The concept of retirement is losing favor, in part because of economic necessities but also because many older workers want an “encore career” instead.
The trend is taking hold among the massive baby boomer generation, many of whom are hitting retirement age but want to use their talents to “give back” through work that helps society and is personally fulfilling.
The phenomenon is explored in the book “Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life,” by Marc Freedman. The book features inspiring real-life examples, including an insurance agent now working for HUD, a car salesman who became a social entrepreneur, and a health-care executive who now serves the homeless community as an advocate.
You can learn more at encore.org and Civic Ventures, the organization founded by Freedman.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof also wrote an inspiring column yesterday about this trend. I am already looking forward to my encore career!
Thanks for calling attention to the excellent column by Nicholas Kristof about the growing interest in encore careers.
You can subscribe to RSS feeds with news about encore careers by doing to this page:
http://www.encore.org/promo