Congratulations! One of the first steps in thinking about a career redirection at any age is having a positive attitude and your question indicates you have that going for you.

 

Check out the Explore Your Future  section of our website for some ideas on getting started with a self assessment. You will benefit from identifying the skills that you would like to use in the next part of your working life. Clarifying your values, interests, needs and personality characteristics will help define your direction. Think about what you liked about being a chemical engineer as that may give you some clues about your future direction. What jobs do family members and friends have that might sound interesting?

 

When you have been in one career for many years, it is sometimes hard to get started "thinking outside the box". Talk to others who have made changes. Since you have already thought about being a chef or a teacher, you could ask someone doing that work for an information interview - to gather more information about those careers. Begin to build a network of people who can give you information and be helpful in opening doors with potential employers when you are ready to job search.

 

We hope these suggestions will help you get started. Thanks for visiting our site and  asking this question.