Not Starting Over — Just Starting Aligned
Practical and personal insights on pivoting your career with purpose.
Opening the door at 57 (but really, it began at 40)
When I closed my laptop after my last contract in 2019—after two decades of a career that meandered from teaching to training and development to steering multi-million-pound projects as a project manager—I didn’t feel finished. I felt mis-aligned.
That familiar feeling first showed up at 40, the year I re-entered the workforce after raising children. I accepted a job that involved me driving a white van to client sites and zig-zagged through disciplines until my last position as a programme manager. 17 years later, the voice grew louder: Your experience is currency. Your journey is power. Give it to other women who’ve been told they’re invisible.
I grew up in a traditional British Indian family where I felt misaligned and disempowered– the black sheep in my community. That feeling followed me through to my marriage to my career. However, after giving my career in 2019 and going through a tumultuous period of pain and trauma, I realised that my own experiences and knowledge have always helped large corporates. I knew that I could better serve my fellow (wo)man by gifting them the tools of empowerment which I had to fight for myself.
And with that, You Are Not Invisible After 50 was born.
I didn’t ‘start over’ again. I finally aligned. I found the missing puzzle piece. Everything fell into place. I finally knew who I was, what the world needed, and how I chose to serve.
You may be weighing something similar in your mind. The good news? 2025 is the year for women 50+ to relaunch their working lives. The even better news? You already own two of the rarest and most desired assets in the labour market – seasoned judgement and years of experience.
The Three Is
Finding the right path can often feel like navigating through a maze, especially when seeking fulfilment and alignment with one's identity, impact, and income. It is these three ‘I’s that combine to form alignment.
Identity:
Questions to ask: Who have I become through my lived experience?
Clues you’ve hit the mark: Activities feel effortless; feedback is “That’s so you.”
Impact:
Questions to ask: Who is changed when I act?
Clues you’ve hit the mark: You measure success qualitatively and not quantitively
Income:
Questions to ask: What will the market pay for this?
Clues you’ve hit the mark: Value is recognised without apology or discounting.
Pinpointing that overlap is Step 1. Everything else flows from it.
The A-L-I-G-N framework
The A-L-I-G-N framework provides practical roadmap to help you pinpoint your alignment and discover your purpose.
1. Audit your assets
List every transferable skill, certificate, and life lesson. Capture your value in black and white.
2. Locate the problem you want to solve
Labour shortages sit in health tech, green energy, project governance and the care economy—fields hungry for the soft-plus-strategic skill mix mature women own.
3. Invest in micro-education in topics you find interesting, especially within Gen AI
Short, stackable courses signal relevance and according to Stephanie Conway, the senior director of talent development at LinkedIn, “it is more important than ever to focus a culture of continuous learning”. LinkedIn data shows that employees skilled at using GenAI are 5x more likely to develop creative ideation, design thinking, and emotional intelligence.
4. Grow public proof
Publish, podcast, speak. Visibility converts doubt into demand.
5. Negotiate age-positive terms
Flexible schedules, cross-generational mentoring and outcome based pay all widens the path. CIPD research notes that age friendly policies stem the exit of experienced women and protect enterprise knowledge.
Tactics that move the needle
Skill stacking (pairing legacy expertise with one emerging competency)
Differentiates you from both juniors and peers.
Bridge roles (project-based or fractional work)
Test-drives an industry without full-risk leap
Cross-generational mentoring
Exchanges digital fluency for strategic insight
Story equity
Narrative cuts hiring bias faster than your CV. Rewrite your LinkedIn “About” section to open with a pivotal anecdote.
Micro-sabbaticals
Cognitive “white space” sparks reinvention. Block one Friday a month for education, shadow days, or exploratory interviews.
Your pivot manifesto
1. Visibility is strategy. Hidden talent can’t be hired or funded.
2. Curiosity outperforms currency. Every market change creates a chance for those who learn quickly.
3. Purpose is non-negotiable. It fuels resilience, the super-power behind every late-career success story.
Final reflection
You do not need permission to realign; you need an idea of who you are, what you want to leave behind, and one micro-move.
When my mother called me Sher (lion in Hindi), she wasn’t predicting titles or pay-grades; she was naming a temperament—courage.
That same courage lives in you, amplified by decades of trial, error and quiet triumphs the world hasn’t yet seen.
So refuse the narrative of starting over. You are simply starting aligned—on your terms, in your voice, at the exact moment the world has woken up to your value.
The roar is right on time.