中年转行：如何开始一份文艺工作？

I meet Reny Morsch in her tutor’s office at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in central London, where she is studying to become a costume maker for film and theatre. She is dressed in black, with her blonde hair dip-dyed blue, and we are surrounded by overflowing boxes of accessories, bracelets and earrings: one is labelled “sparkly bits”, another “bits and bobs”.

在位于伦敦市中心的皇家戏剧学院(Royal Academy of Dramatic Art)，我见到了雷尼•莫尔希(Reny Morsch)，她在这里学习电影和戏剧服装制作。见面地点在她导师的办公室，她穿着一身黑，金发染成了蓝色。我们站在一大堆箱子中间，箱子里堆满了饰品、手镯和耳环。有个箱子上的标签写着“亮晶晶的小玩意”，另一个上面贴着“零零碎碎”。

Ms Morsch is one of five people the Financial Times is following over a year as they make a mid-life career switch.

英国《金融时报》对5位中年转行者进行了为期一年的追踪，莫尔希便是其中一位。

This glittery, organised chaos is a very different work environment to the financial world where Ms Morsch worked for more than 30 years. When she originally embarked on a banking career, it was a “solid profession . . . that’s what my parents thought.” First, she worked in Frankfurt as a forex trader and then for Deutsche Börse in London.

这个闪闪发光、乱中有序的工作环境与莫尔希工作了30多年的金融界截然不同。当她最初步入银行业时，这是一个“稳定的职业……我父母就希望这个。”她一开始是在法兰克福担任外汇交易员，后来就职于德意志交易所(Deutsche Börse)，在伦敦工作。

Her postgraduate course at Rada finishes in the summer and Ms Morsch hopes it will equip her with the skills to switch to the creative industries. It is a big leap from the relative security of regular salaries and bonuses to freelance work and reduced earnings. Moreover, at 51, she will be competing with younger peers for paid gigs.

莫尔希在皇家戏剧学院的研究生课程将于今年夏季结束，她希望从中掌握投身创意行业所需的技能。这是一次重大飞跃，她从有固定收入和奖金、相对安稳的职业，转向了薪资较少的自由职业。更重要的是，她将以51岁之龄与年轻同行们竞争有偿工作。

While the risks are clear — and Ms Morsch has considered them all, at length — she is making a transition to a creative career that those trapped at their desks may envy.

尽管风险显而易见，莫尔希也全面考虑了上述所有问题，但她还是选择转行做创意工作——一个可能会让那些困在办公桌前的人羡慕不已的职业。

The switch has turned costume-making, something she describes as once a “passionate hobby”, into a career. And it means she no longer suffers that common mid-life paralysis of indecision over which career path to take next.

莫尔希说服装制作曾是她的一个“充满激情的爱好”，而转行将把她的爱好变成一份职业。而且这意味着她再也不会陷入常见的中年彷徨：不知道接下来该选择哪条职业道路。

Turning a passion into a career may not be the right path for many people. In Morten Hansen’s book Great at Work , the management professor writes: “Motivational speakers, self-help gurus, successful entrepreneurs, human resource executives, and branding experts have all talked up passion, so much that you might believe loving what you do is the only requirement to perform at your best.”

对于许多人来说，将激情转化成职业可能并非合适的道路。在莫腾•汉森(Morten Hansen)所著的《玩转工作》(Great at Work)中，这位管理学教授写道：“励志演讲者、自助大师、成功企业家、人力资源主管和品牌专家都在极力鼓吹激情，以至你可能相信热爱工作是你取得最佳表现的唯一先决条件。”

One rueful career changer, David Sobel, wrote in Salon magazine in 2014 of the passion myth which drove him to leave his administrative job to become a copywriter. “I’d believed that resigning at 42 was the acknowledgment of unrealised potential. Now I thought it was the delusional move of a man-child who’d missed out on the party.” Four years later, he reflects that he was right to leave, but thinks he fell for “the bullshit [of] what we read in LinkedIn” about passion. “It’s been very hard,” he told me.

大卫•索贝尔(David Sobel)是一位令人同情的转行者，2014年他在《Salon》杂志上发表了一篇文章，描写了他在激情神话的驱使下辞掉了管理工作、成为一名撰稿人的故事。“我曾以为42岁辞职是因为认识到有未实现的潜力。现在我觉得这是一个没赶上派对的老男孩的错觉。”四年后他表示辞职是正确的，但认为自己被“我们在领英(LinkedIn)上读到的那些关于激情的屁话”给骗了。他跟我说：“转行的过程其实异常艰辛。”

Richard Alderson, founder of Careershifters, an organisation which helps professionals change direction, believes the “find-your-passion mantra is quite dangerous and misleading”.

