If you find yourself dissatisfied and craving more at work, is it too late to switch careers when you're over 40? Not according to eight Bay of Plenty women, who tell Carly Gibbs what it's like to face their fears and follow their dreams.
Yanné Logan: Teacher aide to mechanic
It was an idea Yanné Logan had mulled for years, but in the end, it was the need for something more thrilling that led the 40-year-old to exit the classroom for good.
After years as a kindergarten cook and teacher aide, she decided last month to study Level 3 Automotive Engineering at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, saying it's been "a crazy, massive, big change".
She's always been car mad but was reluctant to become a mechanic sooner, because it was seemingly a "man's realm". She was also busy raising two sons, now teenagers.
"I always wanted to be able to fix my own engine. To have usable skills that would save me money."
She has a penchant for "sexy muscle cars and vintages", and she and partner Luke have a goal to build a custom truck and trailer to live in.
After completing her Level 3 qualification this year, she hopes to land an apprenticeship.
Despite having initial apprehension about becoming a student and taking a financial hit, the journey is proving "amazing".
Donna Martin: Hire purchase officer to probation officer
Senior probation officer Donna Martin, 54, worked in hire purchase and admin roles before becoming a mum, then reinventing herself at 44.
When the time came to re-enter the workforce, she chanced upon a job advertisement for probation officers.
"I'd always wanted to be a police officer, but couldn't because of my eyesight. I thought 'maybe this is a step sideways'.
"I applied, missed out, and was told there were more-qualified people."
Determined to try again, she completed diplomas in health, human behaviour, psychology, and applied mental health from the Open Polytechnic; while juggling four kids under 7, and supporting her husband as a senior farmhand.
In 2011, she applied again to the Department of Corrections, and this time was successful.
She's now a senior practitioner and looking to restart a double degree in communication and psychology.
"Stepping up to study at that age was quite daunting because people around me were a lot younger and seemed to get things quicker."
She advises bravery, though: "You're never too old to change your life. Don't get stuck in the rut that your life is what it is. Nothing is impossible if you have the right frame of mind, and only you can do it."
Louise Trott: Product manager to nurse
Nothing could prepare Louise Trott, 57, for the five "profound" years she's had in nursing - both awe-inspiring and heartbreaking, including treating victims of the 2019 White Island eruption.
The Lake Rotomā resident was 48 when she embarked on her Bachelor of Nursing, "experiencing more than most nurses do in a lifetime".
She worked as an electrocardiograph technician, community health assistant, and Whitcoulls product manager, before re-emerging as a nurse.
As a student, she did a nurse placement inside a prison; and then, on graduating, worked two years in rural Te Kuiti Hospital.
Later, she transferred to Whakatāne Hospital as a resource nurse, working in all wards, before getting a "bucket list" position in their special care baby unit.
On the day of the White Island eruption, she wasn't rostered on but was at the hospital for a meeting, wearing a sundress and sandals.
Because of her prior resource role, she was desperately called into ED, throwing on a plastic apron and gloves.
She spent four "chaotic" hours helping, including nursing a young man who later died.
The situation caused her to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder and she's put her nursing registration on hold.
"It's still fairly close to my thinking. There are different things that trigger it. When I was training, a senior nurse said to me 'we have to be ready for the next cardiac arrest to come through the door, so be right up on your work every minute of the day, so that you can respond to that emergency'. But responding to 40-plus victims of a volcanic eruption, you can't be ready for that."
The incident was handled impeccably by Whakatāne Hospital, she says, but several others who helped that day have also never returned to work.
However, she would still tell women to pursue their dream.
"If it's a passion and if it keeps hold of you, it's meant to be. Those five years that I nursed were mainly wonderful.
"And I seem to have been in the right place at the right time to experience some extraordinary things. I learned that some of it is awful, but most of it is wonderful."
Robyn Graves: Business analyst to hypnotherapist and health coach
Returning to student life at 50 was "nerve-racking" for Robyn Graves, despite having a large amount of corporate and life experience.
Having worked as a business analyst and co-director of the tertiary organisation The Training Generation, the time had come when her children were grown, she had a "major health change" (losing nearly 100kg), and realised there was more to life.
"I started learning about life coaching and encouraging other people to embrace life changes, and now I'm a clinical hypnotherapist running Your Life Box, and co-direct nutrition company Taste Success.
"It's completely left field from the corporate world.
"When you're a parent and a grandparent, you do what you have to. A challenge was committing to myself. It's been hard to say no to other situations and people, but taking the plunge and pursuing my dream has made me a lot more confident."
Kristin Leaity: Dietitian to holiday home manager
Award-winning dietitian Kristin Leaity, 40, had a lot to walk away from when she left her six-figure job and a company car to pursue her love for housing and design.
However, her decision was surprisingly easy.
"I did not see the point in doing something that you weren't completely passionate about."
Having completed a Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Science degree with a human nutrition major and a post-graduate Diploma in Dietetics from the University of Otago; Leaity was awarded New Zealand Young Dietitian of the Year in 2008.
She worked as a clinical dietitian at Auckland Hospital and at gyms, and was national dietitian for Compass Group NZ and then overseas.
Soon after, she had children.
"For the next four years, I was a mum and home renovator. The passion for (the renovating) side of things grew."
The family moved back to New Zealand and she and her partner separated.
She needed to work, so tried supermarket merchandising but hated it, and wound up contracting with a holiday home management company. Then, six months ago, went out on her own, opening Lake City Holiday Home Co.
