What it’s like to change careers when you’re at the top of your game

When Kim Foster was 17, she was determined to become a doctor, a goal that no one in her family had achieved before. She worked tirelessly to achieve that goal, graduating from medical school and undergoing extensive training. She then practiced medicine for 20 years. However, during her last few years as a family doctor, Foster noticed a pattern: she was often seeing patients who were already experiencing problems like diabetes, chronic pain, and heart disease.

By the time they saw her, the issues had already escalated. This prompted her to feel a pull towards helping people make different decisions and also to pursue something creative. Eventually, at the age of 54, Foster decided to leave her medical career behind and started helping others who were looking to make pivots or reinvent themselves through her YouTube channel and online courses.

Similarly, Alexandra Aileru, a 35-year-old education sector professional, decided to quit her job to start a new career. After becoming pregnant, she realized she needed to make an exit. Aileru first transitioned into project management, but soon realized she had reached the peak of what she wanted to achieve in that role. In December 2023, she began posting about her career pivot experience on TikTok, where she received many questions from her audience, realizing there was a market for helping people with similar transformations.

In 2024, Aileru launched her business, Confident Career Switch, with the motto to help people "get unstuck with their careers."

Foster and Aileru may have made career pivots at different stages of their lives, but both transitioned when they were more established and had responsibilities. Like Aileru, Foster had children to take care of and was the main breadwinner in her family. To transition away from medicine, she had to build an off-ramp, which meant reducing her hours as a doctor while simultaneously building income from various side projects.

Eventually, she left medicine completely, having already earned more money from her other projects than she had as a practicing physician.

One of the biggest challenges Foster faced when leaving her medical career was grappling with a change in identity. As a doctor, "I was very comfortable with being competent," she says. "People came to me all day long, specifically to ask for my expertise. That was a big part of how I saw myself in the world, and I got a lot of satisfaction out of that."

Starting an online business required her to be a beginner in something that didn't have the same prestige. She had to be comfortable with making YouTube videos, marketing her business, and drumming up sales, all of which didn't come naturally to her.

Another barrier Foster faced was dealing with the opinions of people in her life, many of whom didn't understand her decision. They questioned why she would throw away something she'd spent so long building. To overcome these challenges, Foster worked with a coach and enrolled in a coaching training program with other entrepreneurs building online businesses. By exposing herself to different possibilities, she realized that we don't need to get locked into "one way of viewing ourselves."

Looking back on her transition into a new career, Foster sees her previous medical experience as a foundation, but not a cage. She now sees medicine as a "foundation, but not a cage." Aileru also emphasizes the importance of leveraging one's previous experience in a new role. She guides her clients through a multistage framework to help them get clarity about the transition, starting with digging deep into their identity before considering their skill sets and strengths.

She then instructs people to think broadly about their value, beyond their professional experience, and identify a repeated skill that keeps showing up. This could be something like being naturally great at organizing things, which could lead to a career in events, or being skilled at dealing with difficult stakeholders, making them a natural fit for leadership roles.