[dagw]

Really? My family is full of 50+ year old engineers and I can't think of any engineers that I know that changed careers as they got older. Sure some of them may have taken on more management responsibilities as they got older, but non of them left engineering.

[imgabe]

If you're thinking of only the 50+ engineers you know, of course those ones haven't changed careers. You'd have to think of some 50+ year old actors or chefs you know and find out if they used to be engineers.

[dagw]

Fair point. Let me rephrase. Of everybody I know how's done a late career switch, engineers are extremely underrepresented, to the point I can't think of any. The closet I can come up with is a surveyor, which I suppose counts an engineer in some places.

The most common educational backgrounds to lead to a later life career switch in my limited observation is either teaching or banking/finance.