I am that point in my life that if I were to interview for a role, chances are that the person interviewing me is significantly younger and with Children not yet in middle school. Unlike me at that age, these folks have been on a Career track for a decade plus and don't plan to pause or stop. Having never been that person despite having gone through that life stage, I find it hard if not impossible to relate to them. Conversely, I know several women who took long hiatus to raise children alone or with a partner who was pursuing their career full throttle. 

These women now have the time to focus on career - its as if they completed one lap and are starting the next one. Most people around them are way ahead but few have completed their first lap. This is the demographic I can identify with. They tend to be goal-oriented but without the burning need to prove and achieve milestones at a remarkable clip. If that is your boss, in order to be a team player you need to pull your weight in proportion to their ambitions. You need to be supremely motivated by the tokens, accolades and recognition of performance. 

If those things don't mean much to you and you have your own personal motivations to do the work you do, you are not a fit. I have seen a few women like me struggle to find a professional home where they can thrive and deliver their unique value instead of being caught up in the mesh of metrics they cannot relate to or agree with. There is plenty of advise for empty nesters wanting to re-enter the workforce but not much is talked about folks like me who put career on backburner for decades without ever opting out of it. 

In an ideal world I would love to be honest and say that I really started to think about what I should be doing in terms of a "career" three years ago once J left to college. The stuff before that was whatever I needed to do to take care of her needs and wants. Sometimes I lucked into a great opportunity that allowed for personal and professional growth. There were other times when the job was mundane but predictable so I stayed because it was convenient. Either way, I never had a plan and there was no career. In a sense, I am like a person a few years out of grad school just that I have been around way longer and learned things along the way.