For many in the Upstate, aging doesn’t mean retirement, but encore careers can have their own rewards and challenges
Whether driven by needs or wants, people are working longer, well into their 70s. As leisurely retirement is no longer the default option at the end of a career, many in their 50s and beyond are hitting the reset button and trying a second career, perhaps with even more intention and attention than their first. These “encore” or “second-act” careers come with their own sets of rewards and challenges.
Working, Again
A national study by the Families and Work Institute found that 20 percent of workers over age 50 had a retirement job, and 75 percent expected to have one. People working in retirement were highly satisfied and engaged in their work, and rated their workplaces more positively than people not yet retired.
Often, experts say, the stereotypical hobby-filled retirement isn’t an option when financial obligations continue. Sometimes that lifestyle just isn’t as fulfilling as people imagine.
“I tried staying home for a year and a half after I left my 20 years with Monsanto,” said Barbara Drummond, 73, senior analyst of facilities and real estate with Verizon Wireless. She began working for what was then Metro Mobile at age 50, after Monsanto moved its Greenville operations to Atlanta and Drummond chose not to follow. Instead, she retired, but wasn’t happy with that option for long.
“All my time was free to explore, relax and do all the things I thought retirement was, but it didn’t take long before I felt I wanted structure and a new experience in my life,” Drummond said. “I was divorced, my son was grown and had a life of his own. My family unit was small, so it was a good time to give my future lots of thought.”
Making Money
Sales, health care, franchises and niches related to the senior lifestyle are among the most popular and enjoyable choices, said Myles Golden, president of Golden Career Strategies. As for money, however, expect to make less. Golden said most of his clients overvalue their work experience and make wrong assumptions about the job market.
“Unrealistic expectations is one [challenge] I find myself talking about quite often,” he said. “I just got done talking with somebody who was just in a high six-figure career and his assumption is that somebody out there really needs him and he will be able to make the same income. Wrong.”
The truth is that only some of the skills built up over decades will be transferrable to a new career. Usually those are the “soft skills” like problem-solving or work ethic. The rest might have to be learned, which pay will tend to reflect.
Not only that, but it will likely take longer than expected to even land a job. Golden said seekers should expect to spend about one month of searching for every $10,000 of a previous salary. That means high-income earners probably will be unemployed for more than a year, though he said planning and diagnostics tests can cut that time in half.
Getting Real
Even as older workers become more common, employers’ perceptions of them have yet to catch up.
Career-seekers like Drummond often find themselves “overqualified” for jobs. Often that means that employers assume an applicant will want a salary commensurate with two or three decades of experience in his field, which employers do not intend to pay. But Golden said older employees, who tend to be more dependable and aren’t trying to climb the corporate ladder, might be better employees in the end.
Then there’s just the simple matter of bias.
“I hate to say ‘age discrimination,’ but what you see going on is younger clients in their mid-40s landing quicker than those clients that are 50 and over,” Golden said. It’s illegal for employers to say outright that they prefer younger candidates, but employers will use other descriptors such as years of experience to get the point across.
What’s more, the world probably will have changed quite a bit over the course of a person’s career, making adaptation a challenge. Drummond said it was “very stressful” to find new work in a changed landscape.
“My past training was really not in demand and I knew I would have to learn everything as if it was my first day to have a job. So, I may as well have been 20 years old, but found myself at the age of 50 and starting over,” she said. After being told repeatedly that she was overqualified for the jobs she wanted, Drummond realized she would have to start over with an entry-level position and salary.
Finding the Fit
Even without such obstacles it can take a while to figure out what kind of work, or work environment, is the best fit. Drummond spent two years working part time but found she craved the salary, benefits and long-term opportunities of the corporate world.
“After about a year of looking in the newspaper, I heard from a friend that the wireless cellphone industry was a good place to start because everybody was on fire to have a cellphone,” Drummond said. She followed the lead.
Once the right job is found, there are fringe benefits that cannot be measured as easily as pay. Golden said a meaningful second career can be an exciting time of learning and exploring. Drummond said working around young, energetic people was just what she needed and wanted. She enjoys the fast-paced, ever-changing industry in which she now works, even if she has to work harder than others to adapt to the next new thing.
As Drummond’s company changed names and owners, she said she always expanded on the roles she was given. That often led to new positions. Over 23 years she moved from accounting to her current role, traveling the country to set up and maintain operations at Verizon Wireless stores. She loves the motivational part of the job, helping others get to where they need to be.
“I was over 60,” she said. “It was unthinkable to me that I would do this, and most importantly that I could handle being on the road, cover lots of miles and continue to do this to date as I am approaching 74. Believe it or not, this is easier now for me than it was a few years ago.”
