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I am 59 and have worked as an IT contractor for over 20 years. Recently, my contract ended, and I’m transitioning away from my primary career. While I’m financially able to retire, I’m open to taking on less demanding paid work if the right opportunity comes along.
For those who retired from your primary career but later did other paid work, how did that happen? Did you plan it, or did the opportunity find you? Was it through networking, volunteering, former colleagues, or something else?
After 42 years in the TV news business, I retired two days shy of my 63rd birthday. I never intended to retire that early, but I’d reached my personal expiration date for the demands of that industry. I still wanted to work in some capacity, and the thought of working for my parish library system appealed to me.
Just a few days after I retired, I saw an opening for a Library Associate position. I applied, and after a hiring process that took several months, I was fortunate to get the job.
It’s full-time with benefits, but far less demanding than my previous career. (Of course, it pays less, too, but that’s fine at this stage of my life.) I feel lucky and blessed, and I can see myself doing this for many more years.
Excellent question. I was downsized at age 48. A friend ask me to join his company which competed with my previous employer, the catch no salary, only commission. Decided to take the opportunity, and it worked out great. So went from 50 hours a week, to 30 hours, then at 65 more like 20, and then down to 5 hours a week. As you can see I really liked what I was doing selling inkjet ink and parts, and finally at 78 decided to fully retire. The nice part about it all, is I worked from home since 1994 and because of the internet could work from cruise ships or anywhere in the world. It was the best downsizing ever.
I worked as a software engineer. When the Megacorp told me my pension wouldn’t increase after I reached 30 years service, but I could start drawing it then, I decided to take early retirement and get in some travel. Thinking I might need to supplement the pension, and ready to make a change, I planned to reinvent myself as a tech writer. I did my old job as a part-time contractor for nearly a year while I took writing classes at a local university (they turned out to be more useful for a future journalist, but I enjoyed them). When I got back from my first long trip I got a part-time job as a tech writer at a local start up run by former colleagues. I fully retired a few years later.
So, a combination of planning and networking, I suppose.
Jeffrey, while I think that it’s generally better to have a workable plan, sometimes things happen by accident.
When I left my job selling and delivering beer, my plan was to have a new career in financial services. If that didn’t work out, my fallback plan was to climb back into a truck.
I fell flat on my face in financial services, but the job presented me with the opportunity to establish my income tax practice. That certainly wasn’t part of the plan, still, things worked out very well.
Best of luck
I retired as pastor of my church at age 71. Years earlier I had been trained to do transitional interim ministry and because of the need of a nearby church, I was able to do interim ministry part-time, beginning the month after retirement. The point is that if skills are transferrable, it can lead to rewarding part-time work.
For me it was quite easy, I could be viewed as having a few retirements. For my first I was a government employee with an early retirement expectation based on age and years of service. When I reached the minimum requirement at age 51, I left after finding a new job through a former colleague and began collecting my pension as I matched my salary in the new job. The key to the transition was letting people know that I was available otherwise they think you are content in your government job.
Later, that employer merged with another company providing the opportunity to leave with a separation package. That’s when I determined to go out on my own and consult using the various contacts I had in government and through the recent employer. It worked out magnificently as I formed an LLC and began making maximum contributions to an SEP IRA thus reducing my income while saving for the final retirement which I now enjoy through all the components created by the various jobs.
I retired early from a technical job with a long commute , and have been fully retired since. I think if you are just out and about in the community , opportunities will quickly find you. As only one example , I went to the bank one day , and when I mentioned I had retired , they said hey why don”t you come work here? My local YMCA usually has shifts for the front desk and you will meet many people that way – that will almost certainly lead to interesting opportunities. Or just going to the Y you meet other members. Going to the doctor or dentist can also lead to some work when you tell them you are retired. They still ask me once in a while .
I retired from MegaCorp April 2018. Admittedly, I took a “We (my wife and I) will figure it out” approach to retirement we only had a rough plan to increase travel and a specific long-term plan to visit all the National Parks and spend more time with distant family. We took a trip to a National Park (Yellowstone BTW) in May 2018. It was great. But by July I realized I wasnt quite ready to hang up my cleats. So I hung a shingle on LinkedIn to do some consulting which I did for the last 8 years part time. For the most part its been great, allowing us to travel to some great places after and between work trips, see family and afford a few splurges. I say “for the most part” because there were a few times when it got busier than I wanted to be. As far as specifically how it happened, when I hung the shingle on LinkedIn, I got contacted by a former colleague for some work and that work led to another big project with another firm. I did get most of my work from former colleagues and referrals. The work has been mostly the type of work I enjoyed when I was employed and not the type of work I didnt enjoy. I turned down quite a bit of work and was fairly selective about it as I was in a position where I did not necessarily financially “need” the work. I just turned 70 in June and this year I have only done one small piece of remote work and I am ready now to full retire. Overall, a great experience.
The day after I retired, my neighbor, who owns a funeral home, asked me what I was going to do with all my time. I told him a few things I planned to do and he asked me to consider doing part-time work for the funeral home. So, I now work visitations and funerals, drive the hearse, and other odd jobs for the funeral home. My last school administration position was as director of finance and human resources. I tell people now that I am still in human resources, just a different type…
I’m from Chicago.
It was the traditional “one of my siblings knew SOMEBODY who worked at a not-for-profit which needed my skillset”.
The pay was much less. So was the stress level.
When I set my LinkedIn profile to ‘Open to Work’, opportunities started finding me. I also had some options arise from my company network. Ended up working part time for a little under three years, averaging about 15 hours a week. It was a great transition for me. Still turning away unsolicited opportunities. I was fortunate that my particular set of skills and experience happens to be in high demand and low supply these days. Never experienced age discrimination at any time in my 40+ year career.
Ken – glad to see you’re still on here.