers that you would most like to be performing in 2035, whether it could be a business founder, career mentor, wildlife-photographer or whatever.
Then work backward figuring out the skills each will require. Some sector-agnostic events with events around Nairobi help with informal chatter that tends to yield vocational advice you never knew you needed.
If there is apprehension over starting over from scratch, offer a weeknight evening in the desired field to a different employer for free.
Proficiency develops surprisingly quickly once there is an opportunity for curiosity to flex its muscle. Careers, after all, are less linear paths and more akin to Nairobi's intricate network of streets that are full of roundabouts, detours and intersections.
Study and lived experience concur that those who view every turn as an opportunity to align work with changing interests not only excel relative to peers committed to linear progress but also enjoy more durable wellbeing.
Whether you are 28 or 68 years old, the invitation remains the same. Venture away from the predetermined track, take a side road, and allow the journey, rather than the title, write your professional narrative.
Have a management or leadership issue, question, or challenge? Reach out to Dr. Scott through @ScottProfessor on X or on email [email protected]
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