St.Louis Business Journal
FINDING A NEW JOB AT NEAR RETIREMENT AGE IS DOABLE

By Anna Navarro

November 2008  

Examples in this column are fictionalized to protect privacy and told with permission.



The constant refrain I hear from people who are in their 50’s and 60’s is that they expect to have to work longer to make up for the hit they’ve taken to their retirement savings as a result of the global economic crisis.

That might be an acceptable solution if your job is stable and you like what you're doing. But what if you dislike your work, and/or your job is precarious?

That’s the situation Dan found himself in, though for reasons other than the economy. An unexpected event had shredded his retirement plans and his current job was neither safe nor enjoyable.

He was the senior accountant in charge of auditing for an accounting firm. Auditing had long since lost its charm for him. He was bored and tired of dealing with difficult clients. But he had intended to put up with it for the three additional years he needed to save enough to retire. Then a regional accounting firm that wanted a presence in his mid-size city purchased his firm. He was part of the group that opposed being acquired. When the sale went through, he was in a difficult situation.

He had short-term job security because the new firm needed his long-standing relationship with their audit clients. But he wasn’t sure how long that would last, and he was increasingly unhappy with the firm's new management.

That’s when he came to see me. Our first step was to do a thorough analysis of Dan’s history and what he ideally wanted in a work situation. He was skeptical about doing this, saying he would be lucky to find any job that paid as well as his current one, and he didn’t think he should be fussy. But he was willing to go along with my strong advice that it was an essential step to finding a good solution.

As we engaged in that analysis, important insights surfaced that fed into the positive outcome Dan ultimately got.

He had wanted to get a teaching degree in college, but his father urged him not to pursue that path because of poor pay. Dan was persuaded to go into business, and chose accounting because he really liked his accounting professor.

His favorite part of work as an audit manager and accountant had always been the training and mentoring of young people who worked for him. He also liked learning new things, including new accounting rules and their application to his clients’ situations.

His number one life priority was to maintain a close relationship with his two sons despite a recent divorce. He only got to see them on weekends.

When we finished the exploration of Dan’s history, and what he did and didn't want in a work situation, we moved into brainstorming new directions. We came up with several different ideas in this first round of brainstorming, and then Dan started investigating them.

The most intriguing of the ideas was teaching accounting at the college level. He would've loved doing it, but without an advanced degree, he would probably have trouble rising above the instructor level, and that didn’t pay well enough.

As he investigated that, however, someone asked him if he was familiar with the new international accounting standards that were being introduced to replace the existing U.S. “general accounting standards” we’ve been using. Dan knew the change was coming, but he hadn’t stopped to consider that might provide new opportunities to train and mentor accountants.

He continued his research and determined that companies were likely to need consultants who were well versed in the new procedures to train their staffs and help them comply with the new regulations. This was a role tailor made for Dan.

He started right away to learn the new international accounting procedures, taking classes both at the local university and on line. He enjoyed doing it.

Then he landed a job with a management consulting firm that was launching a new practice area in this field. He travels a great deal, but negotiated an agreement when he was hired that he would always be home weekends to be with his sons. His pay is better, and he likes his work so much that he now plans to go past the time when he originally intended to retire.

He discovered it isn’t so onerous to work past the age when you planned to retire if you have a job you truly enjoy.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that works with clients on an individual basis to help them find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their work-lives. She can be reached by phone at (314) 367-0008 and her e-mail address is email@worktransitions.com. For more information visit the worktransitions.com website.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.