Shift Online - Boomers

Focus on: Encore Careers _________________________________________

Team Teaching: Opportunity for Encore Careers

The numbers are unnerving: America will lose a third of its veteran teachers during the next four years, and more than half in less than a decade.

A new national initiative, spawned by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, is calling for the selective replacement of solo teachers in public school classrooms with cross-generational learning teams.

The teams would consist of novice and veteran educators, interns, online educators and digital media specialists, community members and industry veterans with specific subject expertise.

Time to Chase a Career Dream?
Crumbling markets, huge layoffs and widespread financial panic have unleashed a giant wave of creative yearnings. People from all walks of life are realizing that a time of economic turmoil offers a great opportunity to reinvent careers.

One person said, "I'm an online education program administrator and I want to start a church." Another said, "I'm an I.T. project manager and think about leading hiking trips, being a reporter, writing full time, to name a few!"

And from yet another: "My husband is a surgeon and longs to be a musician."

The World Wide Rodent Eradicator

If the image of a caretaker brings to mind a creepy, solitary character from the pages of Stephen King, meet a new breed who travels the world fighting rodents, loose roof tiles, burst pipes and other harbingers of second-home apocalypses.

The economic crisis may have upended many lives, but some intrepid types have found that leaving the rat race can mean living in a dream house — with mortgages, taxes and utilities already covered.
Find Work with a Purpose. Yes ... Even Now.
We're urged to "discover our life's purpose" before committing to our next job or career. All well and good, if you have a steady income and a tolerable job. If not, you feel the need to be "practical" and "realistic".

That's a natural reaction. However, this might be just the time to consider what gives you a sense of purpose. Be gentle with yourself. It doesn't have to be the one purpose that you're on this earth to perform.

Do Amazing Work. Yes, You.

Amazing work can be any kind of work, if it fulfills you. A few examples: helping others, inspiring others, teaching others, healing others, making something beautiful, creating something useful.

If we can't amaze the entire world for generations to come, perhaps we can amaze ourselves. The first key: start imagining.

You Got Some 'Splainin' to Do
by SHiFT Contributing Editor Liz Willis
Wondering how to justify your career change decision to family, friends, and — most importantly — potential clients or employers?

Learn how an architect moved seamlessly into brand management by explaining how her skills related to the new field. "The Art of Your Story" is part of a brand new Wall Street Journal career resource called "Reinvent".

Early Geniuses and Late Bloomers

Ben Fountain was an associate in a real-estate practice, just a few years out of law school, when he decided he wanted to write fiction. He was married, with two children.

The only thing he'd ever published was a law-review article. Literary training? A handful of creative-writing classes in college. So he decided to quit his job.

Buff Yourself Up
by SHiFT Contributing Editor Cheryl Laurent

There are dozens of tools, articles and resources at CandidatesChair.com for writing your resume, improving your networking, and many other aspects of guiding yourself through your transition.

Historic Moment for Encore Careers
National Service Isn't Just for Kids Anymore

The bipartisan Serve America Act, which President Barack Obama signed in May of 2009, is the most comprehensive national service legislation in our history. It creates Encore Fellowships in all 50 states, plus provisions to help baby boomers transition to work in the nonprofit and public sectors.

Read More ...

Find the Work You Love

Want to toss the spreadsheet for a saucepan, or the PDA for a paintbrush? Switching careers midlife can be scary, especially in tough economic times, but armed with a well-conceived plan of action, you can end up with the job of your dreams.

A variety of factors — changing attitudes toward older workers, rising demand for workplace experience, and more powerful job-search resources (notably online) — are helping ease the way.

► Read More ...

Skimming The Surface
by SHiFT Contributing Editor Cheryl Laurent

Frances Woofenden took up water skiing after she turned 50. Thirty years later, she's a competitive phenomenon.

Watch the Video ...

Shifting Definitions: The Good Life

New research supports what we instinctively know: people with a sense of purpose are more likely to report being happy and describe themselves as living the Good Life.

Based on how people prioritize what is most important to them, they can be grouped into five basic segments: Meaning-Minded, Balanced Individualists, Balanced Givers, Financially Focused, and Hyper-Individualists. What kinds of events trigger how we prioritize?

