Civic Ventures’ new Get Started Guide answers 12 of the questions most commonly asked by individual seeking encore careers that offer income doing work that is personally fulfilling and has social impact.

Among the questions answers are “How can I update my job skills,” “How do I finance the transition to an encore career?” and “How do I transition from a corporate job to a nonprofit one?”

Professionals looking to reenter the science and technology
fields can enroll in the MIT Career Reengineering Program, a 10-month
part-time curriculum that requires students to take a class in the
fall and complete an internship in the spring.

Seattle-based Next Chapter of Puget Sound offers workshops, classes, seminars, one-on-one coaching, retreats and volunteer opportunities to help boomers increase their knowledge, find their passion, and better navigate transitions. The framework for the program comes from Civic Ventures and the Next Chapter initiative.

The Serve America Act creates Encore Fellowships for Americans age 55 and older to serve in one-year management and leaderships positions with nonprofit organizations.

“Older Americans who want to help solve the nation’s social problems will soon have even more opportunities to do so,” The New York Times reports.

“The legislation creates for the first time a series of programs that will help direct retirees into new roles in nonprofit and public service, on the front lines and in management,” adds The Wall Street Journal.

Media coverage of the Serve America Act reflects the growing nationwide enthusiasm — born of both choice and economic necessity — for tapping the talents and experience of aging baby boomers to tackle the nation’s increasingly urgent challenges.

Kiva Fellows get to see firsthand how microfinance impacts communities. Although Kiva Fellows are not paid, the “insider” experience of working directly with microfinance institutions overseas may help people decide whether a career in microfinance or international development is right for them.

For more information, check out the original Encore.org story “Kiva Fellows: Microfinance experience can lead to encore career.”

Dennis R. Sinar, 61, of Washington, N.C., took seven months off from his practicing medicine to explore strong masonry, antique restoration, archaeology and traditional Eastern medicine.

Lee Attix, 52, of South Portland, Maine, took a year away from his career in sales and marketing to transition to work focused on wildlife.

After her children were grown, Tari Marcou, 54, of Hamilton, Ohio, went on a meditation retreat in France, visited organic farms in Italy and checked out a wildlife awareness center in South Africa, then became a certified tour director.

These experienced adults are profiled in The New York Times by Tanya Mohn, who reports that taking a “gap year” is not just for college kids. Holly Bull, president of the Center for Interim Programs in Princeton, N.J., told her that midcareer breaks are garnering more interest. She says the average annual break costs $6,000 to $15,000 or less, if you limit travel and do low-cost programs.

Margaret Quan started her encore career early. At age 44, the Seattle resident quit her six-figure job as a software product manager to work for Doctors Without Borders, a medical humanitarian group that assists people in about 60 countries.

She had grown weary of business travel and being tethered to her BlackBerry, and she longed for the types of experiences she had while taking annual backpacking trips to countries such as Peru, Cambodia and India.

“I made the conscious decision to live the second half of my life with purpose,” Quan told The Seattle Times.

Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector by Laura Gassner Otting. Kaplan Publishing, 2007. This book introduces newcomers to the nonprofit sector, providing a wealth of information about how to find the right match.