Starting over at 50: Why more middle-aged Vietnamese are embracing second careers

In Dong Nai Province, Nguyen Anh Van once served as an army lieutenant colonel. To outsiders, he enjoyed enviable career stability and merely had to run out the clock until retirement. But beneath that security lay a persistent unease, a gnawing conviction that he had chosen the wrong path.

His outlook shifted in 2006 when an assignment as a military lay assessor on a court-martial bench ignited a deep interest in the law. Shortly after, he began balancing his military duties with coursework, eventually earning a bachelor of laws degree in 2014.

In 2021, after completing 28 years in uniform, Van applied for early retirement under his unit's downsizing initiative. "I hesitated at the time because walking away from a secure job was daunting, and with no civilian work experience, I had no clue how I would make ends meet out in the world," he recalls.

After waiting 14 months for the official paperwork approving his retirement at age 47, he set a strict personal rule never to touch his pension, saving the entire amount for his two children. In early 2022, as the Covid-19 pandemic receded, he enrolled in a 12-month professional legal training program at the Judicial Academy before serving a mandatory one-year apprenticeship.

To cover tuition and living costs, the former officer drove motorbike taxis, delivered packages, took on freelance typing gigs, and never gave up his ritual of reading late into the night.

Van works as a motorbike taxi driver in 2022 after leaving the military. Photo courtesy of Van

Stepping back into a campus at nearly 50 proved no obstacle for a veteran conditioned by military discipline. At 4:30 a.m. each day, he dedicated 90 minutes to exercise, using his morning workouts and coffee breaks to pore over case files and statutory codes.

By channeling decades of practical life experience into legal problem-solving, he cleared the rigorous bar apprenticeship exam, a hurdle that trips up 60 to 70 percent of test-takers.

In late 2025, upon being admitted to the bar, he joined a law firm in Bien Hoa Ward located in the southern province of Dong Nai. He opted for a per-case compensation model across civil, commercial, criminal, and family law disputes, while routinely providing pro bono defense for disadvantaged clients.

In a recent criminal case, his close examination of the filings revealed procedural missteps and unconvincing evidence gathered by investigators. The court upheld his argument, remanding the case back to authorities for further investigation.

Outside the courtroom, his emotional maturity has helped mediate settlements for several couples considering divorce. "Seeing the smiles and grateful embraces from a client's family reassures me that I chose the right path," the 51-year-old says. "A day has 24 hours; as long as you live in good health and create value, that is more than enough."

Phuong Mai, a 50-year-old banking professional in Hanoi, recently graduated with a practitioner degree in traditional medicine and an associate degree in pharmacology after six years of balancing a full-time job with evening classes.

To free up time for mandatory hospital clinical work, she arranged an alternate work schedule at her bank.

On many days, she would rush straight from office to the lecture hall, and from class directly to hospital wards, trimming lunch down to 15 minutes to preserve an hour for working out.

Mai's drive took root over a decade ago following a family crisis, when her mother fell seriously ill right after retiring, a collapse compounded by years of caring for a relative who had been bedridden for 11 years following a stroke.

Pursuing medical studies also allowed her to revive a four-generation family healing tradition that was at risk of dying out.

"Growing up with my maternal grandfather, I absorbed the principle that food is medicine and that prevention always trumps cure," she says.

"I wanted to build this foundation for a second career so I could care for my own health and support others."

Van and Mai's trajectories epitomize the emerging "encore career" trend, a term coined by American scholar Marc Freedman to describe purposeful work pursued during the second half of life.

Unlike casual post-retirement odd jobs aimed solely at covering daily living expenses or as a brief hiatus before fully stepping away, an encore career typically spans 10 to 20 years, bringing together one or more of dependable income, personal fulfillment, and an enduring desire to serve society.

Tran Bang Viet, CEO of business consulting and management training firm Dong A Solutions, says this movement reflects more than just the personal desires of older workers but meets the corporate need for deep domain expertise.

In an era shaped by artificial intelligence, where general knowledge is readily accessible, the unique edge of veteran professionals lies in tacit knowledge forged through decades of hands-on experience, he says.

"A 65-year-old engineer may operate software more slowly than a 25-year-old, but sometimes merely listening to a machine run is enough to identify where the failure lies. A seasoned credit officer evaluating a business plan can catch critical risks that an algorithm completely overlooks."

He thinks encore careers will flourish in high-stakes industries that demand specialized knowledge and rigorous risk governance, such as law, finance, auditing, healthcare, and education.

Small and medium-sized enterprises represent particularly fertile ground since they rarely have the deep pockets needed to hire full-time chief financial officers or corporate strategists, but willingly pay premium advisory rates for veteran experts a few days a month, he says.

Having twice navigated career pivots himself, transitioning from technology into executive management and then into senior consulting, Viet points out that an encore career does not begin on the day someone receives their pension paperwork.

Instead, it requires 10 to 15 years of groundwork built across five core assets: domain expertise, reputation, professional networks, technological literacy, and financial resilience.

Mid-career professionals can test the waters through small exploratory projects such as taking on freelance consulting gigs, teaching classes, mentoring startups, or writing books, he says.

"During the first half of a career, we accumulate titles, income, and resume credentials. The second half is about confronting a deeper question: How can that accumulated experience be translated into tangible value for the community?"

Nguyen Anh Van prepares to attend a court hearing in June 2026. Photo courtesy of Van

Demographers and labor analysts predict that working past retirement age will become increasingly common as Vietnam navigates a rapidly aging society. Data from the General Statistics Office shows the country had 14.2 million people aged 60 or older in 2024, a demographic projected to approach 18 million by 2030.

A joint survey by the University of Labour and Social Affairs and the National Economics University of workers aged 40 and older found that the search for purpose and the desire to give back to society constitute the single greatest motivation keeping older adults in the workforce after retirement.

Now that he is immersed in work that aligns with his genuine passions without the anxiety of scraping by, Van feels he has entered the most content period of his life. Collaborating closely with Gen Z colleagues has also helped the 51-year-old attorney shed the fear of making mistakes common among older professionals, enabling him to approach complex cases with greater agility.

In late 2025, Mai opened a nutrition and wellness advisory center catering to busy professionals. Although she plans to remain at her banking job for another five years, she emphasizes that her post-retirement road map is already fully established. "We cannot change the cards life deals us, but we can change how we play them. Retirement does not mean coming to a halt; it simply means stepping into a different way of living.