A Multi-stage life

Is coming

Jun 25, 2026

This year’s college grads are facing an uncertain career future says the article, The New Career Odyssey Waiting for Today’s College Grads in The Wall Street Journal.

College graduates have never been guaranteed predictability, but the current cohort is notable for the degree of disruption it is likely to face. LinkedIn projects people entering the workforce now will have twice as many jobs over the course of their careers as those who started out 15 years ago.
This is partly because careers keep stretching longer. You’re bound to experience more change if you work for 50 or 60 years than if you retire after a 40-year run.1

I’ve written before about a multi-stage life in which the norms change from 3 stages - education, establish and work a career, and retire - to a fluid process of establishing skills, working, going back to school, developing new skills, working in a different discipline, taking a break occasionally, or any combination of those activities.

The Longevity Imperative: How to Build a Healthier and More Productive Society to Support Our Longer Lives by Andrew J. Scott presents a thesis that we have achieved the first longevity revolution, living longer, and now it is imperative to better prepare ourselves, our skills and our finances for a long life.

“…people of all ages now need to plan for a longer life…it goes much further than just preparing for an extended retirement. It represents nothing less than a new era for humanity.”2

When I read this book over a year ago, I wished younger people would become familiar with this concept, for they have the time and ability to live a multi-stage life. I wrote the following.

The more I learn about retirement and late adulthood, the more I realize that it’s extremely helpful to plan your life with late and later adulthood in mind…I hadn’t thought much about my late adult years until I was in my early 60s.

I thought it was unlikely that this concept would catch on among young people and was hoping that those of us in late adulthood would encourage our kids and grandkids to prepare for a longer working life with occasional breaks and perhaps educating themselves into new careers.

A lot can change in a year and a half.

Thanks to AI young people may live a multi-stage career life whether they want to or not. No one knows what jobs will look like in 15 years, and current jobs may become nonexistent. College graduates entering the work force are understandably anxious.

The Wall Street Journal article says,

Most of us didn’t know AI was coming when we began our careers, so we didn’t worry about it. Today’s grads, with their entire professional lives before them, understand they are on the precipice of something big and carry the anxiety that comes with this knowledge.

Their task is to develop transferable skills to thrive in a working world that may turn out to be unrecognizable.3 (Highlighting mine)

When I was a career advisor, I saw students choose careers and tailor their education accordingly. Those interested in medicine took AP biology and AP chemistry. If math was their intended career, they took AP calculus. These courses taught appropriate content, but there probably wasn’t too much emphasis on transferrable skills.

The article mentions the following example of transferrable skills.

Sarah Iselin studied photography and art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Now she is chief executive of health-insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
An artist’s eye for detail served her well when she moved into healthcare. And who better to distill reams of complex information than someone who understands a picture is worth a thousand words?
To be clear, subject-matter knowledge is important. Iselin went back to school for a graduate degree in health policy and management. But she credits art with training her mind to see and communicate clearly.4

Apparently, schools are showcasing alumni who have had unconventional career paths to encourage current students to think more broadly about their careers. Students would also be wise to develop adaptability, communication skills, critical thinking and reflection.

Reflection is a term not generally thought about in a career context, but reflection is always useful. I remember being asked questions like, What have you learned that would be helpful in this job? It may not be specific knowledge but transferrable skills like an ability to see the big picture or isolate problem areas.

Someone looking to hire a Martian data-center engineer—or fill any job that previously didn’t exist—won’t find applicants with direct experience.5

You may be wondering how we in late adulthood should apply this information. Here are three suggestions.

If you’ve had an unconventional career path, talk about it with your children and grandchildren, encourage them to think about a long and varied career. Talk about your career path and the choices that you made and expose them to family and friends who chose differently, for this may expand their view of education, career and late adulthood.
Let them observe you living a vibrant late adulthood. Remind them that you’re still working, that God has important things for you to do, that retirement isn’t the end of usefulness.
Note transferable skills that they might be developing, comment on excellent soft skills that you notice, and put the thought into their heads to be aware of the need to reflect on their progress, what they’ve learned, and how they can apply it in different roles.

In multi-stage lives, they will likely work longer than 30 or 40 years, but if they realize that work is a very good thing, that it’s a gift, that their work is important, and that a multi-stage life gives them the opportunity to take breaks and adjust, they will be energized to do it gladly.

Reimagining Retirement

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