{"id":38005,"date":"2018-09-12T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=38005"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:03:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:03:58","slug":"5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Social Enterprise and Reinvented Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: This is part of our\u00a0Good on the Ground<\/a>\u00a0series, profiling\u00a0entrepreneurial women<\/a>\u00a0who are addressing social issues in innovative and inspiring ways.\u00a0Video by Sue Williams<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

A decade ago, the financial crisis was the proverbial last straw for Kate Curran<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A high-powered attorney working for General Electric\u2019s finance arm, Curran had just endured a string of tragic personal events: Her brother had died, followed by her parents, in quick succession. When the U.S. economy imploded, and Curran realized that nearly the\u00a0<\/span>entire U.S. financial industry<\/span><\/a> was caught up in the subprime mortgage crisis, \u201cit was like cognitive dissonance,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Curran had adored her Greatest Generation parents and originally attended law school with the plan \u201cto do something mission-oriented, social-oriented, serving youth.\u201d Feeling lost, she decided it was time to re-evaluate. Like many people who have drifted away from early passions in favor of a stable, successful career, she wondered: Can I reclaim the life I once set out to lead?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>

Instead of Building a Wall<\/h2>

Listen to our podcast episode for more of our interview with Kate Curran.<\/h3>

[Related:\u00a0<\/em>Why This Nonprofit Cares About Periods. And How Meghan Markle Might Help<\/em>]<\/a><\/p>\n

But making that midlife career change wasn\u2019t easy. If you\u2019re hoping to reinvent yourself with a new career path, Curran offers the following tips based on how she got to the place she wanted to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ease out of your old career slowly<\/b>. Yes, Curran quit her day job to pursue a more purposeful calling — but she didn\u2019t give notice and walk out the door immediately. \u201cI phased out,\u201d she says. Curran and her corporate boss, who initially tried to convince her to stay, agreed upon a date that she would leave, and worked part time after she left her position. \u201cI stayed on as a consultant,\u201d she says. \u201cThat took several months.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Leaping to a completely new environment or profession can be stressful — even if you desperately want to do it. The extra time served as a practical way for Curran to transition to the next stage of her life, allowing her to adjust to life outside the corporate comfort zone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Give yourself time to mentally recharge. <\/b>This is especially important if you\u2019re not sure, exactly, what your next adventure will be. In Curran\u2019s case, \u201cI needed to take a break, to rest, to recharge — so I started travelling, on and off, to South America,\u201d she says. During that time, she saw children who had dropped out of school selling items on the street and working in the hot sun. On a later trip to Tanzania in Africa, \u201cyou would see classrooms with 12 kids sharing two pencils, and I actually visited a village in Zambia where kids were walking through crocodile-infested waters just to get to school every day.\u201d Ideas started to percolate, and Curran remembered: \u201cWhen I was younger, I actually wanted to start my own school.\u201d She began thinking about how she could remove the barriers to education that she was seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Related: Read about how to take a break<\/a> from your busy work load]<\/em><\/p>\n

Consider talking to a career or life coach. <\/b>In between trips, Curran regularly met with a private consultant to figure out her next career move. \u201cI loved working with a coach,\u201d she says. \u201cShe put me through a whole range of experiences that are designed to get you very clear on your values, your interests and your skills.\u201d The career coach, along with the travel to developing nations, helped Curran remember her one-time enthusiasm for nonprofits and children\u2019s rights. \u201cI rediscovered what was important,\u201d Curran says. After several months, \u201cI literally woke up and thought \u2018I can do this,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThe \u2018this\u2019 was very vague, but I knew it was going to be something for kids in international development.\u201d She began researching nonprofits and decided no other organization was providing basic resources to enable kids to learn, such as a building with a floor, books and teachers — and so she launched School the World. <\/span><\/p>\n

Get ready to make some sacrifices.<\/b> While working with the coach, Curran realized that money was not one of her priorities — which was good, because she was no longer making any. \u201cI was living off of savings,\u201d she says, as well as a small inheritance. She packed up her townhouse, traded in her expensive sports-utility vehicle, and moved in with her sister. \u201cMy savings got me through the year, then I was taking withdrawals from my 401(k),\u201d she recalls. <\/span><\/p>\n

