Finding Your Encore Career

Editor’s note: This article is part of The Great Unretirement, a Next Avenue initiative made possible by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation and EIX, the Entrepreneur Innovation Exchange.

You see them everywhere. In supermarkets, in big-box hardware stores, at ballparks. They are the once-retired who have returned to work.

Some work from home as consultants or have found employment as insurance salespeople, proofreaders or financial managers.

At the top are executives who believed they wanted to retire at 55 but returned to the C-suite because they missed the challenge of leading a team.

Just four years ago, during the pandemic, older workers began leaving the workforce in large numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more adults aged 65 and older left the work force in 2020 than any year since 1948, when the U.S. began tracking the data.

Many of those who left the during the early part of the pandemic have "unretired" since then — more than half, according to a paper by T. Rowe Price Thought Leadership Director Judith Ward, a Certified Financial Planner. Of the 2.4 million additional people who retired in 2020, 1.5 million had "unretired" by March 2022.

These numbers are part of a growing trend of older workers who retire — not always by choice — and then decide to return to work seeking income or mental stimulation or both.

Approximately 19% of Americans aged 65 and older are employed today, according to the Pew Research Center, compared with just 11% in 1987. Yet, in the early 1960s, the share of those working was similar to today at 18%.

Rich Feller, 73, a long-time professor who teaches three courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Colorado State University, notes there is a "whole movement toward deep reflection" since COVID. Further, retirees "have moved on from their achievement era," and want to know what the "possibilities" for them are. They want to learn and contribute.

Sometimes a move to a completely different type of work is a temporary solution. Mike, aged 62, who preferred not to use his last name to maintain privacy, stepped down from his nonprofit management position in 2018, giving the association six months' notice. "I wasn't ready to retire, but I felt it was time to move on," he said. "I struggled to find my next position for a year." At age 56, he realized "I may not get back into the field, the kind of work I had been doing" but "didn't want to dig into our nest egg." He felt "a little bit" like he was "de facto" retired.

So, he and his wife both found jobs during the pandemic at Home Depot. "It was kind of a desperation at the time," he said. They needed some income. She landed a job in sales while he prepared online orders in home improvement. The stint turned into a couple of years.

"I never minded working with my hands, "Mike said. "I made that crossover. I ended up doing that longer than I thought. It was more physically demanding than I even thought. I lost 15 pounds in the first month." The stint turned into a couple of years.

Then, in early 2022, an information technology contractor he knew from his previous position contacted him, mentioning that the nonprofit Mike had worked for earlier in his career was considering an executive hire. He contacted the nonprofit, where two people he had previously worked with were still in leadership roles, and began working remotely 30 hours a week. It turned into a fulltime remote position, which pays at close to the same level he was making before he stepped down in 2018.

Support from a spouse, friends, former colleagues, a support group or a career reinvention coach can help. Consider Steve Robinson, who spent the first 30 years of his working life with the same company. Beginning as a sales representative, he ultimately rose to be its president in 2016.

But the culture of the company changed, and so did Robinson. "I really wanted out," Robinson, now 66, recalled. "I thought I was marketable in my industry. It turned out I wasn't. I floundered for about a year, got my real estate license. I was lost. I didn't know what to do."

That year he turned 60. In addition, the payout of shares he had in the company took much longer — seven years — than expected.

For Robinson, his path to an "encore career" was fraught with trial and error. Ultimately, career reinvention coach John Tarnoff, author of the book, "Boomer Reinvention: How to Create Your Dream Career Over 50," helped him get on track.

"It was pivotal," Robinson said. "What he taught me was to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do, then re-purpose my LinkedIn page."

Robinson, like others who find themselves retired before they feel ready, had to determine what was important to him in his 60s. He realized "it was better to live life on my terms" as a consultant rather than seek a position as an employee.

Throughout most of his career he chased "big money, a big title," which he achieved, earning more than $300,000 a year in salary and bonuses. After some soul-searching and coaching, he realized he didn't really like being in management, and began to carve out consulting work developing small and medium-sized businesses.

While he had years of business experience, he sought additional skills, including digital marketing and artificial intelligence. As a member of LinkedIn Premium, he has access to free digital-marketing classes.

Returning to the workforce is not necessarily a simple process. It requires some reflection, an honest evaluation of where you are in your life, and why you are seeking to "unretire" or find an "encore" career.

Know Yourself. Think about "who am I at this time in my life?" said John Tarnoff, 72. "How can I be useful?" In addition, determine which parts of your work you liked and which you didn't, said Chris Blunt, CEO of F&G Annuities & Life, Inc., who retired at 55 as a divisional president in the insurance industry.

Within four months, a recruiter contacted him about his current position. Now aged 62, he has been at F&G since January of 2018. "I don't have to work," he said. "I like to work." He missed the challenge of building and working with a team.

Consider Your Time Commitment. How much time are you willing to devote to an "encore" career? Do you want to work a 40-hour week or do you prefer to work part time at 20 hours?

Identify Your Core Skills. Look at your entire work history to determine your value. "Develop a career summary," said Damian Birkel, founder of Professionals in Transition, a nonprofit job search support group in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This is the best of your past, and where you want to go in the future.

"It comes down to marketing your transferable skills," said Birkel, who turned 70 in December. If you choose to become a consultant, "you need a website," said Washington, D.C., area career coach Shira Lotzar.

Be the Solution. "The first thing is to be the answer to the employer's needs," said Birkel. The search process is the same but "more targeted and more niched," said Tarnoff. "Be specialists not generalists. Employers want you to be a specific solution to a specific problem."

Leverage Your Network. Once you figure out your interests, start networking. Ask, "Do you know anyone who does this?" Tarnoff said. It expands "like ripples in a pond."

How you network will depend on whether you are looking for a corporate job or you are becoming a consultant. Cast a wide net. Contacting five or six people isn't enough. Ask for 20-minute informational interviews; send the five questions you will ask ahead of your meeting. Avoid putting contacts on the spot by asking if they know of or have a job. Ask if there is anyone else they suggest you contact.

"Despite digital tools, there is nothing superior to getting out and meeting as many people as you can," said Blunt.

Figure Out Your Value. When looking for work, whatever the reason, be prepared to encounter ageism, experts say. "Younger people don't understand what it means to be older, to have the experience," Tarnoff said. "You have to explain your value."

Harriet Edleson is author of the book, “12 Ways to Retire on Less: Planning an Affordable Future.” A former staff writer/editor/producer for AARP, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and Kiplinger's Retirement Report. Read More