By Andrew L. Adler

Dear Sir, I applaud your courage to finally seek help^[1]. Many older adults become too rigid in their thinking and never try to get out^[2] of the job they hate. 

To be honest, it made sense once upon a time, but with the current pension crisis time bomb^[3], this is the worst act you can do to yourself.

Although there are government organizations^[4] for safety nets, we all know how much “NET” they actually provide when push comes to shove.

Let’s not even think about pensions for a second. 65% of Americans looking to change their career^[5] are surely not all doing that for the pension crisis. 

Putting food on the table is important, sure, but not at the cost of your soul. You can still obtain success and fulfillment through a career change at the age of 60.

Now, I’m not going to tell you the story of Colonel Sanders and how he founded KFC at age 62^[6]. I myself haven’t made a multi-billion dollar business yet, so my advice on that topic won’t be genuine.

My story involves me and my father, how one heart to heart talk after his birthday dinner pushed us towards an incredible journey, and how his career change at 63 made him happier and more content than ever before. 

I don’t know your individual situation and can’t really give you a custom solution, but what I CAN give you is my dad’s career shift story and the process we followed. 

I’m sure, YOU, with your wisdom that only comes with age, can make good out of it.

How The Career Change Process Started?

I always thought my father loved his job. I would always have that misconception if we didn’t have a heart to heart talk about his job on his 63rd birthday.

He didn’t even say he hates his job explicitly, he was just complaining about some random issues we all face in our jobs. As an avid career shift advisor, I jokingly asked him 

“Why don’t you just change your career then?”

His honest reply –

“Well I don’t know how to do anything else”

This perfectly fine answer brought back some feelings I haven’t felt in the last 20 or so years. 

My state license and 5+ years of experience as a teacher were suffocating me rather than enriching my life.

My veteran father is much stronger than me mentally (and physically, of course; my dad can beat up your dad any day of the month), but now I understand that he was feeling helpless just like me when I was going through my career problems. 

But his army training made him bite the bullet and move forward anyway.

I was not going to let him do it to himself. 

My problem was not being happy with my career. His problem was much more serious.

His office was on the verge of shutting down. 

While many of his co-workers were not that worried because they thought their retirement was insured by government organizations^[7]. 

We love our country, of course, but we both know very well that when the chips are down, our country often requires some involuntary sacrifices.

I was not going to let my father make that sacrifice and decided to find a new career for him in tech.

His Transferable Skills That Will Help Him Change Careers

He is not someone you would call a techie, but he was not tech illiterate either. He has been an accountant for all his life, from pen and paper to Excel^[8]. 

He might not be an Excel wizard, but I knew he would not faint in front of a computer like many mature adults do.

I help people shift careers to tech all the time, so I had many unique and out of the box ideas at first but in the end decided to keep my foot on the ground. 

I knew older adults don’t have the same stomach for career exploration as their younger counterparts.

Although I’ve helped mature adults from many industries, like factory workers, truckers, and teachers, switch their careers to tech, I knew my father didn’t like to change all that much.

So I narrowed down his transferable skills and made a list to better understand what could be done.

Accounting as Transferable Skills For a New Job

Accounting is part of any serious business and I know this is what I should bank on but there are two issues – 

1. Companies don’t usually look for older adults when they are looking to hire.
2. Experience will only be counted as useful if he tries to go into the same industry.

Ok, so there are some issues, but it can still be used. Let’s see how his other transferable skills stack up.

Excel as Transferable Skills For a New Job

I already said he was not an Excel wizard but had used it for a long time and was quite comfortable with it. 

So I have to find a job that is similar for him, that works almost like Excel but increases the value tenfold, so he can compete with his younger and more tech-savvy competition.

Being 60 In Itself Can Be a Transferable Skill For a New Job

I know his age was a problem; you guys will have to face the same issue as well. But the trick is not to say “Age is just a number,” “60 is the new 40,” and all that trendy crap.

Don’t deny your age; embrace it, and you’ll find something unique that only you have. Anyone can learn Excel or accounting with training; I’ve trained many, but what I would never be able to train someone is how to be 60.  

There are some unique advantages that only older adults can offer an employer.

• With an average tenure of 3.7 years^[9], having an employee who isn’t looking for a different job the next day is quite important.

• Company Loyalty is not present in our current workforce and rightly so. An older adult has already shown they are up for the task.

• He is not going to die his hair red and ask for some compensation for God knows what. So he is more stable than a Gen-Z employee for sure.

What Tech Employers Need But Never Get

As a tech employer myself, I know there are many hiring issues we face almost everyday, and the solutions are nonexistent to such an extent that we have given up on them a long time ago. 

We know the employee we are training today might go to the competition the next day with our freely provided training. 

No matter how favorable an NCA^[10] we make them sign, it is not really possible to go after them as our industry is too fast-moving. 