Careershifters是一家帮助职场人士转变职业方向的组织，创始人理查德•奥尔德森(Richard Alderson)说道：“‘找到你的激情’这句老话相当危险，且具有误导性。”

Some people, he says, do not have a passion, others have too many, while a good proportion are unlikely to be paid for pursuing theirs.

他说有些人毫无激情，有些人则太有激情，然而有很大一部分人不太可能从追求激情中获得回报。

As Lucy Standing, who runs ViewVo, which organises job-shadowing opportunities for mid-career changers, puts it: “Hobbies are distractions from your real life. When you change your hobby to a job the pleasure is lost.”

正如ViewVo的经营者露西•斯坦丁(Lucy Standing)所说：“爱好是日常生活的消遣。当你把爱好变成工作，乐趣就没了。”ViewVo致力于为那些在职业中期转行的人安排见习机会。

Many professionals trapped in offices talk to her about their aspirations to be gardeners. “But there is no way that the market is big enough to support [so many professional] gardeners. The wages are low.”

许多被困在办公室的职场人士都跟她说想成为园丁。“但是这个市场不可能大到足以雇用(这么多专业的)园丁。工资很低的。”

Mr Alderson tells people to look for an activity that energises them and, most importantly, pays. He suggests testing it out in the real world: ask for feedback and see if people will pay for whatever you want to offer. Developing a side hustle alongside an existing job might prove to be the escape route that leads to an eventual career switch.

奥尔德森奉劝人们去寻找一项能够让他们充满活力的、最重要的是有报酬的活动。他建议人们在现实生活中去验证这项活动，征求反馈意见，看看人们是否会花钱购买你想提供的东西。在从事当前工作的同时发展一项副业，这可能是最终实现转行的逃生通道。

Running a side business will also help with self-assurance, adds Ms Standing. “You don’t get more confident by thinking yourself into it, you get more confident by gaining experience.”

斯坦丁还表示从事副业也有助于产生自信。“想象自己从事某种工作并不会给你带来更多自信，积累经验才能帮你产生更多自信。”

This was the case for Mary Byrne, a former accountant who set up an Etsy shop selling handmade leather notebook covers and pencil cases. After realising she needed more skills to make a career out of her sideline, she invested her savings in buying a leather goods production company in the West Midlands. “I am learning the skills from the staff. But for the moment I need to concentrate on the business and make it secure,” she says.

玛丽•伯恩(Mary Byrne)的经历正是如此，她曾是一名会计师，后来开了Etsy商店，销售手工制作的皮革笔记本封面和文具盒。在意识到自己需要掌握更多技能才能以副业为职之后，她用积蓄在西米德兰兹郡买下了一家皮革制品生产公司。她说：“我正向员工学习技术。但目前我需要专注于生意，把生意搞好。”

While older career changers might face age discrimination, Diane Favell, Rada’s head of costume and Ms Morsch’s course tutor, is quietly confident about the prospects for mature students. “The first job might be a bit difficult”, she says, but they tend to advance quickly. Past experience can count in a new field, says Zoe Mogridge, director of career services at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, a private college: “Coming from a banking or legal background is very useful for galleries who might need you to [look] at IP, tax, contracts.”

虽然年纪较大的转行者可能会面临年龄歧视，可皇家戏剧学院服装专业的负责人，也是莫尔希的课程导师黛安•法维尔(Diane Favell)却对这些大龄学生的前景充满信心。她表示“第一份工作可能有点困难”，但他们往往进展神速。私立学校苏富比艺术学院(Sotheby’s Institute of Art)的职业服务总监佐伊•莫格里奇(Zoe Mogridge)表示，以前的工作经验在新领域可以派上用场，她说：“银行业或法律界的从业背景对画廊非常有用，它们可能需要你看看知识产权、税务、合同的事情。”

Life experience is also important, says Ms Morsch. “I might have more patience . . . In general, as a more mature person I am more relaxed when something goes wrong. I know it’s not the end of the world.”

莫尔希说人生经验也很重要。“我可能更有耐心……总体来说，作为一个更成熟的人，遇到问题时我会更从容。我会知道这不是世界末日。”

Nicole Bray made the switch from working in advertising as an account director to art curation and consultancy via Sotheby’s Institute of Art in her mid-30s. When she entered the job market, she was determined not to compromise and turned down a marketing role at an auction house. “You have to be very honest with yourself. It wasn’t where my heart was.” In the end, she decided to set up her own company, Mercer Contemporary.

