Older workers can protect themselves by taking a proactive approach to their career goals. Taking specific steps to strengthen your job security and recover quickly from a job loss are important as years go by.
As we get older, our career goals and priorities often change While ambitious career advancement may have been a priority in our 20s and 30s, later in life many of us switch our focus to finding meaning, work-life balance, and preparing for retirement. However, that doesn’t mean giving up on setting impactful career goals as an older worker With some planning and self-reflection, those in the later stages of their career can still set and achieve goals that provide personal and professional fulfillment.
Why Goal-Setting Still Matters
It’s easy to think there’s no point to career goal-setting once you reach your 50s or 60s. After all, you may only have 10-15 years left before retirement. But setting career goals, no matter your age, is beneficial for many reasons:
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Keeps you motivated Having concrete objectives to work towards prevents stagnation and gives you a sense of purpose. This leads to higher job satisfaction.
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Prepares you for change: Few people stay in the same role until retirement nowadays. Setting goals helps you anticipate and navigate career changes.
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Builds skills: Achieving goals requires learning new skills. This keeps your mind sharp and your abilities polished.
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Boosts resume: Accomplishing goals, even informal ones, brings tangible achievements to include on your resume. This expands future opportunities.
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Increases earnings Goals that increase your skills, responsibilities, or education often lead to higher pay. This directly improves your finances.
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Enhances sense of purpose: Having objectives tied to your values provides meaning that can be lacking pre-retirement.
Reflecting on Values, Interests, and Lifestyle
With retirement on the horizon, it’s essential to understand your values, interests, and desired lifestyle when creating career goals. Ask yourself:
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What’s important to me at this stage of life? Is it financial stability, flexibility, meaning, work-life balance, etc.?
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What types of work activities energize and interest me? Have my interests changed over time?
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What does my ideal daily schedule and work arrangement look like?
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How much do I need to earn to support my retirement lifestyle?
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When do I want to retire fully? Does phased retirement appeal to me?
Really dig deep and be honest with yourself. The career goals you set should align with your motivations and needs at this life stage, not the ones you had decades ago.
Setting SMART Goals
With your values and interests in mind, it’s time to define specific, achievable goals. SMART goals are best. That stands for:
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Specific: Clearly defined objective with tangible details. Not vague aspirations.
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Measurable: Includes quantifiable metrics or benchmarks to track progress.
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Achievable: Within your abilities; a stretch but not unrealistic.
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Relevant: Aligns with your values, interests, and retirement plans.
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Time-bound: Includes a deadline or timeline for completion.
Some examples of SMART career goals for older workers:
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Take 3 training courses on social media marketing tools by Q2 2023.
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Increase LinkedIn connections in my industry from 200 to 500 by year-end 2023.
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Research certification options in my field by Q3 2023.
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Network with 5 internal leaders about open director roles by Q2 2023.
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Compile quantified achievements for annual review to make case for promotion by Q4 2023.
No matter your role, level, or industry, you can create SMART goals that provide focus and push you to gain new skills, expand your network, and take steps to advance professionally.
Goal Areas to Consider
Not sure which types of career goals to pursue? Here are some impactful options to consider:
Learning and Skill-Building: Take training courses, earn certifications, shadow colleagues, learn new systems and software, etc. This makes you more valuable.
Network and Visibility: Attend conferences, connect with leaders, leverage LinkedIn, share insights internally, etc. This raises your profile.
Career Progression: Research promotion requirements, quantify achievements, express interest to managers, consider lateral moves, etc. This advances your position.
Retirement Preparation: Calculate your retirement number, increase savings rate, reduce expenses, consult a financial advisor, etc. This improves finances.
Health and Wellbeing: Take walking breaks, limit evening work emails, use vacation days, eat healthier, etc. This boosts work-life balance.
Industry Knowledge: Join associations, read trade journals, talk to customers, study market trends, etc. This makes you an expert.