No time chasing down employees who broke the code and have to put all our energy and effort into finding a replacement.

Furthermore, “Quite Quitting”^[11] has become the norm in all industries since Corona. So our already volatile tech industry suffered a great deal from it.

So having an employee who might be older but is not going to ghost us for not giving him a bean bag is a unique value for us.

How can these Transferable Skills be matched with a trendy new career?

So now we understand his transferable skills and the industry needs he can fulfill with them. It was time to actually narrow down a job for him. There were thousands of options available in tech but I wanted a career he can start with –

• Minimum training

• Already understands the basic concepts

• Currently in high demand

• I know where to learn efficiently. 

He was not going to train for years like in his previous job. Doing online courses is the only way I have upskilled myself and helped a thousand others change careers. 

However, many tech courses nowadays are taught by scammers and people who have not achieved success themselves.

I’ve put 50% of my time in the last 20 years into learning new skills by doing courses and networking. 

So I know very well how much time can be wasted by taking the wrong course and how devastating it can be for him at this age.

I needed to find a course that would get him job-ready in a matter of months. 

There are millions of tutorials and courses online, free and paid, but most of them are just talking BS. There is no roadmap, no action plan, and it is full of fluff. 

You can be running in circles for well over a year before even realizing you have been scammed. You need to be very careful when choosing a course.

The Trendy New Career I found Best Fit For Him

Data analysis jobs have gotten much more popular over the last few years. Many people ran headfirst into the new fad of data science^[12] and got burned. After wasting years and thousands of dollars on training, they finally realized they had been duped.

Data science is mostly for PhDs or subject matter experts, and not a PhD in data science either; they require you to have a PhD on the subject matter^[13] of the industry. So many high school teachers and business analysts jumped on the hype train and couldn’t manage to land a job for years before finally giving up.

Most of them realized this at one point or another and left the tech industry altogether. Some people realized they had at least some skills as data analysts and pivoted their careers that way. 

But data analysts are one of the most unhappy people in the USA^[14], and I didn’t want that for my father either.

Data analyst is too broad a term anyway; my dad couldn’t waste years on this. For a fast and efficient career shift, I needed to narrow it down a bit more.

I myself have dabbled in this area, so I have some knowledge about it. So I chose software as a means to a career change rather than a broad industry.

I chose Power BI^[15]. To be honest, even that was too broad. That is the problem that people face when switching careers to tech. 

They choose an industry, do some courses, and understand that they have been scammed. What they’ve learned in the years since is that they need to narrow it down. 

Then they choose software and find that even that is too broad. Just look at all the different career paths you can take just with Power BI.

• Power BI Data Analyst 

• Power BI Developer 

• Power BI Software Engineer r

• Power BI Analyst Excel 

• Senior Software Engineer 

• Senior Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst

• Power BI Business Analyst (IT) 

Why I Chose Power BI As The Means To His New Career

Power BI is an incredible tool. It has functions almost like Excel, but of course, it can do more. But like any other tool, it has some pros and cons.

Pros:

• Trendy tool and made by Microsoft so just like Windows it will only get better.

• Have a lot of high paying jobs now.

•  Useful, so not a Fad for sure.

• Quite easy to understand the core concept if you’re already familiar with Excel.

• Many paths can be taken with one single tool.

Cons:

• Competition is high.

How I Convinced My Father For His New Career

After narrowing it down, I presented all the facts to him. He was not convinced at first, but I was prepared for it. 

I asked for a random Excel file he’s working on for his company so that I could show him something.

He didn’t give me any of his company files (another pro of mature adults: they are discreet), so I downloaded a random Excel file from the internet with dummy company data and showed it to him.

It took me maybe 15 minutes to turn that random Excel file with dummy data into a beautiful, interactive, and useful Power BI dashboard. 

Now here is what I was talking about all along. The competitive advantage of being an older adult.

He recognized the utility right away. 

He immediately started interacting with the dashboard and was amazed at how useful it could have been for his company.

He began dictating to me for an hour in order to create a dashboard that would be useful to a manager and company like his. This was my time to be amazed. 

I chose Power BI so he could understand the basics faster. I didn’t expect him to understand exactly what he needed in an instant.

Job Training For The Next Four Months

I’ve already done many courses for Power BI before. So I knew which one would be best for him based on his current skill level. 

I bought the course, hooked him up, and let him be for a month, because the urge and motivation to change your career must come from within. 

I didn’t want him to go along with my hype and do a job he didn’t enjoy.

After a month, got a call from my Mom and she jokingly said – 

“Why is your father showing me these Excel sheets all day long? You gave him the toy, now you come play with him and keep me out of it”

When I went to visit, I was surprised just by the sheer volume of dashboards he made and the crazy features in them. Some of the features he had, I had no idea were even possible haha. So he got his job-ready skills in like two months.

