Encore Careers Advice

Just getting started in your search for an encore career? Check out our new Get Started Guide, which offers expert advice, helpful books and Web sites, tips and success stories – plus answers to your questions about how to pursue careers in education, health care, government and the environment.

Professional advice, organized by the four stages of an encore career.
Click on each category name to jump to that section.

Explore

Questions to Help You Find Your Calling in Life

Posted 01/25/2009 - 4:36pm

One’s calling in life, says the author and minister Frederick Buechner, is “that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” To find your calling in an encore career, ask yourself: What need in the world will ignite the passions in my heart, tap my natural gifts, educational background and skills, and bring new vitality to all of life?

by: Sam Shafer | Read more >>

Three Paths to Happiness in an Encore Career

Posted 05/13/2009 - 9:16am

Encore careers combine continued income, social impact and personal fulfillment. But while it’s relatively straightforward to calculate continued income and even possible to measure social impact, it’s more difficult to know, in advance, if an encore career will provide personal fulfillment.

by: john nelson | Read more >>

Why Character Matters in Your Encore Career

Posted 07/23/2009 - 4:44pm

In searching for an encore career you may be looking for the life or work calling where you can be of the greatest service in addressing an unmet need in the world. Whether it is tutoring underprivileged children, serving as a mentor to foster youths, caring for the elderly, working with a prison inmate or bringing a new technology or approach to empower people in a foreign land, the opportunities are almost limitless.

But as you pursue your encore career, don’t overlook the central driver that motivates you and which can inspire young people who are disillusioned with national figures implicated in scandals. It is character itself that is the call of the hour and the safeguard of our nation’s future.

by: Sam Shafer | Read more >>

Prepare

How Much Money Do You Need for Your Encore Career?

Posted 12/28/2009 - 2:02pm

It would be nice if there were a single, simple “calculator” you could use to determine whether or not you can afford to transition to an encore career. Alas, financial calculators are only as useful as the assumptions that go into them. Typically, the more assumptions that go into a model, the higher the odds that one faulty input will geometrically impact the
output – for the worse.

So, what to do? Think Occam’s razor. When faced with a choice, opt for the simplest solution. Here are three straightforward, powerful steps you can take to help figure out how to finance your encore career:

by: ManishaThakor | Read more >>

What Is Driving Your Encore Career?

Posted 09/11/2009 - 12:28am

By Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners

We are a nation of doers, so when we think about changing careers the first impulse is to ask, “Where do I want to work?” We’ve discovered through our research that the most successful transitions occur when people take the time to discover what makes them tick.

by: Jeri Sedlar | Read more >>

Finding a Nonprofit Career During Tough Times

Posted 07/28/2009 - 2:34pm

By Jeri Sedlar and Michael Watson

The unemployment rate is frightening, jobs are being cut across the nation and hiring freezes are in place at many organizations. Yet nonprofits are continuing to recruit experienced people. To be hired, you need to be strategic and smart as you investigate your next act during these changing times.

| Read more >>

How to Make the Switch to the Nonprofit Sector

Posted 11/20/2008 - 4:09pm

The time has come to put your personal passion to work for a cause greater than yourself. Now what?

The advice from job counselors who specialize in transitions from the commercial world to nonprofit organizations: Follow your passion. Reframe your career. Try it before you buy it. And check your ego at the door.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

How to Find a 'Green' Encore Career

Posted 11/21/2008 - 4:52pm

As a veteran journalist, Lynne Curry (left) knows how to spot trends. Newspapers and magazines are slashing their budgets, cutting into her income. But the new category of “green-collar jobs” is growing fast, despite the economic slowdown. So Curry earned a credential as a green building specialist.

Politicians and entrepreneurs alike herald green jobs as the next big thing to boost the ailing economy and fight climate change. And the new green economy is creating a host of encore career opportunities as well.

by: Marjorie Sun | 1 comment | Read more >>

How to Finance the Transition to Your Encore Career

Posted 11/21/2008 - 3:41pm

The break between your midlife work and your encore career can be as short as a weekend or as long as several years. Either way, planning ahead can increase the chances for a successful encore career and save you some money as well

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Health Insurance and Your Encore Career

Posted 07/13/2009 - 12:47pm

Retiree health coverage is increasingly rare, and individual insurance is expensive, but there are some steps people can take to prevent health insurance concerns from derailing their encore careers, according to U.S. News and World Report.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Find

How to Negotiate Your Encore Compensation Package

Posted 11/13/2009 - 12:40pm

Even in these tough economic times, many boomers are exploring ways to earn a living while serving their communities. Many are willing to give up some financial benefits for the psychic benefits of meaningful work.

