A retirement job is any kind of work you do after you retire from your long term career or return to work after age 62.
The possibilities are as varied as the people pursuing them. A retirement job can be anything from working part time in a nearby store to contracting with large companies as a consultant to turning a hobby like gardening into a part time landscape design business to starting a new career as a teacher.
While the type of work varies, there are certain aspects most people are looking for when they consider a retirement job.
| WHAT’S IN |
WHAT’S OUT |
| Flexibility: Partial day, week or year |
60-hour workweeks |
| Staying closer to home / Telecommuting |
Long commutes; traveling non-stop for work |
| Being anindividual contributorwhere you complete shorter, assigned tasks whose outcome you mostly control; Being managed by someone much younger |
Managing large teams; taking on big organizational mandates with significant risk and stress |
| Finding a fun, challenging, secure and stable job and staying in it for a long time |
Job hopping more regularly to improve pay or title |
| A readiness to trade pay for a suitable work/life balance (job pay is a supplement to investment and Social Security income) |
Needing big raises every year to meet rising living and/or child-rearing costs |
| Competing for business results in the marketplace |
Competing with your peers for promotions within the company and face-time with the boss |
| Providing advice to people who value your work & life experience; being a mentor to younger workers |
Being mentored yourself by a mature, experienced worker |
| Developing relationships with customers who love your reliable and service-oriented style, trust you because they’re older too, and may know you from previous personal or business dealings in the community |
Developing relationships through heavy time investments (e.g., industry conferences) |
| Giving back to society; working for “meaning” |
What’s in it for me? |
| A readiness to be trained and learn new tricks, such as specific computer programs |
Not having time to focus on learning new things |
Here are some recommendations that you can consider while looking for a job, there jobs will normally make use of your skills and experiences that you have gained over the years of your career:
These options below are for those whom wish to pursue a lifelong hobby or passion, and they allow part-time applications which involve less stress:
