In the wake of layoffs, long spells of unemployment and other career upheavals, more workers are discovering that taking a new direction might just be the first step in a series of career changes. Today, a few years into this economic downturn, career reinvention isn’t just about finding a new path. It’s about trying a path, and then trying another.

Mario Dubovoy has been through a series of reinventions, bringing him to his latest career — Internet entrepreneur. These days, he works the phones and surfs the Web on the hunt for companies that want to post their discounts and promotions on his website and mobile app, Couponmat.com.

His new occupation represents his third career shift in the last five years. “I have had to assess the situation and adapt to circumstances,” said Dubovoy, 49.

Prior to founding Couponmat.com, Dubovoy spent two years as a private banker and before that, he sold residential real estate. “From everything you do, you learn something,” Dubovoy said. “I try not to make the same mistakes.”

Career expert Katharine Brooks calls the trend toward multiple reinventions “wise wanderings.” “If you can plan out the next five to 10 years, that’s great. But bright people wander in the job process and that’s a good strategy sometimes.”

Initially, career reinvention or transition requires you to assess how you can apply your skills in another industry. “Sometimes that works out beautifully and sometimes you realize you can do the job, but you just don’t like it,” said Brooks, director of the liberal arts career services at the University of Texas at Austin.

Experts say many of us will hold 11 or 12 jobs in our lives, by choice or because of drastic changes in the economy and our industries. A Bureau of Labor Statistic longitudinal survey tracked persons born in the latter years of the baby boom (1957 to 1964) and found the average worker held 11 jobs from age 18 to age 44. While they hold jobs longer as they get older, these baby boomers continued to have large numbers of short-duration jobs even at middle age. Among jobs started by 39- to 44-year-olds, 33 percent ended in less than a year, and 68 percent ended in fewer than five years.

In a recession where jobs were scare, some initial career transitions had been out of necessity rather than choice. When South Florida real estate appraiser George Campbell, 43, saw the bottom drop out of the market, he realized he needed a new career with stability. Campbell opted for a low-pressure occupation — bridge tender. It paid a salary and had benefits. But after two years opening and closing a bridge in Lake Worth, Campbell was bored. “I realized I was too young to do this forever,” he said.

When the receptionist left at his wife’s hair salon, Campbell began contemplating taking the job and expanding the responsibilities. “I looked at what I could make the job into,” he said. Since then, Campbell has become the salon manager. He has launched an email marketing campaign for the salon, created a Facebook page, taken over the payroll and accounting tasks and he books appointments. “I’m finding it very enjoyable,” he said. “It has afforded me an opportunity to learn some new things as well as apply skills I haven’t used in while.”