Read the Summary Report ...

A New Deal for Neighborhoods

As an auto broker and real estate developer in Richfield, David Gepner has a professional stake in the massive federal Stimulus Package. He wants people to be able to buy cars and homes.

But at age 65, Gepner also has a personal stake. He sees the package as a prime opportunity to improve life in his 1950's-developed town — especially for its older residents.

Read the Rest of the Story ...

Smart Brains Never Retire

Progressive organizations recognize that older workers represent a wealth of experience — with little or no training needed. They also possess the positive traits of loyalty, and stick-to-itiveness.

At the Retired Brains website, you'll find find jobs, volunteer opportunities, educational resources, and lots of good retirement information.

Community Colleges Prep Boomers for Encore Careers

For tens of millions of baby boomers, a new phase of life and work is opening up between the end of midlife careers and the beginning of true old age.

Encore, a think tank which aims to help society achieve the greatest return on experience, has announced the 10 community colleges that will lead a major national effort to help prepare boomers for careers in education, health care and social services.

► Read On ...

Baby Boomers in 2028: A Projection
They confront a longer lifespan, the widest rich-poor gap in recent generations, a global energy shortage, new economic realities and a Web-based infrastructure.

How will Boomers adapt? According to a recent MetLife study, just as they've always done. Acting resourceful and self-reliant. Forming economic, health and social collectives — and families of choice.
► View the Report ...

Out of a Job: Change Is Good

Early this year, Jenny Hourihan Bailin lost her Wall Street job in a restructuring. As she searched for a new job, she realized that -- in her heart -- she didn't want to return to the world of investment banking.

"I have decided to switch to the nonprofit world, and I know it won’t be easy," she says. "I will need to convince a nonprofit that my experience in banking will be a source of transferable skills."

Her personal inventory: analytical ability, planning and budgeting, delivering creative ideas in a compelling way to senior executives, and training talent.

► Read On ...

Deborah Russell

The Case for Workers over 50
New research confirms what many may have known all along: on top of experience, older workers bring valuable traits such as lower turnover, greater dependability, a stronger work ethic, and flexibility over work schedule and pay.

Deborah Russell is no novice when it comes to advocating for workers over 50.

As Director of Workforce Issues for AARP, for nearly 20 years she's tried to convince employers to set policies and practices to take advantage of this crucial segment of the workforce. And it's working.

⇒ Check out audio clips of an interview with Deborah.

Step up ... and Connect
For every person who has landed a fulfilling retirement job, there are others who, despite their valuable work and personality traits, have not found the courage or the path to connect with an employer.

At RetirementJobs.com, the goal is to identify companies most-suited to older workers and match them with active, productive, conscientious, mature adults seeking a job or project that matches their lifestyle.

The Act of Giving Reconsidered

When most of us consider the act of giving, we tend to think only in terms of time or money. Things we would like to share but barely have enough of for ourselves.

But we have far more to give than we realize. And we stand to benefit more from giving than we can begin to imagine.

The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All is a book full of personal stories and inspirational ideas, as well as thought-provoking exercises that help the reader discover what he or she has to give, and how best to give it.

► Read a Review ...

Retiring Boomers Create Demand for Senior Managers

Bridgespan, a consulting group that helps find leaders for nonprofits, estimates that retiring boomers and the growth of the nonprofit sector will create a need for 640,000 senior managers during the coming decade, twice as many as are needed now.

The need dovetails nicely with the boomers' desire to work longer which is documented in a survey released in June by Civic Ventures and the MetLife Foundation.

The survey found that nearly 75% of boomers in the U.S. are planning to work past the traditional retirement age, and half of them want to work in jobs with a social purpose.

A Shifting Landscape for Baby Boomer Job Seekers

A weak economy is putting a tighter squeeze on workers in their 50s and 60s. Many have spent their career with only one or two employers, and a lot of them are looking for work for the first time in years.

"The world has changed since they last went job hunting, and some don't have a clue what to do," says Renee Ward, founder of an online community for mature workers.

