What Is Unretirement? How Retirees Are Returning to Work and Reinventing Their Careers

Retirement used to mark the end of a career. Today, it is increasingly becoming the beginning of something new.

Across industries, experienced professionals are pursuing encore careers, launching businesses, consulting, advising, teaching, and finding purpose-driven work long after leaving traditional full-time employment. At the same time, caregivers, including stay-at-home parents and those who stepped away from work to care for family members, are returning to professional life through career reentry programs, returnships, entrepreneurship, and lifelong learning

Together, these trends reflect a broader shift in how people think about work. Rather than following a linear path from education to career to retirement, many professionals are reinventing themselves multiple times throughout their lives.

According to Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, professor of organizational behavior and the Camilla Latino Spinelli Endowed Term Chair of the Management Division at Babson College, questions about unretirement, encore careers, and returnships have become increasingly common in career conversations with alumni and other professionals.

What Is Unretirement?

Unretirement is someone who planned to retire, actually retired, and then decided to return to work after realizing they missed it, Tosti-Kharas said.

“It is different from someone who knows at the outset that they are not retiring so much as ‘downshifting’ to a less intense or more meaningful job that satisfies different life needs than their previous career,” she said.

Rather than abandoning their expertise, people pursuing unretirement continue using the knowledge and relationships they built throughout their careers, according to Susanne Schneider-Kivelitz, an associate director in Babson’s Graduate Center for Career Development. Often, they work part-time as consultants, advisors, or contract professionals.

“Unretirement usually is, for example, someone has worked in (human resources) for a long time, and they retire from their HR job at one of the corporates, but they start to work as a career advisor, for example, at a college for maybe 10 hours a week,” Schneider-Kivelitz said.

What Is an Encore Career?

While unretirement typically keeps professionals in the same field, an encore career often takes them in an entirely new direction.

“An ‘encore career’ is when a later-in-life job becomes a second career that one can be as proud of and invest as much in as the original career,” Tosti-Kharas said.

An encore career can involve unretirement, she notes, but it does not have to. And returning to work after retirement does not necessarily mean someone is beginning a second career. Encore careers often emerge among professionals later in life who have already enjoyed successful careers and want to pursue something different and meaningful.

An executive might become a teacher. A finance professional might advise nonprofit organizations. A corporate leader might start a purpose-driven venture. These second careers prioritize impact, flexibility, and fulfillment over traditional measures of career success, Schneider-Kivelitz said.

How Can Older Professionals Re-Enter the Workforce Successfully?

Anyone considering a return to work should start with the reasons behind the decision, Tosti-Kharas said.

If social interaction is the goal, for example, the type of interaction matters. A job that provides energizing and meaningful relationships may be a better fit than one that creates stressful or draining interactions.

Likewise, someone returning to work primarily for financial reasons needs to consider whether the job offers enough consistent work to meet that goal.

“The key thing to think about is whether any given job will actually give them what they seek,” Tosti-Kharas said.

Schneider-Kivelitz also encouraged professionals to begin with self-reflection:

• What do they enjoy?
• What matters to them?
• How much do they want to work?
• What do they want their lives to look like over the next five or 10 years?

Those questions often become the foundation for successful and meaningful career reinvention.

What Are Some Tips for Changing Careers When You’re Older?

While many older professionals returning to work worry about ageism, Tosti-Kharas encouraged them to emphasize what differentiates them from younger candidates.

“Don’t apologize for your age,” Tosti-Kharas said. “It’s valuable experience and perspective.”

That experience can include communication, leadership, problem-solving, judgment, reliability, and the ability to navigate difficult situations. Those skills remain valuable no matter the industry or occupation.

After determining their transferable skills, professionals should also address gaps in their skillset. AI is increasingly part of the conversations Schneider-Kivelitz has with experienced Babson alumni about the future of work. Professionals considering an encore career can use professional education to build familiarity with emerging technologies or strengthen skills they might need in a new field.

“The interest in online courses has increased because people want to stay up to date,” Schneider-Kivelitz said. “Specifically interest in everything AI related.”

How Do You Figure Out What to Do for a Second Career?

Few successful career transitions happen in isolation.

“A career change is never done alone, never,” Schneider-Kivelitz said.

Networking, informational interviews, mentoring relationships, alumni communities, and professional associations all play important roles in helping professionals explore new opportunities. For caregivers and professionals returning after a long absence, these conversations can also help restore confidence and reveal opportunities they may not have considered.

“It’s actually not really healthy to go from 150% to zero all at once.”

Susanne Schneider-Kivelitz, associate director at Babson’s Graduate Center for Career Development.

Another increasingly popular form of career reentry is the returnship.

“Returnship is a structured program that is launched by companies,” Schneider-Kivelitz said. “It’s like an internship, but for senior people or more senior career people when they want to get back into the workforce.”

Originally created for caregivers who left work to raise children, returnships have expanded to include military spouses, individuals recovering from illness, and older professionals seeking to reenter the workforce. These career reentry programs help participants refresh technical skills, learn new workplace systems, and rebuild professional confidence.

How Do You Get Back Into the Workforce After a Long Break?

Whether someone is returning from retirement, caregiving, or another extended absence, lifelong learning has become increasingly important.

Schneider-Kivelitz says many professionals are turning to short-term certificates and online learning opportunities to stay current.

“I think the interest in three- to six-month online courses has increased because people want to stay up to date,” she says.

She notes that AI-related learning is a particularly popular area of interest among senior professionals seeking to remain competitive.

“Employers are asking for it and they take it as a given,” she said

What Are the Main Reasons People Go Back to Work After Retiring?

The reasons people return to work after retirement are as varied as the people themselves. Financial considerations are a factor. Longer life expectancies mean retirement savings may need to stretch further, while rising costs can make returning to work attractive or necessary.

Other benefits include routine and structure, social interaction, a sense of connection and belonging, purpose, and opportunities to learn and develop a craft.

“The idea of going back to work after retiring suggests that something was missing in retirement,” Tosti-Kharas said.

For some people, that missing element may be professional identity. After decades of building a career, leaving the workforce can mean losing a significant source of daily structure and social connection.

Retirement may offer some an opportunity to reconsider what they want from work, while others can struggle with abruptly moving from a demanding career to complete retirement.

“It’s actually not really healthy to go from 150% to zero all at once,” Schneider-Kivelitz said.

Instead, many seek opportunities to mentor others, volunteer, teach, advise organizations, or support causes they care about.

“Our life expectancy is longer. We are healthier longer. We are able to contribute for longer,” she said. “Many people want the opportunity to still do something meaningful.”