Ideas for Boomer Career Changers

By Marty Nemko

Many people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are looking for a new line of work. Here are some careers particularly well-suited to the boomer generation.

In these careers, being older is a plus or at least not a minus. These jobs are also boomer-friendly in that they’re generally low-stress, aren’t physically demanding, and rarely require long hours.

Sales of items bought by older customers, for example, senior housing, architectural services, long-term care insurance.

Fulfillment service for EBay sellers. Many EBay sellers say that their biggest hassle is packing and shipping the stuff. Want to help them? You might be able to solicit clients simply by emailing EBay sellers located in your geographic area. If you’re not in great physical shape, pick sellers of lightweight items.

Conference administrator. Conventions and other professional meetings require at least one person to handle logistics: mailings, registration, selecting and monitoring onsite services, etc.

Ghostwriter for executives. Variation: Contact celebrities who are just over the hill and afraid of losing their celebrity. Offer to ghostwrite their biography.

Support person in a cosmetic surgery clinic. Most clinics hire one or more people to answer questions before and after the surgery as well as to do various administrative tasks.

English-as-a-Second Language teacher to corporations that hire many people whose native language isn’t English.

Tutor: The best tutors are not naturally good that the subject—the naturals learn via a different process than do strugglers. The best tutors themselves struggled but managed to learn the material.

Consultant, even if your former work wasn’t senior level. For example, a former administrative assistant might hire out as a trainer of admins.

Fashion model: While millions of teens salivate at the thought of modeling, fewer boomers do, yet many ads picture older people.

Fix-it person: handyperson, locksmith, repairer of small items such as hard drives, IPODs, and Palms and other PDAs.

Wedding planner. Variations: Reunion or Silver and Golden Anniversary planner.

Piano Tuner. Low stress, usually pleasant work environments.

Indexer. Over 100,000 books are published each year. Every one needs an index.

Abstractor. Research publications often require articles to be abstracted. For a person who enjoys reading, learning new things, and synthesizing, this can be fun.

Seamstress

Image consultant and personal shopper specializing in older people.

Copy writer: The job market is generally best for annual reports, trade publications, and to a lesser extent, for print and online catalogs.

Driver: Chauffeur, school bus driver, cab driver, courier service.