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FIRST STEPS TO A SECOND CAREERRetirees are finding new ways to stay productiveAfter 26 years with the U.S. Customs Service and 10 years with Digital Equipment Corp., Robert DiLorenzo of Acton, Mass., retired at 62--for two months. ''I didn't know what to do aside from watching C-SPAN and yelling back at the television,'' he says. So he hit the phone and landed a job as an independent contractor for a company that does background checks on prospective employees at the U.S. Air Force, the Treasury Dept., and the Commerce Dept. Says DiLorenzo: ''I don't feel the parade has passed me by.'' DiLorenzo epitomizes the changing pattern of American retirement. More and more, retired men and women want to get up in the morning and do something productive. Of 1,555 adults 45 or over polled for BUSINESS WEEK by Louis Harris & Associates, 75% said they planned to continue working after retirement. Among 281 retirees polled in the same survey, 47% are still working. ''They remember the phrase, 'retire and die,' and they're not ready to do that,'' says trends analyst Joyce Gioia of Herman Group, a management consulting firm in Greensboro, N.C. JOB FAIR JAUNT. When retirees hit the job market, ''they want lower stress, flexible hours, work they enjoy doing, and the feeling that they're making a difference,'' says Gioia. Take Charles T. Russell, 68. For 10 years he was CEO and president of Visa International, the credit-card company, before retiring in 1994. He found that boring, so after a barrage of offers, he decided to work in 1996 as vice-chairman of eFunds Corp., an electronic commerce startup in Tustin, Calif. The job leaves him lots of time for serving on boards, flying his plane, and puttering in his woodworking shop. ''If I don't feel like coming into work, I don't. You never did that at Visa.'' Most pros agree that the best time to plan a second career is before you quit your first. Katherine W. Donahue, a consultant with Deloitte & Touche, suggests joining a trade association or attending job fairs to network. A job fair is where Virginia S. Whitaker, who was taking early retirement from a job in regulatory affairs at Nynex Corp. last year, hooked up with her current employer, information technology consulting firm Approach Inc. ''I wanted to do something really different,'' she says. To build a second career, you may need to educate yourself. Before Agnes Eschoo Williams, 57, of Atherton, Calif., got into selling residential real estate after 19 years as a college cosmetology teacher and career counselor, she took courses in real estate, computers, and finance. But if you want to put your existing job experience to work, you may want to try consulting. It offers flexibility and requires no license or investment. ''You can move into it and back as much and as often as you'd like,'' says Gary S. Goodman, author of Six-Figure Consulting (Amacom, $18). A number of companies including Decatur (Ga.)-based Life Span Services (404 373-0005), Stamford (Conn.)-based IMCOR (203 975-8000), and New York City's Executive Interim Management (212 519-6006) place retired executives as contract consultants in midlevel to senior management positions for two weeks to a year or more. One hot area is solving Year 2000 problems. ''Often the only people who understand these computer languages are retired engineers,'' says Life Span President Rick Granitz. If you want to start a new business, take a look at such fields as health, nutrition, workforce training, and technology--particularly E-commerce. And no matter what your career path, reach high. David Sensenig of Lansdale, Pa., worked 48 years as a general and cardiothoracic surgeon. But ''it was time to move on,'' he says. So at 74, he went to Temple University Law School. Now 77, he's prepping for the bar exam. ''I'm not looking for an associate's job working 70-hour weeks and hoping to be a partner in 10 years,'' he says. ''But I think I can be of service in the medical malpractice field.'' That's a long way from ''retire and die.''
By Meg Lundstrom in New York, with Amy Barrett in Philadelphia RELATED ITEMS
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Updated July 9, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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