Research Shows How Many Over-40s Are Staying In The Wrong Career - And Why It Could Be The Worst Decision Of Their Lives

Free online quiz launches to help career-stuck professionals over 40 finally get honest about their readiness to change

The risk isn't in making a change. The risk is in spending the next 25 years in a career that was never right for you in the first place”
— Stephen Shortt, CEO CareerFit

DUBLIN, IRELAND, March 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new free career readiness tool launched this week is shining a light on one of the most overlooked workplace crises of our time - the hundreds of thousands of professionals over 40 who know their career isn't working, but are too afraid to do anything about it.

The Start Over After Forty Career Readiness Assessment, available now at www.startoverafterforty.com, takes two minutes to complete and gives users an honest, personalised assessment of where they really stand - and what their most useful next step is.

The tool was developed by CareerFit, a career assessment platform with over two decades of experience helping people find work they were actually built for

*The Hidden Career Crisis Nobody Is Talking About*
Global statistics show that anywhere between 52% and 87% of adults are currently unhappy in their work. With approximately 1.1 million people aged 40 to 55 in Ireland, the over-40 career changer represents one of the largest and most underserved demographics in the workforce today.

Yet despite the scale of the problem, the conversation is almost entirely absent. Career change content, tools, and support are overwhelmingly aimed at younger workers - leaving an entire generation of experienced professionals stuck, silent, and convinced it's too late to do anything about it.
"We talk endlessly about early career development and graduate employment," says Stephen Shortt, CEO of CareerFit. "But there are millions of people in their 40s and 50s quietly miserable in careers they've outgrown, telling themselves it's too late to change. It isn't. And staying put out of fear may well be the worst career decision they ever make."

*Staying Put Is Not The Safe Option*
The conventional wisdom is that career change gets riskier with age. CareerFit's position - backed by years of working directly with career changers - is that this assumption is not just wrong, it is actively harmful.

"By the time most people reach their 40s they have something genuinely valuable that younger career changers don't - real experience, hard-won skills, and a level of self-awareness that only comes with time," says Shortt. "The risk isn't in making a change. The risk is in spending the next 25 years in a career that was never right for you in the first place."

The average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime. For someone in their early 40s, roughly half of those hours are still ahead of them.

*About The Assessment*
The Start Over After Forty Readiness Assessment assesses users across five key dimensions - career satisfaction, skills awareness, clarity of direction, mindset, and practical readiness. At the end of the 10-question assessment users receive one of three personalised results:

Stuck But Stirring - for those who know something needs to change but don't know where to start
Ready But Hesitant - for those who have the awareness but lack a clear direction and plan
Time To Move - for those who already know and need support making the move confidently

The Assessment is completely free, takes approximately two minutes, and is available now at startoverafterforty.com

*About CareerFit*
CareerFit is a career assessment platform helping individuals identify careers that match their unique combination of interests, personality and natural abilities. With over two decades of experience in occupational psychology and career development, CareerFit has helped thousands of people find work they were genuinely built for.

www.careerfit.com
For interviews, comment or further information contact Stephen Shortt at stephen@careerfit.com or telephone +353 1 497 2067

Stephen Shortt
CareerFit
+353 1 497 2067
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