Resume Enhancements: Take courses, document achievements, gain technical skills, update LinkedIn, etc. This builds your brand value.
The right goals will be unique to your interests, abilities, role, and life stage. Focus on 2-3 at a time so you can give each your full effort.
Tips for Achieving Goals
Here are some tips to actually accomplish those career goals once you’ve defined them:
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Tell others: Share your goals with managers, mentors, and even family. Accountability helps follow-through.
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Break it down: Split intimidating goals into smaller action steps spread over time. This makes it less overwhelming.
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Schedule actions: Block time on your calendar for goal-related tasks so they don’t fall by the wayside.
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Anticipate obstacles: Identify potential roadblocks and have plans to overcome them when they arise. Don’t get derailed.
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Measure progress: Revisit your goals monthly or quarterly to track progress. This keeps you on pace.
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Be flexible: Be open to modifying timelines or metrics if realities shift. Goals aren’t set in stone.
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Reward yourself: Celebrate successes along the way. This positive reinforcement keeps you motivated.
With thoughtful preparation, strategic follow-through, and flexibility, you can achieve those career goals. And accomplish some big ones while you still can!
Preparing for Job Loss or Change
Despite your best efforts, job loss or transition is a possibility later in your career that requires preparation:
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Keep skills sharp: Take courses, earn certifications, attend conferences – make yourself valuable to employers.
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Expand network: Maintain connections, join associations, build your brand – this provides job leads and references.
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Document achievements: Quantify accomplishments, gather recommendations – this validates your abilities.
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Update resume: Compile experience, skills, education, and goals – this markets you effectively.
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Watch for warning signs: Note concerning changes at your company – this allows time to get ahead of job loss.
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Consult experts: Talk to an employment lawyer and financial advisor – know your options and plan contingency finances.
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Have a backup plan: Research growth areas, start a side business, consider consulting – this provides options.
With some forethought, you can quickly bounce back from job loss and transition smoothly to an encore career or retirement.
Final Tips for Older Workers’ Career Goals
To close, here are a few other tips related to setting and achieving impactful career goals later in your working life:
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Don’t assume you’ll have the same role until retirement. Disruption is common now.
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Take a short-term view. Think 1-3 years out, not 10. Set goals with nearer deadlines.
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Seek horizontal moves to expand skills, not just vertical promotion.
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Ask managers how to gain skills for advancement; don’t wait for them to decide.
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Learn continuously. Earn certifications. Master new systems. Stay up-to-date on industry trends.
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Build goodwill. If layoffs loom, being valued can help you survive the cuts.
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Have a Plan B. Explore contingencies like consulting or starting a business.
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Develop a retirement phase-out plan. Partial retirement can ease the transition.
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Stay positive. Don’t become discouraged by ageism or obstacles. Keep advocating for yourself.
By reflecting on your evolving priorities, defining structured goals, and taking proactive steps to achieve them, you can absolutely advance your career in meaningful ways as an older worker. With some discipline and positivity, you’ve got this!
Calculate Your Retirement Number
It’s difficult to set specific career goals if you don’t know how many more years you’ll be working, or how much you’ll need to earn. Before you begin planning ways to improve your career, determine how many more years you want to work and how much money you’ll need to earn and save during those years. This will greatly impact your career goal-making decisions.
Start by determining how much you will need in retirement to pay your bills and live the lifestyle you want after you finish working. While you can use free online retirement calculators to get a ballpark idea of what you’ll need to save between now and retirement, it’s best to work with a certified financial planner (CFP) to make certain.
A CFP will ask you what type of annual income you’ll want in retirement (e.g., $75,000 per year) and will be able to run the numbers based on how long you might expect to live and how inflation will change the value of that $75,000 per year over 20 or 30 years.
To determine your retirement number, you’ll need to know what you have now, in terms of assets (including savings, a house, IRA, 401(k) and/or pension). You will add that to what you project you’ll earn and be able to save between now and retirement.
