The Question Has Changed Imagine being seventeen and being asked what you want to become. It has never been an easy question. At seventeen, most of us have only a limited idea of what a working life actually feels like, yet we are expected to make choices that may shape much of it. Today there is another complication. The professions we can see around us are already beginning to change, and some of the technologies that may shape a young person's future career have not yet been invented. Now imagine asking the same question at forty-five. You already became something. Perhaps several things. You have accumulated experience, learned how organisations really work, solved problems that never appeared in a textbook and developed ways of recognising situations that a newcomer would not yet notice. You may also have a mortgage, children, responsibilities and a professional identity that took years to build. Then a new technology appears and begins performing parts of the work that helped establish the value of that experience. At sixty, the question changes again. Society may tell you that people need to work longer, keep learning and remain economically active. At the same time, you may discover that some employers appear more interested in potential measured in years ahead than in capability built across decades behind. These are different lives. Yet increasingly they are meeting the same uncertainty. What should I prepare for?