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Retired Community Manager

Have you had a second career?

Jobs are out there, even if you've been away for a few years. For helpful tips, check out AARP's 5 Ways To Jump-Start a Second Career.

 

Have you had a second career?

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I am in the position of searching for a second career.  My job in retail management was eliminated as a result of Covid craziness.  I am wanting to working with a non profit. My areas of interest lean towards are working with the elderly, healthcare and at risk teens.  I know that volunteering is good way to introduce yourself to non profits.  My questions would be how do you go about finding the non profits to work for .  I have searching but, not all non profits I am finding seem legitimate.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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I was involved in a layoff back in 2018 with a company I worked 18 years. Since then I had two contract roles which last one ended after six months. I feel too young to retire, I have over ten years 10 years to retire and need to build up my savings since I've been using to stay afloat. I have over 20 plus years in IT and yet the calls back are few. I decided to go another route,  go into healthcare certifications and hopefully when done I can land a job that allows me to add money back into my savings that I used!

Its hard during this time with so many folks looking for work but I try to stay active physically as well as mentally by taking online courses at my own expense. Staying relevant and positive thinking has help but I too have my moments. So hang in there everyone, we have the discipline and experience to work it out. As always, there's prayer. Good luck 

Delajuana
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I left my job as a Medical Technologist in a hospital laboratory at age 64. I wanted to do something, but definitely wanted less stress and no nights and weekends. I just happened to be talking to an acquaintance ay church, and she mentioned she was a kindergarten Education Assistant. She said the other kindergarten teacher needed one desperately. I love little kids, so I applied and have been working there for the last 1 and 1/2 years. I work 5 hours a day, and no nights, weekends, or holidays. Plus I have summers off. My teacher is awesome, and I truly enjoy it. 

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Yes, I transitioned from management level Human Resources to Health and Life Coaching. Wellness has been a lifetime passion for me and I have always thrived to be the best version so myself. I work with seniors to coach them on being fabulous over 50. 

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Absolutely. I’m a retired RN (Charge in a Level 1 Trauma Center, Inner City ER).  I am now a part time Cantorial Soloist in a Synagogue and have a painting studio.  I moved into both of these gradually, having no idea I could do any of it.  Lots of encouragement and coaching from friends.

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I am an Australian who at 18 wanted to go to university to study agricultural science, but after a disagreement with my mother over the amount of time I would put into study time, I switched to an apprenticeship in Horticulture, finishing that at 21. I loved getting my hands in the soil & give me a pair of clippers & I am still happy with that (sometimes too happy to my plants despair). I was working as a gardener/driver at a childrens psychiatric cliinic & school with inpatients & day patients, my driving duties involved taking a child or children with nurses to other clinics or outings. I enjoyed my contact with these kids (mostly hyperactive & or emotionally disturbed or Down's Syn.), eventually through my contact with them I thought I would like to become a nurse & look after children like these.

 

My sister-in-law had recently become an RN & advised me to do my general nursing 1st. before going into pyschiatric nursing. This I did & in Jan. 1979, I passed my state exams & graduated as an RN. I spent 1 week on night duty on a surgical ward & then switched to the OR where I stayed for the next 34 years I had a wonderful & very fulfilling career in Australia & here in the USA, arriving here in November 1985 for a 2 year work experience & I never moved back home.

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I always loved to write since I was 5 years old.  One night my mother called me from outdoors to come in and go to bed and since it was still light out I was angry. She told me not to forget to say my prayers (the “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” one). I was really angry so I did not say that prayer.  Instead I made up my own prayer which I still remember to this day. That night started my writing interest. I began to write a lot of poetry---about my friends, about dating and romance and other earthly happenings.  In high school I was the editor of our school paper. When it was time for college I wanted to go into Journalism; however, it was known then that for women it was a hard career to get into and I was advised to choose a different occupation----like teaching, or secretarial or nursing.  So I randomly flipped open the college catalogue and it opened up to the Nursing Major.  It was at that moment that I chose Nursing.  Little did I know it was the perfect choice for me. While in Nursing school I wrote all kinds of things—some required by my courses but I also articles for Nursing journals and I was the editor of a Nursing School Newsletter. I also wrote poems about college and Nursing life. After being married and having children I wrote poetry about my family.  I would always get the urge to write something. I had several types of jobs in Nursing.  One day I noticed a small ad in the local newspaper about a position as a Nurse/Writer at a Christian based long term care company headquarters. I carried that ad around for a few days and wondered if I should apply. Something told me to---yes, go and apply---it was like it was meant for me---to be able to practice Nursing and writing.  So I did apply and thankfully was hired for what I called my “dream job”-----a Nurse/Writer. I had that job for 15 years until I retired and loved every minute of it.  However, the best thing that happened is when I was enlisted as others were once in while, to give devotions on some mornings. I ended up doing that and one day after my devotion a co-worker said to me “You should write a book.”  I laughed at that notion; however that night I thought---well maybe I would try it even though I had never attempted it. So in 2000 I wrote my first book entitled  “I Thought There Was a Road There….and Other Lessons in Life  From God”, a non-fiction collection of short stories and I gave the profits to the company.  That got me hooked even more on writing and now in my retirement I wrote my second book---“Separated Lives”--- a true story about the search for a friend’s birthparents which was a fascinating and interesting journey. So what really happened is that I had several jobs in Nursing but then when I finally retired, I considered that my “second career job”, which started as an adjacent job all-along in my career (and was my hobby) was writing. 