Once you know your retirement number, you might find you’ll have to retire later than planned, or save more money each year than you are currently saving.
Plan Career Path Options
Don’t assume you will have the same job at the same company until you retire. Technology is making more and more products, services, positions and even companies obsolete.
Take a look at your company, your department and your position and see if there are opportunities to make an upward or horizontal move to increase your job security. Talk to HR or management about your future at the company and be proactive about managing your career and ensuring that you do not become expendable or miss promotions opportunities.
To improve your chances to make a horizontal move late in your career, start networking with people in that new area and consider taking courses or earning certification in that field. Talk to people who hold the jobs you might eventually want and ask them for advice for preparing for those jobs. Read job descriptions for these positions to see what skills and experience employers want.
Take a look at the LinkedIn profiles of your younger coworkers. Many have more jobs than years in the workforce. Many have stayed at multiple jobs for months, not years.
Surveys consistently show that millennials don’t plan to stay with their companies long-term. A 2018 Deloitte survey found that 43 percent of millennials plan to leave their jobs within two years, and 72 percent plan on leaving within five years.
Employers don’t view job-hopping as a negative as much as they once did, so don’t be afraid of leaving a bad job. On the flip side, let your bosses know if you would like to stay with the company long term and that they should invest in you, in terms of training, sending you to conferences and promoting you.
In order to increase your job security and move up, even toward the end of your career, you will likely need to learn new skills. Even at a later age, earning certification can be a big help in many areas.
It also seems as if workplace technology is changing almost monthly. For example, for many years, people used Skype almost exclusively for remote meetings. After the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, meeting software options exploded, with many companies using new technologies such as Zoom or GoToMeeting.
In addition to learning new technology, keep up to date with industry research and trends. Visit the websites of trade associations and professional societies, government agencies and academic institutions to learn what might be on the horizon in your profession. Even if the information is not related to your department, you’ll impress your bosses if they see that you are interested in keeping up with what’s happening in your marketplace.
Becoming a subject matter expert and thought leader often trumps knowledge of technology, when it comes to management positions.
Meet with an age-discrimination lawyer to determine how you can best protect yourself from an unfair termination based on age. If you think age discrimination is occurring, you might need to start documenting instances of harassment, which can be as simple as younger workers saying, “OK Boomer,” a supervisor calling you a dinosaur or others making similar remarks.
While you might not want to sue your company if they try to terminate you, the threat of a lawsuit, presented by your lawyer with documentation, can be enough to get the company to keep you on, or pay a settlement.
If you are fairly terminated just a few years shy of your retirement, you might be able to offer to work for a reduced salary or just benefits. This is another reason why determining your retirement number is so important when setting late-stage career goals.
TOP 3 JOBS BOARDS FOR OLDER WORKERS | 50+ (2024)
FAQ
What are the career goals when nearing retirement?
What are your long-term career goals as a caregiver?
What is an example of a career goal statement?
How do older workers set career goals?
Older workers can set career goals that include increasing job security, making a horizontal move, getting a promotion or starting a new careers. Knowing your financial needs after retirement is the first step before setting late-stage career goals.
Should older workers pursue new jobs?
Though everyone has different goals and perspectives, some reasons older workers might pursue new jobs include: Stability: If you’re looking for job security, you may leave your current occupation in pursuit of a more stable career. Start your career planning by researching industries that are well-established and tend to have lower turnover rates.
What is the news about older workers?
General news about older workers is discouraging. The pandemic hit harder for older workers. Salaries peak earlier than you think (as early as 40 for women!). It takes longer to land a job when you’re older. If you just focus on the news in front of you, you may get discouraged and settle too quickly for a sub-optimal career.
What are the best jobs for older workers?
For those who have experience with investing, one of the best jobs for older workers may be that of a financial planner. These positions lend themselves well to flexible working arrangements and can be done on a part-time basis for those who want to be semi-retired. A related option would be an encore career in insurance sales.