妮可•布雷(Nicole Bray)在三十几岁时念了苏富比艺术学院，从一名广告客户总监转行做艺术策展和咨询工作。当她在这行找工作时，她下定决心绝不妥协，曾拒绝一家拍卖行的营销职位。“你必须忠于自我。这不是我心仪的位置。”最后，她决定成立自己的公司Mercer Contemporary。

She found the key to a smooth transition was creating a network of mentors. “[In] deciding which [art] school to go to, I became queen of the coffee chat. People love talking about themselves and love being admired.” She would ask for 15 minutes of someone’s time and buy the coffee. “You have to make it easy for them,” she advises.

她发现顺利过渡的关键是建立一个“导师”网络。“在决定要去哪所(艺术)学校时，我成了咖啡聊天的女王。人们喜欢谈论自己，喜欢被人钦佩。”她会请别人给她一刻钟时间，并给对方买上一杯咖啡。她建议：“你得让他们感到放松。”

Money — or worry about a lack of it — can prevent professionals from making a switch, particularly to the creative industries.

资金，或者说担心缺乏资金，可能会阻止专业人士换工作，尤其是转投创意行业。

Mr Alderson encourages people to look realistically at what they need to be happy — it might be less than they think. He cites the example of a lawyer in the habit of spending money to relieve the pain of a career he did not want to be in. After that realisation, he adjusted to a lower salary in a different job.

奥尔德森鼓励人们实事求是地思考他们需要什么才能感到快乐——条件其实可能比他们以为的要少。奥尔德森举了个例子，一位律师不喜欢自己的工作，他习惯花钱去释放这份职业给他带来的痛苦。认识到这点后，他换了一份薪资较低的工作。

Yet there is no point in being blind to the instability of creative jobs. Ms Morsch knows she can do bits of financial consultancy to top up her income and has the security of savings: “I’m German, I save money, I’ve been raised that way.”

不过也要看到创意工作的不稳定。莫尔希知道她可以做一些财务咨询工作来增加收入，自己有积蓄也让她心安：“我是德国人，我会存钱，我从小就被灌输这样的观念。”

She is looking forward to the freelance life. “I really want to dive into the gig economy. I know the money isn’t comparable, but the work isn’t comparable either.”

她期待自由职业者的生活。“我真的想从事这种零工工作。我知道赚的钱没有可比性，但这份工作也没有可比性。”

In her old job, she would sometimes hope that it was lunchtime — only to find it was still only 9am. Today, she is surprised at how quickly the days have gone.

以前上班时，她有时会期望已经到了午餐时间，结果发现还只是上午9点。现在，日子快得让她惊讶。

Listen to Reny’s story on the accompanying podcast, which includes advice on how to make a fresh start in the arts, at ft.com/work-carreers A legal turn to crime fiction William Ryan, who went from corporate lawyer to crime novelist, gave up the day job before he had written anything. “But it was a very bad idea — and shouldn’t have worked out.” Instead, the author, most recently of The Constant Soldier, encourages aspiring writers not to give up their jobs: “Writing is a relatively precarious profession and there seems to be a misapprehension that writers live a life of leisure, possibly in a villa in Italy, working for a couple of hours in the morning before spending the rest of the day totting up the royalty cheques. It isn’t like that, sadly.

律师转行成犯罪小说家威廉•瑞恩(William Ryan)曾是一名企业律师，后来转行成为犯罪小说家。他什么都没写出来的时候就辞掉了正职。“但这个主意非常糟糕，根本就不该那样想。”威廉•瑞恩最近出版了《忠诚的战士》(The Constant Soldier)，这位作家建议有志当作家的人不要辞掉工作：“写作是一个相对不稳定的职业，而且人们似乎有种误会，以为作家都过着悠闲的生活，也许住在意大利的别墅里，上午工作几个小时，每天剩下的时间就是算版税支票。很可惜，作家的生活不是这样的。” “出版界总在寻找下一个大热门，所以他们会在新秀作家身上砸钱。但如果一位作家的书卖不动，预付款就会减少而不是增加，有时候会减少得非常突然。” 他说大多数作者都有多个收入来源。瑞恩还在东英吉利亚大学(University of East Anglia)教授犯罪写作课程。他的学生几乎都有全职工作，他们都是在清晨或晚上创作。“问题是要保证定时写作，有点像去健身房，且要坚持下去。”