Career Swerve

Taking a career swerve is not an easy decision to make, but it might just be one of the best things you’ll ever do. Rachel Spillane talks about what it means to transition later on in life and lean into our limitless potential. 

One of the great things about life is that it’s not linear. No path will bring you from point A to point B, especially when there’s the rest of the alphabet waiting in endless possibilities. Going with the flow and owning whatever life throws at us isn’t always easy, but our biggest transformations come from working through these challenges.
Whether you’re just stuck in a rut, or a career with no progression or perhaps your kids have just flown the nest, these are all amazing opportunities for change. And I’m not saying every change has to be as radical as packing up and moving across the globe (but hey, if you fancy it - do it), it can be as simple as enrolling in an evening course or exploring your most-loved hobbies - as long as you’re finding something to do that is filling you up with excitement and motivation. 

There is nothing wrong with transitioning later on in life. There is no set time limit on when you should have everything magically figured out, even the most successful celebrities have had major career swerves, finding their passions later than expected. Take a look… 

Peter Ostrum is a former actor who was catapulted into stardom as a child. Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket from ‘Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory’, left acting after filming the blockbuster film and returned to his normal childhood. When he tried to get back into acting, auditioning for various plays and movies, he wasn’t picked for any roles. Ostrum decided to forget the spotlight and instead pursued a career as a veterinarian. He earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Cornell Ostrum practices in a veterinary clinic in upstate New York. 

Brad Pitt, an actor known for playing incredible roles as well as one half of ‘Brangelina’, had a few unique jobs before his acting career took off. During high school, Pitt was very active in sports, playing golf, tennis and enjoying swimming. Later, he decided to study journalism at the University of Missouri but in his last year, he realized that he didn't like the media and that he would rather become an actor. Pitt went to LA, with a pocket full of dreams. However, it quickly became apparent it wasn’t as easy as he had thought. Pitt was a limo driver for strippers while putting himself through acting classes. He would drive them to and from bachelorette parties at night. He was also briefly a furniture mover and had to dress up like a chicken as a restaurant mascot until he finally found himself an agent. As of this year,  Brad Pitt's net worth is roughly $300 million, making him one of the richest actors in the world.

Neven Maguire has made great waves in the food industry - an Irish celebrity chef and television personality from County Cavan, he is also the head chef and proprietor of the MacNean House and Restaurant. Maguire has also published and launched several cookbooks and features regularly on television and radio in his native country. He writes a weekly column in the Irish Farmers Journal. But what about before Maguire became one of Ireland’s best-known celebrity chefs? Well, he was spinning decks at a nightclub in Enniskillen. Maguire would DJ on Wednesday and Saturday nights at Mirage nightclub - his dad would drive him over to the club after he finished working at the restaurant. He would play the last hour for free and then get a taxi home. The glamour of having a double life in your youth!

Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, experienced an almighty career swerve. After studying in high school to become a chemical technician, Pope Francis worked briefly in the food-processing industry. After this, he worked as a bouncer in Argentina at a nightclub to support himself while studying to become a priest. From then Pope Francis followed his calling to the Church, he was ordained a priest in 1969, took his final vows in the Jesuit order in 1973, and subsequently served as superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina. In 2013, Pope Francis became head of the Catholic Church. 

Julia Child, TV chef and author, became a cooking icon when her first cookbook 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' was published. She was 49 years old. 

Child originally enrolled in college as she dreamt of becoming a writer. Although she enjoyed creating short plays and regularly submitted unsolicited manuscripts to The New Yorker, none of her writing was published. After graduating, Child moved to New York where she worked in the advertising department of the prestigious home furnishings company W. & J. Sloane. It wasn’t until 1948 when Child moved to France did she develop a liking for French cuisine and then attended the world-famous Cordon Bleu cooking school. Although she didn’t start cooking until much later in her life, Child is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public and published a slew of bestselling cookbooks too.  

