"Second life after retirement... "Hobby - Find your aptitude in advance, and prepare steadily."

Retirement, layoffs, bankruptcy.... The moment when you have to step down from what you've been doing all your life comes to everyone. Baby boomers (born 1955-1963), who entered the elderly (65 years old or older) from 2020, have entered the stage of starting a "second life." "Retired and Started a Pleasant Job" (East Life), published on the 20th, tells the story of nine baby boomers who are looking for a new job after retirement.

Among them, Kim Wook-sung, 65, who retired from Samsung C&T and became a wine columnist and president of a wine bar, Moon Doo-sik, 69, who became a youth counselor at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction's Philippines branch, and Kim Jae-kwang, 68, who became an urban farmer.

Kim Wook-sung, a wine columnist and wine bar president, explains the wine to taste at a wine learning group. Provided by Kim Wooksung

Kim Wook-sung made his second job of wine, which he enjoyed as a hobby. Working as the head of the overseas sales and marketing team at Shilla Hotel, he began to study wine in earnest by hosting the event catering. He established an in-house wine club and went to an academy after work to obtain a certificate for the French Language Proficiency Test (DELF). After retiring in 2012, at the age of 58 in 2015, he passed a master's course in wine run by the International Wine Organization and Montpellier University and went to Paris, France to study. Over the next 16 months, he went to more than 400 wineries in 25 countries.

After returning to Korea, he got a job as a vice president at a wine store in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, in 2018, and was in charge of wine sales and education, and opened a wine bar in his neighborhood (Dangdang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do). The YouTube channel of Dr. Kim's Wine Lab, which was launched in 2019 at the recommendation of his daughter, has more than 20,000 subscribers. "You have to study for at least an hour a day for 10 years to get a hobby. I have to catch a topic that I'm interested in and dig into it intensively," he said.

Moon Doo-sik, who is working as a youth counselor after serving as the CEO of a large company, is lecturing on the risk of smartphone addiction at an elementary school in Seoul. Provided by Moon Doo-sik

Moon Doo-sik, who joined Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction and served as CEO of Hanjin City Gas, became a youth counselor by taking advantage of his major in psychology when he was an undergraduate. When the company was notified to retire a year later, he challenged to obtain a certificate of youth counselor that psychology majors could apply for. I studied at the library for six hours every day for a year. After obtaining a third-degree youth counselor, he got a job at the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do, and consulted about 300 teenagers since 2011. He also earned a second-degree certificate as a youth counselor and a master's degree in child psychology counseling at Catholic University. He said, "It's basic to get a certificate in an existing job or major. If you want to work even at an advanced age, you need to obtain a higher level of qualification or gain expertise in graduate schools in related fields," he said.

Kim Jae-kwang explains how to grow crops in the Happy Sharing Garden in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Provided by Kim Jae-kwang

Kim Jae-kwang, who worked for a small and medium-sized company that made dyes, returned to farming after his retirement in 2008. At the suggestion of a friend of mine in 2002, he attended the Ecological Return Farm School of the National Agricultural Movement Headquarters and learned how to grow crops and rent land. After learning that there is "community farming" that grows gardens with various people in the metropolitan area, I chose the path of urban farmers. Currently, about 50 people are working on 3,966 square meters of land in Ilsan, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. He works as an instructor and teaches how to grow crops in Goyang City's program "Happiness Sharing Garden," where residents experience eco-friendly agriculture. Recently, the 'urban agricultural network' has been activated in the metropolitan area, so you can easily start farming in cities, he said. "If you want to become a returning farmer like a garden activist, it is better to complete a curriculum at an ecological or urban farmer's school."

They said, "Rather than preparing for a job in a hurry ahead of retirement, we should find a way to develop our hobbies or aptitudes in advance and take time to prepare for them."

Date: 2022-05-23

Reporter: 정새울