Find ways to use your old career skills (and connections) in your new profession. <\/b>Curran had spent time in Central America while at GE, working on a joint venture with a regional bank, so she recruited the CEO of that joint venture to donate about $20,000 to kickstart her first project, one in Guatemala and one in Honduras. She spent thousands of hours of research to develop an education strategy. \u201cThose are \u2018lawyery\u2019 skills,\u201d she says. Thanks to that legal background, \u201cI knew I needed to incorporate, and I knew I needed a board of directors,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd very quickly, we built three schools in the first year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, Curran lives in Boston, and School the World, which has a $1.4 million annual budget, is supported by government grants, private and corporate donations, and a tuition-based service program in which high school students help build schools in Guatemala. She draws a salary, though it is less than 50% of what she made at GE. But Curran says it\u2019s all worth it when she visits communities and hears from teachers that drop-out rates have improved dramatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe last 10 years includes some of the hardest working years of my life but, without a doubt, some of the best, too,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes it takes a dramatic change to see clearly.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Curran took a series of calculated steps to make a midlife career change and rediscover her purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":38134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187,218,35,3],"tags":[19461,19452,20422,19839,19731],"class_list":["post-38005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-good-on-the-ground","category-startup-tips","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-education-training","tag-social-entrepreneurs","tag-education-access","tag-social-enterprise","tag-women-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 Steps to Making a Midlife Career Change and Reclaiming Your Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kate Curran quit a successful career, worked with a career coach and made a career transition that helped her rediscover her purpose.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Social Enterprise and Reinvented Her Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kate Curran took a series of calculated steps to make a midlife career change and rediscover her purpose.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-12T10:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-23T21:03:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215240\/KateCurran_noplay-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"657\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Nonprofit and Reinvented Her Life\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Steps to Making a Midlife Career Change and Reclaiming Your Life","description":"Kate Curran quit a successful career, worked with a career coach and made a career transition that helped her rediscover her purpose.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Social Enterprise and Reinvented Her Life","og_description":"Kate Curran took a series of calculated steps to make a midlife career change and rediscover her purpose.","og_url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/","og_site_name":"The Story Exchange","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","article_published_time":"2018-09-12T10:00:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-23T21:03:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":657,"url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215240\/KateCurran_noplay-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Colleen DeBaise","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Nonprofit and Reinvented Her Life","twitter_creator":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_site":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Colleen DeBaise","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/"},"author":{"name":"Colleen DeBaise","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/37ea4af04b473a35e85983067534a6b6"},"headline":"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Social Enterprise and Reinvented Her Life","datePublished":"2018-09-12T10:00:25+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-23T21:03:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/"},"wordCount":1078,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215242\/KateCurran_noplay.jpg","keywords":["1000 Education & Training","1000 Social Enterprise","Education Access","Social Enterprise","Women Entrepreneurs"],"articleSection":["Features","Good on the Ground","Startup Tips","Video Profiles of Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/","name":"5 Steps to Making a Midlife Career Change and Reclaiming Your Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215242\/KateCurran_noplay.jpg","datePublished":"2018-09-12T10:00:25+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-23T21:03:58+00:00","description":"Kate Curran quit a successful career, worked with a career coach and made a career transition that helped her rediscover her purpose.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215242\/KateCurran_noplay.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/22215242\/KateCurran_noplay.jpg","width":1000,"height":657},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/5-steps-making-midlife-career-change-reclaiming-your-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Feeling Lost, She Quit Her Corporate Job, Started a Social Enterprise and Reinvented Her Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","name":"The Story Exchange","description":"Inspiration and information for women entrepreneurs","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization","name":"The Story Exchange","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","width":500,"height":180,"caption":"The Story Exchange"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","https:\/\/x.com\/TheStoryXchange","https:\/\/instagram.com\/thestoryexchange\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-story-exchange","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/StoryExchange"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/37ea4af04b473a35e85983067534a6b6","name":"Colleen DeBaise","description":"Colleen DeBaise is former small business editor of the Wall Street Journal. Her most recent book is \u201cStart a Successful Business.\u201d She has also written about the rewards and challenges of entrepreneurship for Inc., Entrepreneur and BusinessWeek, among others. She has been interviewed on MSNBC, Fox, CNBC, CBS and NPR. Colleen has a master\u2019s in journalism from Northwestern University. Contact her at colleen@thestoryexchange.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/colleen-debaise-at-the-story-exchange\/"],"url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/colleen-debaise-at-the-story-exchange\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41852,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38005\/revisions\/41852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}