These intrepid explorers need not be martyrs for the common good. The financial hit they take when moving into the nonprofit lane can be softened considerably by some smart negotiating. Lane changers who now enjoy nonprofit careers shared some surprising pointers about negotiating their new compensation packages.

by: jjelenko | Read more >>

Ace That Interview: How to Land a Job After Age 50

Posted 09/11/2009 - 12:31pm

By Joe Turner

“I was fully qualified and it makes no sense” is the most common complaint. “They simply don’t know how to hire” is another one. Or, “They told me that I was overqualified.”

Randy Block, a seasoned career transition coach and consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, often hears comments like these. He knows that the ultra-competitive job search process in today’s economy is especially hard for experienced individuals seeking encore careers. He advises them to think and act differently during interviews in order to succeed.

by: turnerjo | Read more >>

Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve When You Interview

Posted 06/08/2009 - 1:47pm

By Laura Gassner Otting

You’re called in for an interview for the job that could launch your encore career. The standard advice would be to promote your achievements, but that may not be the best strategy. Instead, voice your passion about this new stage in your life and share the “aha!” moment that set you on your new path.

| Read more >>

Networking on Steroids Opens Doors to Encore Careers

Posted 08/14/2009 - 2:43pm

Well before the current economic downturn, I cautioned against making the mistake of sitting back passively and waiting for job opportunities to come to you. Although you need to be open to the forces of serendipity putting new options in your path, you must attack the process of discovery with an active mindset.

by: jjelenko | Read more >>

Asking the Tough Questions About Your Encore Career

Posted 03/12/2009 - 2:19pm

Truth: Today’s nonprofit sector is a highly competitive job market. Encore careerists who accept this fact and then face these tough questions will be in a better situation to find ways to connect their passion and purpose with a paycheck.

by: Steven Pascal-Joiner | Read more >>

How to Tune Your Resume for Nonprofit Opportunities

Posted 01/20/2009 - 4:45pm

You have an excellent resume. Your senior-level, for-profit business experience is outstanding. But will it count in the much different world of nonprofits?

| Read more >>

How to Find Firms That Value Older Workers

Posted 11/20/2008 - 5:44pm

The projected workforce talent gap that will occur when boomers begin to leave their jobs and there aren’t enough younger workers to fill them is prompting many firms to start thinking about how to attract and retain experienced workers.

| 3 comments | Read more >>

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Marc Freedman: How to Move Beyond the DIY Transition to Encore Careers

Posted 11/16/2009 - 11:43am

Editor’s note: This column appeared in BusinessWeek’s special report, “The Case Against Retirement.”

After 25 years of climbing her first ladder at Hewlett-Packard, Gina Cassinelli knew it was time for a change. “All of a sudden, you wake up and you say…I can’t believe I’ve been here 20 or 25 years,” she recalls. “I loved what I did, but I don’t want to do it for 20 more.”

Cassinelli took early retirement, then tried to open a new career door with few guides and little help. “You get to a point in your life where you have to feel like what you’re doing matters,” Cassinelli says. “But how to do it? That’s hard.”

The road used to be much easier. For 50 years, the average fiftysomething American was headed inexorably toward a clear-cut career and life transition: the transition to a leisure-based retirement.

by: Marc Freedman | Read more >>

How We Can Change the World With Encore Careers

Posted 01/26/2009 - 2:12pm

Some people say it’s time for boomers to clear the room. And some leaders in the nonprofit world might agree.

It is easy to understand the reaction. With nearly 10,000 people turning 60 each day, an army of marketers now exists to tell boomers that they are the center of the universe. Steeped in nostalgia, the heavy peddling of boomer narcissism includes books and TV specials with names like The Boomer Century, Boomer Nation, and even the recent best seller Boom! In the words of a Dallas Morning News headline: “It’s All About the Boomers.”

by: Marc Freedman | Read more >>