► Visit the Seniors4Hire website.

Retain Older Workers: Give 'Em Incentives

A recent survey points to what employers must do to convince retiring workers to stay.

Although there is no one size fits all formula, an Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) survey suggests successful strategies include making workers feel appreciated, offering them a full or partial pension while working part-time, and making seasonal or contract work available.

Timing is critical. Two-thirds of retirees reported that such offers would've been a lot more effective if they'd about them in the two years before they intended to retire. Nearly two-thirds also were receptive to employers asking them to stay longer.

► Read More ...

Jan Hively on Minnesota Innovation

SHiFt's co-founder, and the founder of the Vital Aging Network, shares her thoughts in a recent interview on the rich tradition of innovation in Minnesota — and why it's needed more than ever.

As the state prepares for the coming Age Wave of baby boomers reaching a time of traditional retirement, Jan Hively says we'll need to find innovative ways to engage them — and other older people — more productively. Watch the interview here.

Baby Boomers Launch Encore Careers

It's been widely reported that boomers will continue to work past retirement age, but it hasn't been clear what kind of work they will do.

A new survey released in June found that between 5.3 and 8.4 million Americans ages 44 to 70 have already launched "encore careers" that combine income and personal meaning with social impact. And of those surveyed who are not already in encore careers, nearly 50% say they want one.

"The people who are pursuing encore careers are true pioneers," said Sibyl Jacobson, president and CEO of the MetLife Foundation. "They are blazing not only their own path but also one for those just behind them – workers who share their aspirations but have not taken the plunge."

► Read More ...

Encore!
Encore.org serves the growing network of people who want the personal fulfillment of giving back, along with continued income. The website provides news, resources and connections for individuals and organizations establishing "encore careers" that combine social contribution, personal meaning and financial security.

Encore.org has also developed a Career Finder tool that scours more than five million listings to find jobs in nonprofit, environmental, health, education, social service and governmental organizations.

Recruiting the Over-50 Workforce

Gene Burnard knows what it’s like to be over the age of 50 and looking for work.

That’s because he’s older than 50, himself, and runs an online service that helps retirees and mid-life career seekers find jobs.

Burnard’s site, Workforce50.com, has more than 4,000 employers who pay $109 per job listing to advertise to job-seekers older than 50. A free service for job seekers. Based in Colorado.

Third-Age Life Planning: A Holistic Approach

Last year, an assembly of the nation's leading baby boomer and retirement gurus descended on Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., for a first-ever "life planning summit," of sorts.

At issue? How to best address the multitude of concerns - some might say fears - facing the nation's 78 million baby boomers on the cusp of transitioning into retirement.

A SHiFT Sponsor, SecurePath by Transamerica, has captured video clips of some of the presenters including Richard Leider, Gene Cohen, John Nelson, Ken and Mary Gergen.

The Answer: You Make It Up Yourself

When Kathryn Hanson retired at the age of 55, she discovered she was ill-prepared for the "quicksand of emotions that threatened my very well-being." She added: "For the first time in my life I had time to make real holiday cookies in December."

Her journey led to SecurePath by Transamerica, a SHiFT Sponsor, where she's the Editor of a new Second Careers page on the company's website. Check it out.

Career Transition Group
2nd and 4th Tuesdays, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Woodbury Lutheran Church
7380 Afton Road, Woodbury
Cost: Free

The Career Transition Connection (CTC) meets the second and fourth Thursday's of each month throughout the year except on holidays.

The forum is guest speakers at each meeting who focus on the needs of those in transition. Each meeting also allows time for networking, sharing success stories and general Q&A. The goal of the CTC @ WLC is to reach out for support to those people in career transition or thinking of transitioning in a Christian support environment.

Contact: 651-739-5144.

GetGo MN: Build Your Business

GetGoMN is a community by and for entrepreneurs, investors and those that support them.

From their website: "Join the GetGo community to make strong connections and build your business by:

Discovering opportunities and people that support your business initiatives.
Providing access to top-notch tools and resources.
Introducing your company to potential investors.
Finding proven professional service providers and advisors."