 

Lynn Assimacopoulos

 

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I was very fortunate I was able to not work while my children were growing up.  Off and on I worked various jobs:  Housekeeper, Grocery clerk, Care provider for the elderly and a CNA working in Convalescent Hospitals. Then my second career was totally the very best fit for me!!  I worked as a  Educational Assistant 3.   I worked with the Handicapped people in a school setting, ages from 16 to 21.  I loved this job so very much, I was heart-broken when my Illness made me have to retire. There is no better job out there and being accepted and loved by so many students, no questions as to why I loved this job!!

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I was laid off my job that I had worked  for 31 years at the age of 59.  I have been out of work for approximately a year and half.  I have been looking for jobs on and off no success yet.  I have also been doing alot more volunteering and caughing up on projects around the house, that you can;t seem to get to becuase you are working.  So I have decided to go back to school and get a Masters Degree at age 60.  I am a little nervous beause  I have not been in school for 38 years.  I can not retire at this time I need to wait 4-6 years more years so we will see what happens.  I saw this message the other day:  Sometimes God closes doors because it's time to MOVE forward.  He knows you won't move unless your circumstances force you.  Trust the transition.  God's go you!!   This definitely spoke to me.

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q

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Yes, I have had a couple! At 55 I left my career in sales & marketing, to develop homes for seniors with dementia and a history of repeated hospitalizations for aggressive behavior. . The last position I had was as a regional manager for national BBQ rib company. While traveling weekly for my job, my mother was diagnosed with dementia, and after several incidents of her getting confused after walking somewhere and then calling police to say someone stole her car, only to find it sitting in its parking space back at her residence. She then moved to an assisted living an eventually to a NH for 7 yrs until she died. She was repeatedly traumatized by being discharged 12 times and hospitalized 15 times in Psych units for her so called “aggressive behavior.”
No one would take her unless she was drugged. I was told it was necessary to make her compliant in the NH environments that were consistently severely understaffed and lacked any appropriate training in dementia care.

After she died, my anger and frustration turned to a burning passion to try to develop an innovative better way to care for these seniors with dementia and aggressive behavior. I had to try to build a home to care for their unmet emotional needs that were totally neglected in ALL the places she had to live. Any place trying to do a little better would not take her because, she was on Medicaid.

For 4 years I was told “ NO “ by bank after bank that said with no healthcare experience, and no collateral I would NEVER be able to find a bank to make that $500,000 loan!
I learned to never take NO for an answer, and in 1999 opened Lakeview Ranch, in rural MN. There with 15 dedicated healthcare staff we developed a model of specialized dementia care that focused on discovering and meeting each individuals emotional & spiritual needs in addition to physical needs. I was also dedicated to making our high quality care available equally to low income seniors on Medicaid. To make that work financially I started the LR Dementia Care foundation, a non profit 501c3, as a memorial to my mother, and to raise funds to supplement Medicaid.

In 2010 we received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader award and the LR model was highlighted in the AHRQ for innovation and research. In 2014, along with supplemental income for our seniors we partnered with St. Cloud State University Gerontology Dept and did research on all aspects of the model. We had reduced behavior hospitalizations by 93.3% while mostly eliminating psychotropic drug use.

In 2014 at 70yrs old I transitioned again from the Ranch after 17yrs and started Dementia Specialist Consulting, LLC in order to share what I have learned with others and consult & support families who are caring for a loved one with dementia, provide staff and management training, and support providers by offering to be a liaison for them with families & Staff, , in order to reduce stress . My passion now is the same I am just dedicated to sharing my expertise with others so high quality care that includes emotional & spiritual needs learns that ALL behavior coming from a person with dementia IS an attemp at communication of unmet needs! I am 73 now and I am NOT ready to circle the drain anytime soon.. we ALL CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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"Second career"? Are you kidding? In our now 21st century world I have had no less than seven major career directions:

  1. Credentialed teacher of Political Science and Ethnic Studies
  2. Broadcast/Industrial Tele-production Systems Sales Engineer
  3. VP of Marketing and Sales - high-end computer graphics workstations to  Fortune 500
  4. Apple Certified Consultant specializing in CRM solution
  5. Apple Business Development Manager managing cadre of Apple Certified Consultants
  6. Distance-learning project manager at public television stations training hundreds of K-12 teachers71
  7. Global Communications and E-Learning Architect with own remote consulting practice and virtual enterprise now at age 71, I launched my company at age 50, twenty-one years ago and am now focus on helping other 50 plussers THRIVE with robust suite of E-Learning Services to do that - www.newworldcom.com/elearning-services.
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My second career is strictly volunteer, and a full time version of something I was doing part time before I retired.  I am a choir director for Threshold Choir, an international organization of singers who visit the bedsides of dying patients in small groups (3-4 persons) and sing harmonized, a capella lullabyes to bring comfort, peace, and pain relief.  I led the choir in Indianapolis for six years before retiring to San Antonio where I am organizing that city's first Threshold chapter.  I also mentor other individuals around the globe who are trying to start Threshold choirs in their cities, from Sydney, Australia to Devon, England.  It is the most rewarding thing I have ever done, to use my musical gifts to bring comfort to patients and their loved ones.  As a side activity, I am coordinating a local Death Cafe' to encourage discussion and de-mystification of a topic which most Americans, according to psychologists, fear more than anything else.  

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High school teacher, social worker, priest.

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Now, for My Next Act ... a Career Change

 

Engineer/Underwriter to

Founder of Nonprofit Organization

 

Edward Crane

 

Made the leap: Age 54

 

Previous career: Insurance Engineer/Underwriter

 

New career: Founder and CEO of Nonprofit Organization

 

Program: My Assistance Dog Inc.

 

Ed was an engineer and underwriter for a major insurance company in New York City for twenty-four years, when he was forced out of work due to his epilepsy and need for brain surgery. He was partnered with an assistance dog after his surgery to help him cope with his physical challenges in life. Ed noticed that there was a lack of resources and information about the important work that assistance dogs can provide to disabled individuals.

 

So, Ed put together a business plan and Founded a nonprofit organization, called: My Assistance Dog Inc. to help spread the word and educate individuals, the community in general and corporate America, about the need for and the benefit that assistance dogs provide to disabled individuals and their families. They also provide support in as many ways as possible to the existing assistance dog community, at large. This is all volunteer work that he loves to do, helping disabled people live a better life with a canine partner. His organization is online and followed around the world.My Assistance Dog Inc.My Assistance Dog Inc.Ed and Alepo at Clovis City Council Meeting for Proclamation.JPGMy Assistance Dog Inc _ July 2016 Newsletter (dragged) 2 (1).jpg

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Conversationalist

I have had so many jobs since retiring- here it goes- film technician, sandwich maker, floor polisher for a small company, 9th grade teacher and the next year was a 11th grade teacher in the South Pacific teaching kids to speak English and it was a challenge (I love challenges)Came back to Hawaii, was a dancer and cashier for a kids restaurant, it was totally so much fun, working  with high school kids. 

Then, I became a chef for a private school and I became a tasty chef. The kids would come in and say" what are you cooking, today, Auntie?  Today, its your favorite-Mac and Cheese!!!  I made it from scratch and always had my workers taste it because I didn't care for it.  I served 200 kids and in the summer it was 500 kids and of course I had catering on top of that.  It was another challenge!

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When I was "mutually terminated" from my last position, I found it hard to get another job at the age of 62 so I was "forced" into retirement from my career as an Executive Admin/Administrative Assistant with over 20 years of experience. I didn't want to just sit home and decided to explore another career that I always thought I would be good at. I am currently working as a substitute Paraprofessional in my local school system. This gives me the luxury of working when I want to and not usually having a set "schedule" although I am currently working a long term sub position two days a week. I support special needs students in our behavior and autism programs and love it. I get called "first" on many occasions due to my ability to work with the children that many people "won't". I have taken college courses for the first time and completed a certificate program for working as a Developmental Disability Direct Support person. This fulfills the "emptiness" of being at home, yet allows me the freedom to pursue some hobbies that I have long neglected. There are opportunities out there for us "seasoned" employees!
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I am in my third career and at age 75 loving it.  I prepare taxes for a national tax prep company and have been doing it for 13 years.  While the job is seasonal, it fits my life and provides a nice supplement to social security.  You need about 60 hours of class work to get started, pass a test, and take annual updates.  The classes are usually offered in the fall and I actually teach some classes and we have students of all ages and backgrounds. I think age Is a plus in this work because life experiences make you more knowledgeable.  While good keyboarding skills are a plus, I am a terrible keyboarder and still am successful.  You should like working with people and dealing with ever changing tax laws. Starting wages may not be great, but if you are good, hourly wages can soon more up to the range of $20 plus a hour.

