What Is Your Next Act? Part 1 of 3

Next Act?, 2nd Act? What Is Yours Going To Be? Part 1 of 3

Welcome, March!

Now that we've flipped the calendar page it's time to start thinking about Spring. Along with Spring come thoughts of rebirth, fresh starts and new possibilities. What better month then to focus on a trio of scenarios and individuals that have done just that?

Among job seekers and career coaches there’s always a lot of discussion about chasing your dream job / your dream career. For many of us the cold harsh realities of life may have required us to accept positions which may have been fulfilling (or not), paid us enough to raise a family (okay, maybe we struggled a little), and even helped us to save some money (Retirement? What's that?). During the main part of our career the thought of our far-away future is always off in the distance - a topic to be saved and debated on another day. For many, “another day” is approaching rather rapidly.

A Little More Intro and Backstory

About five years ago I attended a Chem Pharma networking meeting in Pennsylvania. One of the guest speakers was Ford Myers . I had known of Ford for some time (although I think we only spoke once). He had built a successful career coaching practice, and was pretty visible in the job search networking circles I was a part of. However, on this day his talk was about something that impacted me a little differently. He had allocated a portion of his consulting practice to focus on people retiring or those nearing retirement and working with them on figuring out what to do in their retirement years. This wasn’t about the financial aspect – this was strictly related to what you do with your time when you suddenly find you’ve lost your routine or in some cases the very purpose of why you got up every day.

That group discussion has stayed with me, and I thought it would be valuable to explore that concept a little further. Today, and for the next two weeks I’m going to look at three individuals that I’ve known for several years and profile them on what I would call their “Next Act”.

Reinvention or “Next Act”? A Question of Time

About five years ago I was also writing and publishing on LinkedIn, and I remember devoting time to the subject of career reinvention. What I had in mind back then related more to people that were unhappy in their existing career and wanted to transition to do something else. This time around I’d like to focus on folks that are looking at alternative career paths following lengthy careers.

Golfing, Fishing, Traveling, Visiting the Grandkids

Newfound freedom is exciting and dangerous. Exciting, because if you’ve worked a lifetime the appeal of being in a situation where you don’t have to get up every day and commute to work, travel for business, or go on a Zoom call at all hours may have you jumping for joy. The dangerous part comes in the form of a change in your routine and the loss of the structure of your day. Also gone are the chats by the coffee machine, the questions about your weekend, the teamwork associated with accomplishing a goal. Even if you like golf, fishing and traveling it's difficult to always be doing those, and unless you have a daycare provider role, seeing the grand kids is going to be on a limited basis. So, what comes next?

What exactly are we defining as a “Next Act”?

From a career perspective. I think about a "Next Act" in these terms (you might have your own definitions...)

1.??????You retired from your job/career and decided to pursue a new position.

2.??????Your job/career ended prematurely (i.e., market conditions), and you needed to do something else.

3.??????You took a hobby or interest, and through circumstance were able to develop it into a business.

Example #1 – Retirement from a lengthy career, what comes next?

Meet Joel Craig linkedin.com/in/joel-craig

Career – Dutchess County, NY, Project Leader Data Processing Operations

His Next Act: Realtor in Dutchess County, NY

Joel and I have known each other for over fifty years. Our friendship goes back to elementary school, but like many school friendships they ebb and flow over time, and there were many years where we had lost touch with each other – not through any fault of our own, but life took us on our own journeys. My involvement in organizing my high school class reunion reconnected us many years ago.

I had the chance to catch up with Joel a few weeks ago, and I asked about the transition from being in a 9-5 position and going into something completely different. Here are some of his thoughts that I loosely took notes on (so Joel, I hope I got it mostly right!).

“In order to take retirement, I had to put in 30 years. As I approached retirement, I began to ask myself what I wanted to do in the next stage of my life. I had enough money to pay the bills, but at 30 years I felt a little stagnant. There were kids (employees) that came in and knew the latest technology, and I felt like my skills were being degraded. I had always had an interest in real estate, but it was kind of back door. I would be looking at Zillow and wondering why this house was sold for this amount. So, I decided to go into real estate, and I’ve been doing it now for about seven years. The downside is that I gave up working 9-5 to always being on call. One phone call can change the day. In fact, given the amount of time I’ve been in real estate sales I’m now starting to look at real estate investments – buying a house and renovating it.”

Sounds like there are a few more acts in Joel's future.

Next week

In Part 2 of this 3-part series I’m going to focus on a children’s book author whose “next act” wasn’t so much by choice, but by necessity due to market conditions. I'll also begin looking at the resources available to us as we consider our own "Next Act(s)".

Have a great weekend!

Dave

About Dave Shultis

I am a senior level marketing and product management professional with experience in the life science/med device space. My focus is on a return to a leadership (formal or informal) role where coaching and mentoring a team or working with a cross-functional team is a component of the position. This could be in the form of a role as a marketing director, a group product director or as an individual contributor in a senior product management capacity.

When not in pursuit of my next opportunity I can be found biking in and around New Jersey (I'm on Strava) or trying to get my 15k steps in per day (I'm on Fitbit).