Encore: Work that matters in the second half of life.

P.J. Ferrin’s parents were diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases when she was 52. Ferrin left a 15-year business and management career in the software industry to work in her parents’ nursing home in a small community about 90 minutes outside of Seattle. After eight years, she’s contemplating the next chapter, again.

Encore.org: How would you describe the experience of shifting from the software industry to a nonprofit nursing home?

Ferrin: It was something of a shock to leave the software scene in the big city to work in a church-based nonprofit nursing home that never knew where their next dollar was coming from.

As I got more involved, what shocked me the most was how far behind in business practices and technology a lot of nonprofits are, especially in the more rural areas, where they’re hanging on by the skin of their teeth. With the ones that are involved with children, like nonprofit day care or the care of the sick elderly, every spare dollar and resource goes to the direct care for your charges. You don’t say, “Oh, I’ve got an extra $50,000 to buy some cool software to help manage our employees better or to help manage our payroll.”

Encore.org: How did you adjust your expectations and your approach?

Ferrin: I think I was able to help them start using software tools to streamline their processes, allowing them to work more efficiently. But it was sometimes hard getting them to embrace new technology.

I remember the first day I arrived, I sat down at my computer to send out some emails introducing myself and explaining what I was doing, saying I’d like to meet with people to discuss their needs and to figure out how I could best serve them. I figured I’d start hearing from people, but after a few days I’d gotten no response.

Then I discovered all these people had been set up on email, but most of them had never used it or even known they’d had it! So there was clearly an opportunity to help them use what they had.

Encore.org: You have described the experience of working in the nursing home as almost transformative. What struck you about working there?

Ferrin: People came to the work with joy the minute they saw the elderly people they took care of. They came in their spare time, or if someone was sick to bring them flowers. It’s a commitment that you don’t necessarily expect from people who aren’t making a whole lot of money. It was all about what they were doing, not how much they were being paid, or what their benefits were. It was about loving the residents.

Encore.org: But you left after several years, and now you’re in a self-described sabbatical. What changed?

Ferrin: I left after my parents died. They been there for about eight years. It’s a devastating moment to lose a parent. I was worn out. So I needed to take a sabbatical of a year or two to regroup and to figure out what would come next.

Encore.org: At this point you’re thinking about venturing back into the workforce. What are you doing? What are discovering in the process?

Ferrin: One of the big challenges I’m finding is that after working in the nursing home and the health care industry, I found I was really behind the curve in technology, and the health care industry in general is really behind in using new technology.

When I first left, I thought, what’s blogging? What’s this social networking? And I thought, I’m going to learn, so I’ve been reading a lot of books and catching up on new software and social media to figure out what that might mean for a future career. I may take a couple of classes to get my skills up to speed. It’s like constant research, trying to figure where I might fit in.

My problem is that in doing all this research, I see so many needs, and have so many ideas. But then I think, how would that work, and how would I work around personal constraints? It’s actually kind of fun.

Encore.org: What comes next?

Ferrin: It’s very likely I might go back and work at the nursing home, maybe in a volunteer position initially, but there’s so much else I’m interested in, too. Every day you listen to the news, and there’s so much out there that needs fixing.

In the upcoming months, I think I’ll get a good sense of what my capacity is. I’ll know whether I’ll need to work from my home or regular hours at an organization at their facility. I’ll have a better sense of how much money I need to make. I may decide I need to go back to a regular job just to pay for health insurance.

Encore.org: How emotionally ready do you feel to leap back into the work world?

Ferrin: I’m antsy. One of the things you struggle with when you step back is that you’re used to working and feeling successful and being regarded with a certain amount of respect, and you don’t feel like you’re really doing anything. You know you have all these capabilities and you want to be using them.

I worry that I’m being selfish right now and then have to remind myself that I deserve a little rest to regroup. I’m confident I’ll be able to narrow down my choices to something, and then I’ll get out there and network more specifically.

Encore.org: What are you looking for?

Ferrin: I’d like to be able to use my acquired skills in whatever I do, but I’d also like an opportunity to learn new skills. In my experience with the nursing home, there was some challenge in getting opportunities to use my higher-level skills. I would have been interested in getting involved in more strategic planning than what I largely did.

Encore.org: In your next encore would you like to address that balance between doing what needs to be done now and what could be done down the road?

Ferrin: Hopefully I’d address that, or at least I’d go into my next chapter with my eyes open. I just easily assumed that since they’d (the nursing home) got somebody cheap with all these skills, they’d be anxious to use them, but they were so thrilled with having somebody who could do a professional PowerPoint presentation, they couldn’t imagine anything more. Maybe it’s more about learning to market or package myself better.