Encore Careers. Part 3 – Superpowers

In the last few blogs I’ve been talking about Encore careers—a shift into work that you can do later in your career, that may involve greater meaning, part time schedules, and possibly earning some income. I shared a few tips in the last blog post, and now I’ll share a few more, starting with…

Build off of your Superpower for a satisfying Encore career!

Seven out of ten people on average will not have an idea of what they want to do for their next step, in an Encore career, or just career wise generally. 70% of people typically are fuzzy about that. And without that clarity, it can make the whole process much more frustrating, and just difficult to get through. What’s your super power–that thing that comes easily to you, that others compliment you on, but it seems so effortless to you? ‘ll use my superpower as an example: I can craft words in compelling ways. I use it in my counseling services, I’ve written five books, I authored a column for 25 years, I help clients with scripts, I create training videos. All of those are crafting words in compelling ways. And if you have an idea of your superpower, then you can start to be more specific about how it can be applied. That’s one way to get clearer on what that might look like. Your superpower is something that you can build off of for your Encore career.

Note: If you’re truly struggling with what your Encore career options might be, contact us for a free consultation: Katy@CareerSolutionsGroup.net  We can help!

Factor in your earning power in your Encore career choice

Some people, when they get to a stage of a second phase career, will need to factor in logistics around earning at a certain level. A consideration:  the farther away you move from your expertise area, the less earning power you will have. This is a surprise for people sometimes, so I like to bring it up. Taking my example of working in a soup kitchen–which may not pay anything–or if I wanted to work in some kind of restaurant. What might it pay? I don’t have any formal experience doing that, except that I was a waitress a long time ago.  I’d be starting at entry level, earning entry level pay as some sort of cook assistant. Whatever you step into, you may be starting in what would be described as an entry level capacity. And what the earning power looks like for a different specialty could be very different from what you’re earning now.

Explore before you decide on an Encore career

Let’s say you have some Encore career ideas you’d like to explore. I am huge advocate for getting your hands dirty to find out what different work would truly be like. One of my favorite strategies is career research interviews, where you interview people who are already succeeding in the Encore career areas that you’re thinking about. Let’s say I do decide to pursue the soup kitchen idea, I would want to interview some people who are actually working in that capacity, to find out what it’s like. We have a tendency to glamorize what a different opportunity is going to look like. For a long time I had a number of clients who were interested in becoming bed and breakfast owners. They thought that would be just great: cooking, making the house cozy, socializing with interesting people. And I would set them up on conversations with bed and breakfast owners, and in all situations, they came back after that conversation and said, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not interested in doing that after all.” And I won’t pour water on that idea for you, if that’s something you’re considering. Go do an career research interview yourself to find out!

Another valuable exercise are career experiments, which are short term, low risk activities that expose you to an area you’re thinking about. As an example, I could volunteer in a soup kitchen, or take a cooking class to see what it’s like to be in a professional kitchen environment. Those are both examples of career experiments…super helpful for Encore career exploration!

What would be some ways that you can get your hands dirty to check out the ideas that you’re thinking about? Over 90% of clients who go through some exploration and experiments throw out their first few Encore career ideas…and that’s GOOD, because you want to find a fit that’s going to hold water you. Almost always clients who go through some kind of career exploration end up talking with between five and fifteen people before they get clear on what that might look like, in terms of what they want to do next.

In my next blog, I’ll provide you some specific examples of people who have shifted into Encore careers, so tune in!

Photo credit: Pexels.com