There are many aspects to consider when beginning to plan your encore career. While we discuss many of these in my podcast, Creating Your Encore Career, it still may seem daunting to re-enter the workforce after some time away, especially if you are choosing a different line of work than you were familiar with prior to retirement.

This is why I brought my former colleague and friend Dave Whan onto the show for our episode on making career transitions. Dave has decades of experience in multiple roles, from chief human resources officer at John Deere to working in the private sector for the federal reserve bank. Dave has never been one to shy away from making changes he needed in his life and finding ways to make his skills transfer to whatever new pathway he had to take. In our discussion, he shared with me his journey and experiences to help you better prepare for what an encore career move could look like.

Considering a Career Transition?

Cultivating a growth mindset is one of the most important components if you are considering transitioning fields in your encore career. This means keeping up with new technology, being intentional when building an external network, and opening yourself to learning more than just what is directly in front of you in your current field. You need to be intentional about your choices. Make the decision to seek out those that work in fields that don’t always overlap with your role in the company. Rather than spending all day in the office, try to get to know how the other components of the company work. Do your reading, engage in some self-coaching, speak to the people around you about their experiences. All of this will better prepare you to move into a new field when it is time, or to be open to other networking possibilities.

Intellectual Curiosity is Key

As an encore career person, you are a valuable asset to the workplace because you have the experience and foresight to ask those important questions that even upper level management executives don’t always have prepared. With stepping back from the execution stage in our careers and taking a backseat to the action, we are granted the ability to see how each sphere works together to create a smooth workflow. Those of us choosing new paths in our encore careers bring not only the skills from our former positions but also workplace experience from the various avenues we took to get to where we are today. When you choose to embrace being a life-long learner, you open yourself up to new opportunities where your skills and experiences can shine and help you to learn new fields and tools for your future decisions.

Remember, it is not too late to grow your skills and change your career path!