It’s Official, We’re Delaying Retirement
If there was any doubt retirement is being delayed it became clearer on Tuesday. Concerned about rising health care costs and not having saved enough, forty percent of U.S. workers are planning to delay retirement according to a new study by Towers Watson.
Those most immediately affected are older workers and those in pooerr health who are afraid of losing their healthcare coverage.
Workers who plan to delay retirement expect they will be on the job at least three years longer than originally anticipated. Over half the 9,000 respondents surveyed in May and June have also cut back on their spending.
“The economic crisis has had a deep effect on employees’ attitudes toward retirement and especially on risk … workers continue to have a fear that they won’t be able to afford retirement,” said David Speier, a senior retirement consultant at Towers Watson. “Despite the signs that some employees are saving more, spending less and reducing debt as the economy stabilizes, workers continue to have a fear that they won’t be able to afford retirement — and that will have significant implications on companies’ ability to plan their future workforce needs,” he continued.
Tags: career transitions, Retirement
Career Transitions Hit Home
There is a saying among journalists, that you never want to be part of the story. Still when fellow journalist Eve Tahmincioglu, asked me to guest blog at www.careerdiva.net about One Family’s Career Journey I readily agreed.
My husband and daughter are both in career transitions. My daughter is a rising college junior, a history major with a fledging interest in becoming a curator. My husband is a long time IT sales engineer, who was unexpectedly laid off last June.
With unemployment among teens and young adults at record highs and long term unemployment a factor in the economic recovery, I hope readers can gain some useful insights from our story.
Coming next week on www.amyzipkin.com our Conversation with Geoff Colvin the author of Talent is Overrated, which will soon be out in paperback.
Challenges to Working Longer
Since the recession started, there has been increasing attention being paid to working longer and there are several bright spots. Last month, I profiled Dianne Fuller Doherty who is still going strong in a full time career past the age of 70. Afterwards we talked with Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures, whose passion for second careers has been widely covered.
Recently the Towers Watson 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey found that although th age at which workers say they expect to retire changed little from a year ago, the percentage of workers who expect to retire after age 65 increased from 11% in 1991 to 33% in 2010. It’s up nearly 10% in the last five years.
We recently asked Tamara Erickson, who wrote Retire Retirement, (Harvard Business School Press 2008) about this trend. She has an optimistic outlook, but recognizes there may be challenges ahead if baby boomers chose to work longer.
AZ. When you wrote Retire Retirement, Career Strategies for the Boomer Generation, it was ahead of the fiscal meltdown, and 10% unemployment. What has been the biggest misperception you’ve faced about the book since the recession began?
TE. I didn’t foresee the speed with which the nature of work available in the US economy would change. The recession accelerated the shift away from the manufacturing base toward knowledge-intensive work, to an extent that I didn’t fully anticipate. The US lost millions of manufacturing jobs very abruptly over the past 18 months. As a result, we have the paradox today of high unemployment and growing skill shortages in a number of knowledge-intense sectors of the economy. The prediction that there will be work available for Boomers who want to continue working post-traditional retirement ages is now true only for those with specialized skills or knowledge.
AZ. How do you think the significant erosion of wealth caused by the downturn, not to mention, the fall-off in home prices, even among those homes not in foreclosure, has impacted the baby boomers ability to remake themselves? What suggestions do you have for taking a longer view?
TE. It has clearly shifted the mix of the portfolio lives that Boomers will need to create – toward having a higher percentage of time devoted to income-producing activities. However, I don’t think there’s a major philosophical impact – certainly not to the extent portrayed in some media reports. Boomers have always intended to remain active – to remain involved in constructive, contributing activities. They were never planning to spend their entire post-retirement years in leisure. They may need to spend a little less time doing strictly volunteer activities and instead do things that earn some income, but that’s a shift in the type of activity, not from leisure to activity.
AZ. When you talk about Career Curve archetypes, types of work available, the patterns for each seem very different. Are baby boomers destined to continue in the same archetype they had during their working lives? Or is it possible to transition from one archetype to another and if so how?
TE. They’re not destined to continue in the same archetype – and one of my major hopes is that people will use the book to think carefully about their archetype and therefore the types of activities they would enjoy and find most meaningful. Today only about 25% of the workforce overall is engaged in their work; a significant proportion of the remaining 75% are probably doing work that does not fit their archetype. I hope people who fall in the 75% will use the “retirement” break as an opportunity to re-think and change directions. A number of the tips in the book are aimed at ways to do that – the basic advice is to experiment in low risk/ low commitment ways until you find something that you feel very excited about.
AZ. Do we still have a “Workforce Crisis” of jobs needing to be filled, or did the Great Recession put that on hiatus especially in the financial, automotive and publishing industries? The country’s unemployment numbers don’t appear to be budging, and older workers, in particular, are taking longer to return to work than other age groups.
