New career planning frameworks use AI to help people plan life after work

In short: More career guides are encouraging people to use structured planning tools, including AI, to avoid drifting after leaving corporate jobs.

What's going on

A growing number of career and life planning resources are aimed at people who are leaving corporate roles without a clear next step. The Financial Times highlighted two new books that offer practical frameworks, which are step-by-step ways to think through decisions.

One is professor Lynda Gratton’s Living the 100-Year Life. It builds on the idea that people are living longer and may need or want to work longer, too. Gratton includes a free “diagnostic” assessment that helps people map eight parts of their lives, such as skills, co-operation, relationships, and their relationship with technology. The goal is to spot which areas are strong, changing, or fragile, like checking the condition of different parts of a house before deciding what to renovate.

Another book, Expiry Date Never: Age is the New Superpower, by Victoria Tomlinson and Louise Ballard, argues that AI can help with later-life career transitions. It suggests a three-step approach: “find it, own it, connect it.” In simple terms, that means researching what kinds of work are growing, building credibility in a chosen area, and then mapping your network of contacts to find helpful connections.

What to watch

These tools may become more common as traditional, straight-line career paths become less predictable, especially for experienced workers. A key question is whether workplaces, recruiters, and professional networks will accept and reward these non-traditional paths, or if people will still be pushed toward familiar roles like board positions.

Source: Financial Times