Final post, but still working this new economy

Getty ImagesWhen I started this blog in April, I knew it had an expiration date. I signed a short-term contract. I referred to myself as a guest blogger on Yahoo! Even the title, "Working the New Economy," suggested that this was a project of limited duration. After all, how long could this "new economy" last?

Now that it's time to wrap up, it's pretty clear that the new economy has become the new normal. And I can't say that I have figured out exactly how to work it. Unemployment has now topped 10%. Counting those who are underemployed, it's closer to 20%. Mass layoffs are still happening, including a round at BusinessWeek last week where several of my most respected colleagues were shown the door.

One defining feature of this not-so-new-anymore economy is that we will all need to flexible and nimble. I've worked independently for nearly a decade. And now it seems that my usual mix of contract work, freelance relationships, consulting and other kinds of affiliations has become standard in what Tina Brown so aptly dubbed the gig economy.

Getting the timing right while moving from gig to gig can be challenging. Between consulting projects, gigs, or temporary assignments, there are often long gaps with no work and times of too much of it. Which is why I'd like the bickering in Washington to include some discussion of providing health care for the self-employed. (Great analysis of this issue by Zeba Kahn here.) But I'm getting off track.

The last time I ended a blog, it wasn't my choice and I had to figure out what would come next. This time, I'm fortunate to know what's coming next because I'm already doing it.

About a month ago I started working with Civic Ventures, a nonprofit committed to reinventing the years formerly known as retirement. Every month hundreds of thousands of American are turning 65 and many of them have neither the desire nor the luxury of planting themselves in Leisure Village to idle away their golden years. As they face another decade or more of work, this huge cohort of experienced workers will be looking to do something different than what came before. And large numbers of them are also interested in doing work that matters.

Which is why I'll be focusing on helping people find their way to encore careers -- a new stage of work that combines continued income, personal meaning, and social impact. The idea is to mobilize millions of people to use their later careers to solve the world's biggest problems. If the concept of an encore careers appeals to you, this guide can help you get started.

In my first post on this blog I wrote about adult internships as a way to jumpstart a career change, network and get new skills. These kinds of internships are one of the tools Civic Ventures is using to help people transition into encore careers. We call them Encore Fellowships. I've also written a lot (both on this blog - and on my New York Times blog, Shifting Careers) about my frustration with generational tension at work. I'm proud to say that part of my new work will explore forging generational alliances in the workplace.

I've enjoyed every moment of my stint on Yahoo! Shine. I also enjoyed my time answering small business questions with Kevin Salwen on Yahoo! Answers. So I close this blog with the best feeling that someone can have on saying farewell to a gig -- the feeling that I'd welcome the chance to work again with Dory Devlin and the rest of the team at Yahoo!

Thank you for making this a rich conversation. If you'd like to keep up with my work, follow me on Twitter.com/heymarci or friend me on Facebook (using "reader" in the header).