In our series on interviews with authors, today we present you our interview with Jacky Hood. Jacky is an author, enterpreneur and an avid biker. Jacky has written a book about expanded careers and working as a means to stay fit and healthy into old age and thus to stay young. Let’s hear more from Jacky…

Boomer411:  Jacky, can you please tell our readers about yourself? What excites you about this book ‘Happy About Working To Stay Young: Expanded Careers for Boomers and Seniors’? or what motivated you to write it?  

Jacky: My career is in high technology. I have worked as an engineer and manager and now I am a management consultant and college instructor. There was a big slump in high tech from 2001-2005. People in their 40s, 50s and 60s kept saying “I’ll never again find a job. I’m too old.” This angered and amused me because I knew of many people gainfully employed and making career advancements decades older than these people. So I collected success stories, created a workshop called “Third Stage of Your Career”, and then built the book from the workshop.

Boomer411: Please tell us about your blog and your other works and interests, including biking

  Jacky: My blog touches on technology, art, politics, careers, and sports. I’ve always enjoyed individual sports and fitness activities: running, ballet, jazz dancing, Swedish gymnastics, squash, bicycling and hiking. I bicycled across North America and hiked extensively in the Alps when I lived in Europe. Now I hike in the hills near San Francisco as well as the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. Someday I will hike in the Himalayas.

Boomer411: Why should someone closer to retirement consider working past retirement? Having waited so long for this moment, now when it is almost within reach, why should the Boomers give it all up, ditch the benefits of free time and consider working in retirement and possibly increase or continue their stress?

Jacky: There are four primary reasons to work for pay:

• health,
• wealth,
• making a difference and
• the impending worldwide shortage of skilled workers

Men who retire at 50 do not live as long as those who retire at 60. Working people have plenty of time to travel, be with their grandchildren, and enjoy their hobbies. Doing these things 100 hours/week would be like eating dessert all the time. Stress is healthy; people with no responsibilities lose their sense of self-worth and become depressed.

Boomer411: Are there any cases in which retirement from working or a job would make sense or be recommended over continuing to work?

Jacky: Of course! One can be productive and healthy without a paid job. It just takes more planning and self-discipline and a financial situation that permits it. Some non-profits treat volunteers like employees and allow them to do meaningful work, not just menial tasks. They have performance reviews and promotions. Other non-paid people pour their lives into their gardens or other creative hobbies. Unfortunately far too many retired people simply watch television.

Boomer411: With so many options and choices around, how should one approach in deciding what they should do in their second half of their lives? What factors should one consider in deciding on their new career?

Jacky: If a person loves his or her job and opportunities exist in that field, there is no reason to change careers. That doesn’t mean becoming stale; there are always new projects, new clients, new markets, and new challenges. If a Boomer wants to do something different, a very important question is “Where do you want to live?” Geography makes a huge difference in the quality and cost of living and geography dictates job and career opportunities. Nurses, teachers, and computer programmers are needed everywhere. However, there are no farmers in Manhattan and no five-star chefs in small prairie towns. Also, a person should consider growth fields like medical care, rather than declining industries like travel agencies that have been replaced by the Internet.

Boomer411: How can employers help/change their job offers, benefits to attract and retain this additional and valuable pool of employees?

Jacky: Employers simply need to reach out to Boomers and Seniors just as they reach out to minorities and women. They need to recruit at the colleges and universities that attract older adults. At the college where I teach, the average age is 40. There are as many 60 year olds as 20 year olds. Across the country, there are private and public outplacement firms full of Boomers and Seniors in transition or seeking new opportunities. The western world has been borrowing from the developing countries but those countries are also facing declining populations of people under 40. Employers need to discover a nation within a nation: 100 million Boomers and Seniors who are energetic, educated, skilled and experienced.

Boomer411: One of the claims in your book is “The first two weeks on the job set the pattern. Demonstrate that you can leave at 4pm and still make a strong contribution. Junior workers put in 80 hours one week then need 80 hours the following week to correct mistakes”.

If someone near retirement age has been an average performer until now and is having trouble adjusting to the new technology, changed work environment, how does he or she go about navigating this dynamic business landscape and then differentiate himself or herself to be more valuable?

Jacky: The new technologies such as Web 2.0 and multi-function mobile devices improve productivity. It makes no more sense to eschew them than to ignore telephones and photocopiers. The changed work environment including global remote teams, telecommuting, and flexible work structures are exactly what the anti-establishment beatniks and hippies were promoting 40-50 years ago. We invented this egalitarian environment; why should we long for a return to rigid hierarchies and slow-paced bureaucracies? It’s ironic that the sex-drugs, rock&roll generation that wore long hair and beards is complaining about shaved heads and bare midriffs! Nobody expects a middle-aged person to wear eyebrow rings and tattoos, but your ideas will be considered stale if you are still wearing clothing and hairstyles that are 20 years out of date.

Boomer411: What resources would you recommend to someone looking to change their career?

Jacky: I recommend reading about Johnny Appleseed. He planted apple trees that are still growing 300 years later. Be sure that your next career move allows you to make a lasting contribution, one that will survive beyond your lifetime. Build a product or a company, write a book, make a movie, or mentor a new generation. To focus yourself on making this type of lasting contribution, build a physical or electronic career portfolio. These are no longer just for artists. Here is a book and some web sites that will get you started:
The Career Portfolio Book by Beverly J. Irby and Genevieve Brown
http://www.bcjobs.ca/re/career-centre/career-tools/career-planning/career-portfolios
http://www.smu.edu/career/portfolio.htm
http://careerservices.uvic.ca/tutorials/career-portfolio.html
http://www.visualcv.com/
http://www.quintcareers.com/job_search_portfolio.html

Boomer411: To find out more about Jacky Hood and her ventures and interests, use the links below and learn more.
http://www.bigtent.info
http://www.bigtent.info/blog1
http://www.chalkinstitute.org
http://www.fielddaysolutions.com
http://www.tapapm.org

You can find out more information on Jacky’s book from the publisher and also order, here

You can read reviews of the book here/order from Amazon.com

This concludes our interview with Jacky Hood. Please do stay tuned as we bring you more such interviews.

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