A few of her home owner clients have also employed her to project manage renovations, an element of the business she'd eventually like to make full time.
She's now back to making a healthy income and subcontracts six casual staff.
"You've only got one life, and it does go pretty quickly. Work can take up such a huge chunk of your days. I can't imagine doing something that doesn't bring you a lot of happiness.
"I knew that the career I was in was good, and could have been lucrative, but I just didn't feel fulfilled or happy enough."
Lynn Fisher: Administration officer to clinical psychologist
Lynn Fisher was once in a packed university lecture when a 28-year-old piped up that he was likely the oldest in their class.
In reality, it was possibly her, she laughs.
The 49-year-old mum of three and former office administrator is in her first year of studying to become a clinical psychologist and realising her dream of working with youth to understand the mental health crisis.
Her goal is to complete a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in psychology at Tauranga's University of Waikato campus; before doing honours in psychology and qualifying for the clinical psychology programme, combining either a master's or PhD. She is a University of Waikato Re-Vision Scholarship recipient ($7000).
All up it will be a six-year journey, normally seven, but she's shaved off a year due to qualifications gained in her home country of South Africa. She is a qualified counsellor specialising in addiction and trauma.
At university with her are her 20-year-old twin daughters Chloe and Tara. Tara is doing the same degree as her.
"The time is really now," she says of planning the rest of her life, explaining her youngest child, Stella, is now 14 and gaining independence.
"It's been slightly terrifying. I haven't done any academic work in about 11 years, so it was really firing up the nervous system again.
"However, I would say [to other women] 'definitely do it'. The biggest thing that motivated me, was in six years' time I'm going to look back and I can go: 'If I'd started this six years ago, I would be qualified by now'. Time is just the one thing that doesn't stop moving."
Janine Hill: Podiatrist to doctor
When student doctor Janine Hill, 50, found herself stuck in a rut in her old job, it was now or never to change her pathway.
The former podiatrist owned Bay Podiatry in Mount Maunganui for 13 years and is now gearing up for an encore career as a doctor.
After she sold her podiatry business, she did an OE, working in pharmaceutical sales, before returning to New Zealand and continuing to work in the same industry.
"I got to the point where I was happy in my job and had fantastic bosses, but I felt like I needed to change it up and challenge myself again."
She had close friends who were doctors and they got her thinking.
"I got a hold of that idea and started to really follow it."
She resigned from her job in 2013 and went to the University of Otago completing a year in health science; before doing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in psychology at the University of Auckland. Upon completion of an honours year, and then her master's, she got into medical school.
This year, one of her electives was working with Dr Deb Robinson and the NZ Rugby Sevens.
All up it's been a 10-year journey - working in the term breaks and house sitting to save money. She will qualify at the end of this year.
She'll then spend two years as a house officer before thinking about a specialty.
Transitions are harder when you feel old enough to be a parent to your classmates. Age discrimination is real, but those who reinvent over 40 don't let it stand in their way.
Hill says you simply can't stagnate if you're unhappy.
"I was in a rut of not being stimulated. When I had the goal of doing medicine then it became exciting. Education is never wasted and it opens up your world to other opportunities and things you hadn't thought about."
Elizabeth "Biddy" Tai: Social worker to lawyer
"I've always wanted to be a lawyer, but the narrative I was telling myself was that I wasn't clever enough," Biddy Tai says.
However, at 41, this mum of six decided: "I'm actually going to do what I want to do, and stop doubting myself."
Being accepted into the University of Waikato's law school after 15 years working as a social worker (she has a Bachelor of Social Work and postgrad in professional supervision) was nerve-racking.
"I was scared to tell people because I didn't want anyone to put me off."
Re-evaluating her life came partly from losing her sister-in-law, Katrina Tai, to breast cancer in November 2016. The 38-year-old mum of two was admitted to the bar in early 2016, studying through cancer.
"I used to have really good conversations with her around the law and I kept thinking to myself 'if she can do it, I can do it'. She used to go to chemo and then straight to lectures at the University of Auckland.
Tai, who has a passion for human rights and employment, is now using Katrina's law books, gifted to her by her brother and Katrina's husband, David Tai.
"It's just so special.
"I think you're at an age when you're in your 40s where it's do or die, man. Let's just do it, let's get it done."
She is still working full time and studies at night once her children are in bed, going to sleep by midnight. She's convinced the one thing that doesn't dull with age is the chance to change others' lives for the better, even our own.
"I've always wanted to make getting educated as normal in my family. I'm also a part of the Panthers women sisterhood group, where we support women into their goals and into powerful positions, in the hope of women leading the way with heart and passion."
Older students the norm
Mature students make up about half the student body at the University of Waikato's Tauranga campus; and about a third of the student population across all locations.
The most popular courses for Tauranga mature students, enrolled at the end of last year, were in social sciences, business and business administration, teaching and Te Tohu Paetahi.
At Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, there's an increase in enrolments since Covid, with people taking advantage of courses funded under the Government's Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund, which is open to anyone until December, regardless of age or previous qualifications.
Preparing for study
You'll find student support services for study, financial, health and wellbeing on campus.
Consider looking into what scholarships you might be able to access. Think about childcare (school holidays don't always coincide with semester breaks), consider a basic computer course if you are not computer literate, and if you have any physical issues with studying, then do let the institution where you are studying know.
