You Are Approaching Retirement – Yet, You Wish To Continue Working…What Are Your Options?

You held a senior management position in Finance, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, etc for the past many years. You are now a few months away from the mandatory retirement age at your company. Although your retirement income will be more than sufficient to sustain your current life style, you are not ready to say good-bye to the corporate world, so what would some of your options be and how will you go about achieving them? Here are some options/suggestions:

When income is not a concern, giving back to the community is a wonderful thing. You may consider volunteering on a board of directors in a non-profit organization that provides services to kids, adults, or seniors. There is a very big emphasis today on improving board governance and ensuring integrity – from finance to fund raising and so on, therefore and individual holding senior management roles is very attractive and important. In case you have a non-profit organization that you believe in and would like to contribute to, simply approach the Executive Director and let them know that you would like to become a volunteer either in the Finance Committee of the Board, the Executive Committee of the Board or the Board of Directors itself. You will be pleasantly surprised to find out how many sub-committees these organizations have from fund raising initiatives to governance issues, hence non profit organizations are constantly on the look out for volunteers with rich employment experience.

When income is a concern, Private as well as Public Corporations are always in need of qualified contractors that are able to “hit the ground running”. With your extensive work experience either in finance, human resources, sales & marketing and so on you are very qualified to take on a series of interim or fixed term management roles. Your services will be welcomed by a start up organization where they require to set up policies, procedures, hire new talent and so on or a turnaround situation where they require expertise with lenders, staffing, negotiations etc. Then there are always interim roles such as covering for a maternity leave; system implementations or performing a role of a vacant position while the organization carries on its search for the permanent candidate.

Your first step in all of these situations is crafting a resume that details your professional experience and achievements. In case you require assistance in crafting your resume, there are many resume services available today. It is a fee for service, and they can be located with a simple Internet search. Prior to engaging a service, ask for references. Along with your resume you will require a cover letter. Each cover letter must be tailored to the position that you have in mind. Once again, there are services today that will be able to assist you in crafting the cover letter. To identify positions, you may want to contact your immediate network of colleagues, clients, and friends and let them know that you are available and interested in contract work or interim management assignments.

A very important link in your network is employment agencies that specialize in the placement of candidates in short and long term assignments. Research the market for these organizations; understand what kind of positions they recruit for, the type of clients they service, their recruitment process, their customer service practices and so on. Share your profile with the agency; let them know what you are looking for, follow up with the recruiter from time to time so that you may be top of mind when an assignment matching your skill set comes up.

Remember that we live in a society today that recognizes the value of a long and successful career and the varied skill sets that individuals bring to many organizations. Rest assured that you are not alone in seeking post retirement employment.

Wishing you much continued success!