Retire early? Is there really nothing to do after the age of 35?

Recently, Tencent released a new benefit: Tencent employees who have been employed for 15 years can choose to retire early. As soon as the news went viral, netizens were filled with envy. It is true that if you count from graduation, 15 years after joining Tencent, you are already between 35 and 40 years old. This age is in an extremely embarrassing situation for Internet companies that want to stay young - layoffs, mediocrity , no promotion...all cause great anxiety among working people of this age group all the time.

There are only a handful of major companies that offer this benefit, and the audience is not very wide. So, for those of us who don’t have this benefit, what can we do at the age of 35, the inevitable watershed in the workplace? What? In this regard, professional consultant Manson can give some advice.

@professionalconsultantManson

Age is an unavoidable topic for people in the workplace, especially middle-aged professionals who are more or less filled with anxiety when it comes to age.

In fact, compared to age, I think cognition is more easily ignored for middle-aged professionals. If your cognition is limited, your vision will be limited and you will remain stubborn. All you can see and what you think you can do is only a space as big as a palm. In other words, the larger your cognitive boundary is, the more things you can do, and your anxiety will naturally be reduced.

Today’s era is full of opportunities and challenges. The person you used to pay little attention to may now be a small Internet celebrity in a certain field, but you don’t pay attention or sneer at such things. In the conventional sense, that is not a serious job. This is cognition. We have been imprisoned for too long by the previous thinking mode based on experience. As a result, when a new thing appears, we cannot accept and learn with an open mind, and it may even be a bit awkward. Disdainful, simply thinking that only things within the scope of one's own knowledge are correct or things one can do.

So what you can do after the age of 35 does not depend on your age, but more on your cognitive boundaries.

The following provides you with 3 suggestions to deal with the inevitable watershed in the workplace at the age of 35.

1. Break old knowledge

This level is the most difficult level, especially for middle-aged professionals, because we have always relied on the experience and experience accumulated in the past. Continuing to do the work that I am relatively good at has already formed a habitual thinking of doing things. The so-called breaking of old knowledge actually means breaking our old thinking mode, accepting new things, and thus building a new thinking mode.

Take myself as an example. I am just 35 years old this year. I have been doing training before, and my thinking mode is also that of internal training and business training. Coincidentally, I transferred internally this year and became a product manager. At first, I didn’t think it was a big change, and I didn’t think it was too difficult. I happily accepted the position. Now it seems that this is the limitation of cognitive boundaries. The actual ability requirements of this position are different from what I imagined.

In every practical work task, I habitually use training thinking to think and solve problems. However, after several times, I found that this obviously does not work. Later, I made personal adjustments. I only did one thing, which was to deliberately "forget" the thinking of training and look at work tasks as a "novice". Of course, when I need to do training, I will again Train the mind to "remember."

It is really difficult to change your thinking habits, especially at the age of 35. Sometimes you not only have to deal with the inertia of your thinking, but you also have to learn to put down your dignity, adjust your mentality, and respect people younger than you. Go and ask for advice. Just yesterday, at the age of 35, I learned from an Internet product manager who is 8 years younger than me how to use Mockplus to draw prototypes. I didn’t feel like I couldn’t keep up during the whole process. On the contrary, I felt that the new gains made me more fulfilled. , I can face changes calmly, and I believe you can too!

2. Reconstruct new knowledge

How will you make money in the future? I think making money depends on knowledge.

Your cognitive boundary can cover other people's cognition, then you will make money from those whose cognition you cover. Before that, you have to gain new knowledge and the more you know than others, the better. This is a very interesting level. When your desire to learn continues to expand and is satisfied again and again, you will be extremely happy. You will feel your own growth as your knowledge continues to cover other people's knowledge.

In the process of reconstructing new knowledge, it is recommended that everyone learn more about different thinking modes, continuously switch and use these thinking modes in corresponding scenarios, and practice deliberately. Let me take myself as an example. When I was a product manager, I would switch to the thinking mode of a product manager to think about problems; when doing training, I would switch to the training mode to think about problems. This is very interesting. Sometimes I also use the thinking of a product manager to think about training and how to make the course more experiential. When you have the will to gain new knowledge and continue to gain it, you will not feel that everything is difficult to achieve, but will feel that it is a matter of course.

3. Dare to try

Finally, let’s talk about what you can do after the age of 35.

In fact, there is no fixed suggestion, because everyone’s current situation and abilities are different, and it is impossible to give a general suggestion, such as what position you are suitable for, etc. It's actually very irresponsible to say this. But the method that can be provided to everyone is that you have to find those parts of your current abilities and experiences that can be transferred to other fields.

Take me as an example. I used to do a lot of business training. At that time, I had to think about what kind of course topics and training designs would give customers the best experience and would pay for them. These thinking patterns and abilities are the thinking patterns and abilities that I can transfer to the position of product manager, because product management is a process of continuous exploration under the premise of commercial realization.

Therefore, as a 35-year-old, you need to think about how much of your current abilities can be transferred to other fields and positions. The more transferable parts, the higher your suitability for this new position. After finding the direction, the key is to dare to try. If you imagine it better, it is better to experience it in person. Don't be afraid of failure. When you feel "pain", you are growing.

Just write it here, I hope it will be helpful to you who are also 35 years old. In fact, I never feel that I am 35 years old now. I have a family like you, but I am still full of energy and motivation. I just have more experience in dealing with things than before. But these so-called experiences may be The biggest obstacle that limits you. Remember the first level I mentioned at the beginning? Only by truly letting go of these things from the bottom of your heart can you pick up more valuable things.