Retrenched at 58: What 20 Months Taught Me About Portfolio Careers

The Day the Role Went

I had just closed a deal when I was told my director role was gone. After 30+ years on call, with colleagues I saw more than my friends, the silence was the hardest part. “Nobody will call you. Nobody will message you.”

I am not the only one. In a recent CNA story on older workers returning to work after retrenchment, I was one of three people who shared their journey. The numbers are sobering. Resident workers in their 50s had the highest retrenchment rate of any age group last quarter. The share who found a job within six months fell from 51.8% to 41.9%.

What I Tried

Months of job applications. One interview, no offers.

A taxi licence as a back-up. The hours didn’t add up.

Courses in AI, a field I hadn’t used at work.

What Changed

What changed things was dropping the idea that the only answer was another full-time job. I moved towards a portfolio career: contract work in workflow automation and AI agent design, plus training. I set up my own consultancy, APAC EDGE, in April and qualified as a trainer in September.

Three Things I Learned

1. Skills you’ve spent decades building still have value. They may need a new route to market.

2. Learn by doing. I picked up AI by building real agents, not only by sitting in classes.

3. Tell people what you do. Referrals opened more doors for me than applications.

I’m not writing this to say it’s easy. Outcomes aren’t fully in our control, and I’m still building. If you’ve been retrenched, or you manage people who have been, you’re not alone, and there are more paths than the obvious one.

I didn’t get here alone. Thank you to Peter Lee, Chief Catalyst for Change and my career coach from LHH, who encouraged me to move into the portfolio career space when I was still fixed on finding a full-time job. Thank you to Kai Ning Lim and The Courage Chapter for creating a place where people can share, learn and try things out together. And thank you to Davina Tham and Channel News Asia for telling this story with care: read the CNA story.

Common Questions

What did Francis try after being retrenched at 58?

Months of job applications, which led to one interview and no offers. A taxi licence as a back-up, though the hours did not add up. Courses in AI, a field he had not used at work.

What is a portfolio career?

Instead of relying on one full-time job, a portfolio career combines several streams of work. For Francis it means contract work in workflow automation and AI agent design, plus training, through his own consultancy APAC EDGE.

What did the last 20 months teach him?

Three things. Skills built over decades still have value but may need a new route to market. Learning by doing, such as building real AI agents, works better than classes alone. And telling people what you do opens more doors than applications, because referrals did more for him than job applications.