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Retired Guy Series – Gets Suspended (for now)

I started this series over 3 years ago. Where did the time go? This was my attempt to keep my readers up to date on my happenings, plans and such during my retirement.

I wrote about my volunteering efforts.

  • I truly enjoyed volunteering with Valley of the Sun Big Brothers, Big Sisters. They gave me the opportunity to keep on practicing my speaking and presenting in front of a crowd. I did many “new big” orientation sessions. I also got out in the community to share what BBBS’s was doing and helping to recruit new bigs. It was a great experience.
  • AZ4Education gave me an awesome opportunity to learn new skills. I was the marketing director, board vice president and added treasurer to my list of duties with them. I am very proud of the growth that the organization produced during my time there. We were able to grow the donations almost 3X year over year. The best part of volunteering there was all of the people I met allow the way.
  • Haley Elementary Site Committee allowed me to continue to practice my social media skills. Public schools are just starting to get into the social media space. Haley allowed me to run with their Facebook page. I had fun setting it up, adding content and helping to connect the Haley community in a different way.

I wrote about job searches and setting up my consulting business.

  • A few times during my retirement, I thought about not being retired. To me retirement is something that I am just not truly ready for. I have a burning need to be in the workplace. During those attempts for employment, I found a few items that really opened my eyes. First, being a mature person out looking for work with the younger crowd is somewhat difficult. How many employers are jumping at the chance to hire an older worker? Second, why is it that the hiring manager wonders why you are applying for a position that may seem a bit less than your experience? This area has a blog post topic in and of itself! Basically, it is hard out there for us older more mature and experienced workers.
  • I decided to start my own business and do consulting for select organizations. I wanted to insure that I was working on and for the right situation for all of us. I did not want to just be busy.

Now for the fun part! I am officially suspending my Retired Guy Series!

What’s Next?

I will be still volunteering. I got the bug! Haley Elementary and Ignite Phoenix will still have me around whenever they need my help. I will look for other opportunities that fit within my life and priorities. Giving back has been a big part of the past 3 years. I will not ever not give back!

The really big reason that Retired Guy is getting suspended, is I will not be retired any longer. I spent the last month officially pursuing employment. I made the decision that I wanted to get back into the workplace. I wanted to share my experiences and help an organization achieve their goals.  The company and I are willing to take a chance on each other! I received the call the other day, that the company would like to extend me an offer. I have accepted. I will officially be back in the ranks of the employed full time in a couple of weeks. Now that is a pretty good reason to suspend this series….

Published inObservationsVolunteering

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