Being Job Ready For Career Shift

Now, we all know that having the right skills might not get you a job 100% of the time. You also have to look the part. 

I’m not talking about attire, of course; I’m talking about the resume and portfolio. 

(I will write another blog about how to make a resume as a 60 year old that will highlight your strengths and give you the highest chance of getting recruited. So stay tuned.)

I helped my father with these two. To attain the skills for the job, I only gave him the course; the rest was up to him. But making the right resume and portfolio took time, and it was mostly me.

particularly the portfolio. You can’t show a Power BI portfolio by printing the dashboards or just sharing the links to the dashboards; that is considered unprofessional, and even his younger competitors struggle with that.

So I made a website for him to showcase his work, and I know it gave him a competitive advantage over many of his competitors.

How To Find A Job As a 60 Year Old

His company was still running so he couldn’t just start another job. He started looking for part-time or freelance type jobs.

Finding a part-time tech job in America is not that hard if you know what you’re doing. Anyone with a good resume and portfolio can do that on Indeed^[16] or a thousand other job sites like that.

The issue is that, for his age, many recruiters might not even check his resume and portfolio properly. So we kept them as our last resort.

First, he started looking physically at the local area. With his impressive resume, I knew it would be a piece of cake, and it was. 

His company did go bankrupt, and his pension fund was cut in half. He was sad to see his life’s work gutted like that, and it was a very distressing time for him. But he knew his part-time job could become full-time very easily, and it became his full-time job.

He had been out of work for about three weeks. 

In this day and age, 60 might not be the new 40, but we do live much longer. While retiring at 65 might have given him some peace of mind but I knew he would’ve started looking for something to do in like a month. 

It’s the case for many of us.

The New Post 60 Career Paths

As folks are living longer and feeling healthier, post-60 career paths are becoming more and more popular. There are a bunch of options to consider if you’re looking to keep working.

I will classify them in two separate ways.

1. New But Traditional Post 60 Career Paths

1. Innovative Post 60 Career Paths

New But Traditional Post 60 Career Paths

This is a list of traditional post 60 career paths. They are traditional but still new in a way cause these were not that common and quite hard to get by.

But in 2023 and actually for few more years, getting these jobs are not that unusual.

• Consulting: Lots of businesses and organizations need seasoned pros to provide them with advice and guidance in their industries.

• Entrepreneurship: Starting your own gig or turning a hobby into a side hustle can be a real thrill and a great way to stay active and engaged in the workforce.

• Freelancing: Freelancing is super flexible and lets you work on a ton of different projects for different clients.

• Teaching or tutoring: Sharing your expertise with others can be incredibly fulfilling and a great way to stay active and involved in your field.

• Writing and editing: If you’ve got a way with words or a knack for fixing up prose, there are tons of opportunities to work as a freelancer or start your own writing business.

• Nonprofit work: Nonprofits need experienced folks to help them achieve their missions.

• Coaching or mentoring: Coaching or mentoring can be a really rewarding way to help others reach their full potential.

• Healthcare: There’s a growing demand for healthcare pros, and lots of jobs in this field offer flexible hours and part-time work.

• Financial planning: Lots of people need help with their money, and financial planners can offer up some valuable advice and guidance.

• Real estate: Real estate can be a super lucrative career for those who have experience in sales and marketing.

• Human resources: HR pros are in high demand, and plenty of companies are willing to hire seasoned workers on a part-time or consulting basis.

• Event planning: Event planners can work as freelancers or start their own event planning business.

• Personal training: Fitness enthusiasts can become personal trainers, helping others achieve their health and wellness goals.

• Sales and marketing: Sales and marketing folks can work as consultants or start their own businesses.

• Art and design: Artists and designers can work as freelancers or start their own design businesses.

New But Traditional Post 60 Career Paths

These jobs aren’t new and they have been around for many years. The only difference is, even elder adults are considered as valid and sometime preferred candidates for these jobs.

• From teacher to Data Analyst

• From accountant to Data Analyst

• Email Developer and Designer

These are just a few examples of the many career paths available to post-60 professionals. The key is to find something you’re passionate about and that lets you use your skills and experience in a meaningful way.

Conclusion

The career path may he took was not the only path he could’ve taken and this might not work for everyone. Every one of us has different strengths and weaknesses and different experiences in life and previous jobs.

I have helped hundreds if not thousands of people change their careers and each case was different. With age, it does become more troublesome and needs some custom planning.

This takes a lot of time and in the end, it all depends on the person’s willingness to put in the work. I don’t offer this service anymore but with the current trend^[17] after Corona, I think people need help more than ever before.

I would try putting more case studies like this in this blog and the reasoning behind taking every step so you can do it yourself. If you need more help, don’t hesitate to email us. I might not be able to reply right away but perhaps I can nudge toward the right path.