From the course: Marci Alboher on Pursuing an Encore Career Instead of Retirement

What does all this mean for you?

From the course: Marci Alboher on Pursuing an Encore Career Instead of Retirement

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What does all this mean for you?

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- So, if you've been wondering how are you going to stay relevant, how are you going to work longer if you need to, how are you going to continue to have an impact as you get older, you're not alone. All of us are dealing with this, and what's important to realize is that as we age there are many, many skills and experiences that we have that are really valued and unique to being older, so I'll just share some of those. Older people are better at guiding and mentoring others. That also translates into teaching and coaching. Older people are often better at managing people, mostly because we've had more experience doing that. Then there's this whole realm of relational skills like empathy, listening, kind of tying lots of information together to come up with solutions. Those are all things that do get better as we age. So, if you're actually thinking about finding a job it's really important to understand what sectors are growing and hiring, and also what sectors are kind of friendly to older people. So, I'll just give you a few ideas, and there's reams of data on this but a few to keep in mind. Obviously we're talking about social change and causes and issues you care about, so it's good to understand that the nonprofit sector is where a lot of those jobs will be. It's where I work, so I have a lot of passion about that. The nonprofit sector happens to be growing at a rate three times the rate of the for-profit sector. Management roles are also a place where a lot of older people are getting hired, and older people tend to have more management experience. Another area that's kind of interesting to think about is the longevity economy. So, we've been talking a lot about what it means to have a society with more older people, and actually, we're going to be having a society with more older people than younger people. That actually translates into a whole lot of jobs. There are jobs like home renovations to help people age in place, for example, and then I just want to talk about two ways to work. So, what's really interesting is the biggest segment of the population that's in self-employment is the over-50 population. That's a radical difference from those under 50 where their number is one out of 14. Another thing to keep in mind is even though I said older people are often hired in management roles, I will tell you from talking a lot of people who have found encore careers, it's often really appealing to move from management roles into places where you're working one-on-one with people, going back to that kind of relational thing. I've heard countless people say, "I'm tired of budgets, I'm tired of administration. "I actually want to engage with people one-on-one." So, it's not just where the jobs are, but it's also thinking about how you want to work, and it could be really different for each of us.

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