TE. We have a paradox: persistent high unemployment (that will probably remain for at least another 5 years) AND growing shortages in key skill sets. One problem with knowledge-based jobs is that they tend to be less fungible. In other words, if someone is laid off from a manufacturing job in one industry, there is a reasonable probability that they are qualified to perform a manufacturing job in a different industry. However, knowledge jobs do not tend to span industries (or do so to a much lesser extent). So, an accountant cannot immediately work as a nurse, for example. As our economy is comprised of a higher and higher percentage of knowledge work, the likelihood of high unemployment in some sectors and talent shortages in others will grow.
AZ. Why do you think the preference for cyclic work, taking time off between assignments, has not had as enthusiastic reception in the United States as it has in say France or Brazil? What do you think needs to be changed to increase its popularity here?
TE. I suspect that the Boomers’ firm grip on corporate leadership in the US – and the size of this generation relative to the Xers who follow – has strongly influenced our work patterns. Boomers have been conditioned to go “all out” – as hard and as intensively as possible. Cyclic work, at least during their career shaping years, has not had great appeal for US Boomers. And, because they are generally “the boss,” others have not felt comfortable taking advantage of cyclic work policies even when they exist. As Gen Xers move into leadership roles, I expect to see a much greater acceptance of cyclic work in the U.S.
I’m not sure why France and Brazil have managed to break through earlier. Certainly attitudes toward work are different in these countries from the US Boomer approach. France, in particular, has tended to have more of a “work to live” approach for many decades, which I suspect makes the country, as a whole, more open to various cyclic arrangements.
AZ. In what ways do you anticipate the baby boomers will be able to diffuse long standing attitudes about age discrimination? Can you provide several current examples of how these attitudes are being diffused?
TE. Oh, yes. I think Boomers have always believed that every stage at life THEY reach is a wonderful stage – I have no doubt that they will make being 60 and 70 and even 80 very “cool,” too. As an example, look at the number of Boomers who are posing in swim suits on the covers of magazines or otherwise doing things that formerly would have been the province of the young.
Career Changing Blueprint
Julie Jansen may have been way ahead of the times when I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This (Penguin) was first released in 2003. In those less threatening economic times she created a blueprint for embarking on a successful career.
If anything, Ms. Jansen’s book is more relevant now than when it was first published. Make no mistake, reading the book will take dedication, the reader might even find it useful to have a highlighter or post it notes at hand. Ms. Jansen insists when it comes to careers, one size doesn’t fit all.
How do you recommend a job changer read this book? Are there some parts that are essential and others that can be skimmed?
The book was written so that the reader does not have to read it in its entirety. I doubt that I have ever read a self-help book cover to cover. The Introduction and Chapter One set the book up and are interesting but not necessary to read. Chapters Two, Three and Four are a must in my opinion because this is where the reader takes assessments to help him to understand his own situation, a crucial first step to changing work. Finally, the reader only needs to move to one of the six chapters that best describes his specific situation whether it be Bruised and Gun-shy or Yearning to Be on Your Own. Most people do tend to fall into more then one of the six work situations however there is usually one that is dominant.
Why is it so important for a job seeker to be clear on attitudes, values and personality preferences before beginning a job hunt?
There are so many reasons to know and internalize this information about oneself.
1. If you don’t know who you are and what is important to you, you won’t be successful at making a good match for you work-wise. This is analogous to dating.
2. Being clear about your values, personality preferences and attitudes will enable you to articulate this to a potential employer so that they understand who you are.
3. Articulating who you are will also make it easier for you to sell yourself and the value that you can bring.
4. People who are more self-aware are happier and healthier!
You have a lot of categories, indeed some of them may be overlapping. Is it possible a mid life career changer might be Bruised and Gun Shy at the same he or she is Bored and Plateaued? How do you suggest the reader prioritize which sections most apply to them?
Yes, absolutely! When I speak to audiences and ask them which of the six categories they fall into, the majority will tell me that they fit into at least three situations, if not more. If someone is Bored and Plateaued and Bruised and Gun-shy, they probably will need to work on improving their self-confidence and self-esteem first before changing work to move out of the Bored and Plateaued phase. Usually there is something the reader needs to do to handle in each of the specific situations they fall within.
In this economy, it’s inevitable that job seekers have gaps in their resumes. What’s the best way to handle that?
The good news about this is that because approximately 20% of the American population is unemployed, employers and recruiters are now accustomed to seeing gaps. It is still just as important for someone to be able to clearly describe their work history, including gaps of time. At the same time, avoid dwelling on them and prepare a succinct sentence if the question comes up.
If a job seeker has changed companies frequently, will that be a red flag for employment? How would a job seeker diffuse the idea they might be flighty or worse irresponsible?
