When he left HP in 2006, he stepped up his volunteering at a local charter school and at groups such as the Alliance for Climate Change Protection and Habitat for Humanity. Out of a desire to launch a post-retirement or "encore" career in environmental education, Armstrong applied to be a Silicon Valley Encore Fellow. He is spending the year at Environmental Volunteers in Palo Alto, where he says he is "rolling up his sleeves," helping the nonprofit that educates children about the environment bolster their outreach and communications efforts.
Slovakia RPCV John Armstrong spent nearly two decades working at Hewlett-Packard in various management roles
A new wave of service
Marc Freedman
Monday, April 20, 2009
All over the country, volunteering is up as laid-off workers and others coming out of retirement, many of them Baby Boomers, flock to nonprofit organizations to stay engaged while looking for new jobs. This phenomenon could be a temporary one, driven by spiking unemployment rates and the desire to help those hurt most by the recession - or it could be something more.
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John Armstrong typifies the trend. He spent nearly two decades working at Hewlett-Packard in various management roles. Public service has also been a consistent commitment over the years. A West Point graduate, Armstrong spent six years as an Army officer on the east-west German border and later managing financial operations for the military in Colorado. After earning an MBA, he joined the corporate world, later taking a break to spend two years with the Peace Corps in Slovakia.
When he left HP in 2006, he stepped up his volunteering at a local charter school and at groups such as the Alliance for Climate Change Protection and Habitat for Humanity. Out of a desire to launch a post-retirement or "encore" career in environmental education, Armstrong applied to be a Silicon Valley Encore Fellow. He is spending the year at Environmental Volunteers in Palo Alto, where he says he is "rolling up his sleeves," helping the nonprofit that educates children about the environment bolster their outreach and communications efforts.
Midlife workers such as Armstrong are searching for encore careers that put into action a kind of practical idealism, combining income, personal meaning and a chance to make a difference. These desired careers are focused in areas - education, health care, green collar jobs, government service and nonprofit leadership - that have proven largely recession-resistant and that are projected to experience vast labor shortages as the economy recovers.
