Do you love your job? No one expects the nine-to-five to be a non-stop party but… Be honest, now. If you could start again, would you? Do you have a lingering suspicion that, somewhere out there, a job exists that would light you up just a little more, be a better fit, do more for you than just pay the bills?

Our Good Conversation event this evening (Tuesday 10 June) delves into exactly these questions. Special guests and life pivot experts Kathy Slack and Eleanor Mills will be joined at our London HQ by GH members (both live and online). Together, we’ll share personal experiences in, ideas around and strategies for carrying out a major life pivot.

It’s a big, and often daunting, conversation. So to help us get to grips with it, we carried out a major survey exploring how GH readers feel about their careers and the prospect of changing them. We think the findings are fascinating and we hope you agree.

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The results are in

One in three (31%) women in the UK dream about the possibility of making a career change, while a further third (34%) are open to pivoting their employment. In fact, only 37% of women who completed the survey rejected the idea of a career pivot and of those who want a change, 70% would prefer an entirely new field.

Why? A better work/life balance was the most popular motivation (45%), closely followed by the desire to do something more meaningful (43%) or to take on a new challenge (40%). Interestingly, 'better pay’ fell far further down the list of motivations, as the fifth most important factor.

The barriers? Perhaps unsurprisingly, finances (46%) topped the list. But when we asked those respondents who had taken the plunge what had tipped the balance, a supportive partner emerged as the top result (37%), followed by the acquisition of new qualifications (28%), and then redundancy (20%).

‘It’s no easy path to reinvent your career and the factors that might stand in the way are many – from finances to a lack of confidence and a fear of being too old,’ says GH news and features director Sarah Maber. ‘So it’s testament to GH women’s courage and drive that over 53% have successfully made a change. Age doesn’t have to be a barrier to a successful reinvention.’

And if you think it’s too late for you, our survey shows that age doesn’t have to be a barrier to a successful reinvention. Around a quarter (23%) of those who had gone through a career pivot did so between the ages of 45 and 60. Tempted?