Whoopi Goldberg is best known for her work as an actress, award-winning comedian and human rights advocate, but what of her early life career? Goldberg dropped out of school at 17 after severely struggling with dyslexia that affected her studies. Goldberg moved to California, living in a variety of cities for the next seven years including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. During this time, Goldberg worked as a mortuary beautician. While working as a funeral make-up artist, she also pursued her career in acting, writing and hosting. Goldberg produced a lot of her one-woman shows, including the award-winning ‘The Spook Show’. Since then Goldberg has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards for her work in hit productions such as ‘The Color Purple’, ‘Ghost’ and ‘Sister Act’.  

Samuel L. Jackon is a hugely successful American actor, famous for his roles in Pulp Fiction and the Marvel Universe movies as Nick Fury. Growing up, Jackson had a difficult childhood. He was abandoned by his father, his mother raising him alone, and he suffered from a terrible stutter. Jackson went on to study at Morehouse College where he initially pursued a degree in Marine Biology. Things quickly changed when Jackson recognised his love of acting and so became an acting major. Jackson was expelled from Morehouse after he and his peers held several members of the college's board of trustees hostage, including MLK's father, to demand reform in the school's curriculum and governance. This thrust Jackson deep into the Black Power movement and he became involved in the civil rights movement. Jackson appeared in a few plays in minor roles but his career skyrocketed when Quentin Tarantino wrote the role of Jules Winnfield with Jackson in mind for his film Pulp Fiction - Jackson was 44. Jackson is ranked as the all-time highest-grossing box office star with a total of his movies grossing $10.1 billion. 

Marian Keyes, a Limerick native, is one of the most successful Irish novelists of all time. Though she was brought up in a home where a lot of story-telling went on, it never occurred to her that she could write. Instead, she studied law and accountancy at University College Dublin. When Keyes finally started writing short stories, she applied for a postgraduate degree in Journalism but wasn’t accepted into the programme. So she travelled to the UK and put her degree to use, working as an accounts clerk in London. Keyes continued to write short stories there and on a whim, sent a letter to a publisher telling them she had started working on a novel (even though she had no interest in writing one). The publishers were interested, so interested that they wanted to see the first few chapters of the novel which Keyes frantically wrote. This became the makings of her first book in 1995, Watermelon. It became a hit in Ireland, Great Britain and America and Keye’s career as an author skyrocketed. Now, she has 13 published novels.  

One of the world's most famous authors and dubbed ‘King of Horror’ Stephen King had originally gone into teaching high-schoolers. King attended the University of Maine in Orono, where he wrote for the school newspaper, The Maine Campus, and was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. King graduated with a degree in English and a qualification in teaching high-schoolers. He married his wife, Tabitha after graduation but she struggled to find work. They lived on his earnings as a labourer at an industrial laundry. King then took a part-time position at a high school as the janitor, where he had the first inklings of inspiration for his best-selling novel, ‘Carrie’. King eventually began to teach English classes at a public school in Maine but continued writing in the evenings and on weekends. In 1973, Carrie was accepted for publication and a few months later, King learned from his new editor that a major paperback sale would provide him with the means to leave teaching and write full-time.  

American actor and comedian Ken Jeong hadn’t initially wanted to pursue acting. While Jeong loved comedy growing up and had idolised comedy legend Jim Carrey, his parents had urged him toward a more stable career path. He completed his pre-med studies at Duke University in 1990 and obtained his medical degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. While training for his residency, Jeong frequented comedy clubs, networking and earning a good reputation for himself as a comedian. Soon he appeared on ABC’s ‘The View’ and earned the title "The Funniest Doctor in America." Jeong appeared on other TV shows like Entourage and the US Office in minor roles until 2009 when Jeong was cast in his breakthrough role, as Asian mobster Mr Chow in the comedy film ‘The Hangover’. The film became one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies of all time and Jeong became a regular (and legend) in the comedy world.