This really depends on the pattern of changes. If the person has worked in the same industry but for many companies in a shorter period of time, this is a red flag. If the person has moved quickly from industry to industry, this may not present as much of a red flag unless the jobs are lower level/easy entry jobs. My experience as a career coach is that usually when people hop too much, there is an interpersonal or performance issue so the potential employer needs to be skilled in learning why the person keeps moving around.
What suggestions do you have for people who love being specialists, and may have had the same job title or similar responsibilities and job title, albeit in different companies for years.
I don’t see this as an issue unless it’s a case of the specific type of work becoming moribund or going away. A good example is computer programming. This job all but disappeared when companies started outsourcing this work overseas, in particular to India. Then it is time for reinvention for the specialist worker. Also, I think specialists are hired and then expected to become a generalist once they are in the job.
Civic Ventures, Encore Careers and the Purpose Prize
Marc Freedman heads a unique organization in San Francisco called Civic Ventures. It’s a think tank that promotes careers that combine continued income, greater meaning and social impact. And in his view, baby boomers will revolutionize retirement and transform the country. His book Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life (Public Affairs 2007), which describes the possibilities, has taken on new relevance since its publication.
Instead of a traditional retirement of leisure, Mr. Freedman is advocating baby boomers undertake a significant second career of in an area of social importance. And he makes a compelling case. In Encore he offers specific illustrations of individuals who heeded that call, and moved onto areas what they consider “greater purpose.” One example is Jacqueline Khan who went from truant officer to critical care nurse. Another is Robert Chambers who went from owning a car dealership to becoming a social entrepreneur.
Paradoxically, the stifled economy may have given a lift to Mr. Freedman’s thesis. He says the downturn has provided a climate for individuals to reassess their values and priorities. “There’s a reevaluation of what constitutes success,” he said, pointing to a disillusionment many are feeling about corporate America.
Still, despite considerable research that shows baby boomers are seeking a combination of fulfillment and want to remain engaged Freedman says that there are challenges to embracing what he calls purposeful work. Why? “You are often pretty much on your own in initiating this kind of career shift,” he says. To help with the transition, Civic Ventures, is again funding a $100,000 Purpose Prize for those over sixty in second careers who are inventing new ways of solving social problems. The deadline for the application is March 5, 2010. Self nominations are allowed.
For those just beginning to contemplate “an encore” Mr. Freedman suggests trying to think about a career trajectory longer than one you might have previously anticipated. “Reset the time horizon,” he said, and think about your life as a body of work.
Career Reinvention in the New Year
January is a time to feel optimistic. Any New Year’s resolutions are probably still being kept. For some, they involve finding a new career. With the economy still shedding jobs, a career hunt may be a more formidable undertaking than in the past.
Alexandra Levit who previously wrote How’d You Score that Gig? and They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, is back with a lively and insightful new book entitled New Job, New You. (Ballantine Books) She has put together a toolkit that includes everything a job seeker needs for career reinvention culled from the experiences of people who have made a transition some more than once.
Ms. Levit assembled a winning and diverse group of career changers, all younger than 40. And one almost wishes we could see them in five or ten years after they’ve gained more seasoning in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
She sets the tone early in the book with a reinvention assessment, which when taken honestly, can separate those who are merely musing from those who are ready to reivent.
We caught up with Ms. Levit recently to talk about managing some of the challenges of career reinvention.
Here are several of her tips, with suggestions for first job seekers and baby boomers.
Define your motivation in career switching. A twenty-five item questionnaire in New Job, New You gives a reader insight into whether a career reinvention is a necessity or a passing whim. Sample question—True or False, You feel you are a different person now than when you first started your career.
Remember everything you do is a measured risk. Just because the economy is in trouble is no reason not to pursue your dream job. You only need one small thing at a time to move forward. Sign up for the week-end workshop or take that on-line webinar.
Choose a first job by the knowledge you’ll gain. When weighing offers chose the job offer with as many transferable skills as possible. These might include project management, sales, marketing, finance and client relations.
The first job is not the be all and end all. Trust your instincts, when making a job choice, especially a first job choice, but also dial back the pressure. Again ask, will the job allow me to have transferable skills? You’ll be able to walk out of that job with a resume to make you proud.
If you are considering a graduate degree ask if the lifestyle applicable and good for you. Sure parents and peers may be thinking that grad school is a good way to sit out the recession, but unless you have a couple of years experience under your belt and an affinity for the field, it might be a waste of time and money.
If you are a baby boomer seeking reinvention, realize you have an advantage. Yes, you may encounter age discrimination, so consider deleting dates from your resume, but you know the business world and hopefully have learned something about packaging yourself. You have more to draw on than someone with just a few years of experience behind them. If you want to do something you feel passionate about, now’s your chance.
Tags: baby boomers, career transitions, Careers, job seekers
A Family’s Career Journey
What happens when a family goes through career transitions together? My first of a series of occasional
guest blogs appears today at www.careerdiva.net and is now reproduced here. Read the rest of this entry »
