Identity
Who you are beyond your title, role and professional status.
The part of you that exists separately from your job title, your team, and the email signature you've used for twenty years.
About
Helping experienced professionals move from accidental retirement to a deliberate next chapter
Identity after Work supports people approaching retirement, recently retired, or beginning to wonder what life after career is really meant to become.
Dave Hayes
Retirement coach for the human side of life after work
There's no shortage of people who can tell you what to do with your pension. This is about who you become next. It is the identity transition that can happen when the role, structure and professional status of work begin to fall away.
This work is for experienced professionals who want more than simply stopping. It is for people who want to design what comes next with purpose, structure and meaning.
Why I created Identity after Work
After decades of professional achievement, many people discover that retirement is not just a financial transition — it is an identity transition.
The calendar changes. The rhythm changes. The sense of being needed can quietly change too. Questions begin to emerge that may never have had space before.
Who am I without my role?
Where does my experience still matter?
What does a meaningful week now look like?
What comes next?
Identity after Work was created to help experienced professionals move from accidental retirement to a deliberate next chapter.
What we explore
The areas that shape life after career
Structure
How to create rhythm, energy and momentum after full-time work.
Without external deadlines and an org chart, how do you build a week with real shape and energy?
Purpose
Where your experience can still make a meaningful contribution.
Not a new job, necessarily — a reason to get up that doesn't depend on a calendar invite.
Reinvention
What your next chapter could look like when it is designed, not drifted into.
Not starting over — building forward from everything you already know.
About Dave Hayes
With more than 25 years' experience in leadership, technology, coaching and AI, I understand the challenge of navigating change, uncertainty and reinvention.
Most coaching focuses on what's next — the plans, the goals, the to-do list. My training in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) works one level deeper, on the identity, values and self-image that retirement quietly unsettles.
My focus is helping experienced professionals rediscover purpose, confidence and direction after career.
Ready to begin?
Start with the Retirement Scorecard — it takes 2–3 minutes and gives you a clearer picture of where life after work may need more identity, structure, purpose or direction.
Start with the Retirement ScorecardConnect with Identity after Work
Follow for reflections, prompts and practical ideas on designing a meaningful life after career.
Questions about coaching? See the FAQ →