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Honored Social Butterfly


".....Have you had a second career?....".

I've had two-and-a-half. Caseworker in the 70's. Went into IT (nee 'Data Processing') by 1980. In early 2000's, after losing IT job, did another '180' and became a CNA (certified nurse assistant).
Having been retired for 10 years, that probably counts as another 'career'.

"...Why is everyone a victim? Take personal responsibility for your life..."
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Hi I'm Shae' and for too many years to count I was a hair stylist. In 2008 I became a teacher of cosmetology. Today for the past 6 months I am working at a non-profit organization working with those infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. And I must say its the must rewarding, most humbling position I've held since entering corporate America in 1974. I'm the best me yet!!!!

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Try as I might, I believe, with some exceptions, getting a job when you reach a certain age is difficult if not impossible.  This is even more true today, where virtually everything is done online and your chances of getting an interview appear to be slim to none, at least to me.  I have read article after article and nothing helps.  In my opinion, most of the job boards are looking to make a buck by selling you services (i.e., upgrading your resume).  Futhermore, many job boards seem to generate job offers that are very questionable at best (i.e., reshipping services or procurement jobs that require you to work from home and buy all sorts of equipment until the local office opens - a scam in my opinion).  

 

I have been looking for a job for the better part of 9 months, with one interview in that time.  I have a masters degree, finished my career as a senior executive of a global consulting company, yet I cannot get a simple customer service or administrative position.  I believe when they see that I spent 41 years at one company and figure in my college graduation dates, it is very easy to see that I am a "mature" individual. That along with my prior salary and the "overqualified" tag are the final nail in the coffin.  Lately, I have  focused on emphasizing the fact that I am very serious in my interest in the position, as well as the reasons why I feel my business acumen would benefit their organization, regardless of the other factors already mentioned; still no success.  Sorry to sound so negative, but that has been my experience.

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Periodic Contributor

Have you done any work with financial institutions on the topic of Compliance? Specifically with smaller FI's. That is one of my second careers. Let me know.

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No I haven't.  I don't want to go back to the financial industry.  🙂

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Hi,

I completely understand your frustration. I'm sure you have also been focusing on networking, which is the way most folks receive job offers these days (rather than via online board postings, etc.). I'm wondering if you've ever thought about becoming a business or executive coach. It seems to me that you offer valuable experience and insight that would benefit any small business owner or up-and-coming executive. Just something to think about as you continue on your journey. Don't lose hope. Continue to reach out to everyone in your network and ask for their help. 

Vicky DeCoster
Certified Life Coach and Author
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How does one go about becoming a Certified Life Coach? I am a Certified Health Coach and really want to help people, young and old! I've worked as a real estate agent for 17 years and spent five years working at a college in the Student Health Center. Thanks for any input on how to move into a career where I can help people lessen their stress levels and learn to live their best life!
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Hi there,

I'm glad you asked because there are really only two current accredited training options to become a Life Coach. You can conduct an online search for the International Coaching Federation and Coach Training Alliance. Both offer intensive training programs that will allow you to acquire your certification at the end. It sounds like you are well on your way to understanding what a life coach does and how we help others. Because of your certification as a health coach already, you might want to consider focusing on wellness coaching as your niche. That way, you can guide your clients to improve their minds, bodies, and spirits, and ultimately, attain more fulfillment in life as a result. I hope that answered your question. Good luck in your pursuit!

Vicky DeCoster
Certified Life Coach and Author
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Yes!   I worked for forty years as an executive secretary.   When I retired (at the age of 60) I knew I was going to have to do something else for awhile, in order to "fill in the age gap" until I would reach full-age Social Security eligibility.   For whatever was next in my future, I wanted to do something different than office work so I immediately began taking training to become a pharmacist technician, and I went to work with one of the big retail chains.   I was really blessed that I was able to do this work - I know not all of us sixty-somethings are able to stand on their feet for eight hours at a  time,  but I was and I did it.   I did this work for six years, and recently at age 66 I finally arrived at my long-worked-towards goal:   full retirement age.   It was definitely (financially) worth the wait, and I now look back in satisfaction on all this.  Speaking for myself here, this work was a good choice and I will add too, that the older customers in the store really did like having a fully-mature technician on hand to ask for advice about over-the-counter products, to discuss their apprehensions about (first time around!) colonoscopies [chances are these such customers are not going to discuss this topic with younger technicians] and a cheery greeting and general advice.  It was a good second-career job to have taken on - but admittedly, had I not had the ability to work standing, this would have been one that wouldn't have been able to be pulled off!   When I made my departure, the store had a nice party for me and I got many cards giftcards and flowers and candy from customers who assured me that I would be truly missed.  

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