As a career strategist, Robyn Greaves has sat across the table from countless experienced professionals all wondering the same thing: why is it so hard to get hired? Despite packed resumés, job offers are few and far between.
They have an impressive number of runs on the board but can’t get back in the game.
“There are a large group of people who are in their late career – 50s, 60s – who are smart, competent, experienced, well and healthy, and have an enormous amount to contribute and want to work,” Greaves says. “But they find it very hard to find a way in.”
After years in corporate leadership, Greaves transitioned to become a career change specialist and the author of a book aimed at older workers, The Third Chapter. While her CV includes stints at BHP, Apple, Woolworths and Westpac, she tells clients the best roles may be found at the other end of the spectrum, in small businesses. Her mission now includes alerting small business owners to the value of tapping into this under-appreciated workforce cohort.
The Third Career Chapter Is A Time For Plot Twists
Greaves believes, like books, careers have chapters. In the first chapter, she frames people as consumers: they absorb education and early work experience but are largely dependent on the wisdom of others.
The second chapter is the building years. “For many people, that’s building a career, building expertise. It could be building wealth, a business, could be family,” she explains. The third chapter begins in the late career years but, Greaves is quick to add, it’s not a wind-down towards retirement. In fact, it should be the opposite.
“You have the opportunity to create a story of life and work that’s uniquely your own,” she says. “That’s where I’ve positioned my work and I think there’s enormous potential. Most people have many more options than they realise in this stage.”
Part of Greaves’s focus is convincing people they do not need to spend their 60s strolling along a Gold Coast beach if they don’t want to. “For many people, the idea of a third chapter, another horizon of work that you can create for yourself, is very freeing,” she says. Continuing to work can also serve a purpose.
“Many people feel like they should have an amount of money in their superannuation, and if they don’t, that can be quite scary. But this is an opportunity – an opportunity to keep working in a way that suits you.”
ABS data confirms Australians are remaining in the workforce well into their 60s. The most recent figures saw an uptick in workers aged over 65 engaging in part-time work and a reduction in people leaving the workforce for retirement. Whether by necessity or design, older employees remain a significant workforce cohort.
Fractional Work Makes Experience Accessible
Greaves tells clients the key to a successful third chapter is not to reinvent themselves but rather rethink the way they want to work. It often means re-examining roles and re-aligning with purpose once they’re free of the distractions of their career building phase. “For a lot of people, the trigger to do something different is because they feel exhausted, they feel really burnt out.
They’re not that interested in what they’re doing anymore, and they’re finding it very hard to fake it,” she explains. “Sometimes, it’s an aspirational thing – bringing things back into your life that you really enjoy”
She notes that many people in this phase of life are not looking for full-time work. Some may want more leisure time while 40 per cent of working women over 50 have care responsibilities. But, she adds, the rising popularity of flexible work patterns means this is no longer a disadvantage.
“A lot of people are riding a new wave now,” she says. “There are now many, many people who are providing fractional services, project-based work, advisory.”
For SMEs, this trend unlocks a hugely valuable pool of potential talent; people with levels of experience that would be out of reach on a full-time basis can suddenly become affordable.
“That person may work a few days a month. They might work one day a week,” Greaves suggests. “They may do a start-up amount of work and then oversee it so cheaper, less experienced people can be mentored. They can set up a lot of what’s going on, make sure that the groundwork has been done. In that way, it meets the business’s need for less risk and less cost, and enables the individual to contribute their expertise.”
The need is evident in a recent study of HR managers which found a third felt their business leaders lacked expertise in problem solving, strategic leadership and people management. For small business owners accustomed to thinking about headcount, the question shifts from “Can I afford a senior hire?” to “Can I afford three days a month of someone who has solved this problem a dozen times before?”
AI Is Not Only The Domain Of Young Workers
Two more questions could arise in relation to artificial intelligence: “Could AI solve this problem instead of an experienced worker?” and “Will an older worker be able to use AI or may they be stuck in the past?”
Greaves answers with a resounding no and yes, respectively. While acknowledging the productivity-boosting benefits AI can have in SMEs, she notes the importance of human gatekeepers, particularly if the technology is a recent adoption. “AI does not replace experience, and it can confidently suggest a path or an answer to you that’s actually completely wrong.
So we really do need experienced eyes over it,” she says. “A lot of people are scared of AI because they feel it’s going to take their job. But I see a huge opportunity. People really value the expertise, the ability to connect the dots, the perspective, the impartiality, the calmness and maturity that older people who’ve seen a lot really bring.”
As for AI proficiency, she implores employers not to generalise. So new is the technology, a 55-year-old has had the same opportunity to learn to use it as a 25-year-old, so skills should be appraised on a case-by-case basis.
Third Chapters Are Not Just For Employees
Greaves notes an irony if SME owners are reluctant to hire older workers: they are often in their third chapter too. 47 per cent of small business owners are aged 50 and over, and 22 per cent are older than 60. The average age of ownership is 50 and rising.
While she encourages older employees to take stock and rethink their goals, she says this process becomes more complicated for SME owners, whose personal identity is often fused with their business identity. Greaves works with owners who have reached a point where exhaustion has overtaken purpose, but they cannot see past the business to imagine what comes next. They’re far from alone, with 89 per cent of SME owners reporting burnout at some stage.
Her advice to owners is to force themselves to step back and reflect. “That doesn’t have to be spending a lot of time in a retreat or anything like that,” she says. “But make sure that you do actually take time to reflect, to think about what’s important and bring that into your awareness.”
She also highlights the power of creativity, and says reconnecting with interests outside the business can be energising and help with longevity. Her recommendation: “Make the most interesting thing about you not what you do for work.”
Greaves says whether she’s speaking to an owner or a worker in their third chapter, her starting advice is the same: get out and explore. “Find some people who are doing what you’re interested in doing and have a conversation with them,” she suggests.
Employers may find that conversation challenges their assumptions and opens their eyes to opportunities. “There is a lot of serendipity in it, but you know that that serendipity opportunity favours the prepared.”
