Are you willing to take a step backward to get a job?

You have worked for many years, your salary and your experience has risen accordingly. Now you are unemployed and over 50 with a lot of experience that no one seems to want. Are you willing to take a step backward to get a job?

Maybe the question should be, why wouldn’t you take a step backward. Jobs aren’t easy to come by especially in this economy so you better take what you can get. Right? Is it your pride holding you back or are you just stubborn?

The best way to get past these hurtful feelings such as pride and stubbornness is to change how you look at the situation. Nothing lasts forever even crappy jobs; you can keep looking for a better job while you are working at one that you don’t really like. This can get you through a tough period.

Another way to look at this is that you aren’t alone. Many people who are older are taking lesser jobs because they have to. If you go to some fast food joints or grocery stores you will see older people working there. They are to be admired for not letting their pride get in the way of being employed.

Or you can take a novel approach and consider any job a challenge and simply make the best of it. With this attitude your working experience will be much more pleasant and rewarding.

You have to remember that all work is honorable.

Finding a job after 50

If you do a search on the internet you will find millions of articles on finding a job after 50. With all this information why is the job of finding work so difficult.

The easy answer is the economy, which is very bad right now. But you know it has never been easy to find a job after your reach a certain age. Age discrimination has been around for a long time and unfortunately it will be with us for a while. The best thing you can do is know your rights and report any company that you think has slighted you because of age.

Of course there are the myths about older workers, such as being sick more often then younger workers and you probably have heard that old geezers don’t pick up the new technology as fast. You know and I know that isn’t true. The way to fight these myths is to keep up with the technology and even stay ahead of the game.

As I mentioned earlier the internet is full on information about job search specifically for older workers. AARP is a great place for information as well as Government sites. I know that it is a lot to go through but you will be glad that you did.

So keep your hopes up and keep your skills up and don’t let your age get in the way of finding a job.

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Dislocated Worker Rapid Response program

You just got laid off along with many of your co-workers. What happens next? A state agency can be contacted usually by the employer to come in to your work and assist you with the transition of being laid off. This program is called Dislocated Worker/Rapid Response.

If the Rapid Response team is invited into your work they can provide you with resources and information. They can help with your unemployment benefits right away so you will have some kind of income before you get another job. They will also inform you about what health benefits that you qualify for, so your health insurance continues during your unemployment period.

Employee orientation sessions will be set up so you can learn about all that is offered by the state to recently laid off workers. Programs that are offered are resume help, interview tips, education, training opportunities, and stress management among other things. These programs can be very valuable in helping you through this difficult time so try to take advantage of them.

Rapid Response also partners with One-Stop Career center which in turn combines many resources to help the unemployed.

Here is a Listing of rapid response contacts from each state.
http://www.doleta.gov/layoff/rapid_coord.cfm

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Community economic development hot report

You may find in your job searching that you might have to consider moving. It may be drastic but some things call for drastic measures if you are unemployed and over fifty. But if you are thinking about moving to find a job do a little research before you pack your bags. The best place to start that research is at the Community Economic development hot report.

The community economic development hot report is found in the career one stop website. The site will allow you to do research state by state by each county in the state or by what they refer to ETA WIRED regions. In 2005 the ETA designated 39 regions across the country as WIRED regions.

If you do your research by state, click on the state and then the county that you are researching. Information will be broken down into following 6 headings.

• Overview – This will give you the size of the county, labor force information, education level and real estate numbers. There is also a graph that breaks down the number of people by age and sex.
• Economics – This will show the top areas of employment in the county and the ages of the workers. Plus occupation and educational information.
• Demographics – Shows the household income distribution
• Housing – The average house value in the county. It breaks down the number of vacancy and it breaks down the households by age.
• Transportation – Shows the percentage of commuters by travel time and it shows the means of transportation.
• Community Assets – Shows the number of public schools in the county by type of school, plus it shows the number of colleges and universities.

This website is a terrific tool to find out quite a bit about an area what out visiting it. It is definitely worth checking out.

Over 50 and becoming an intern

The last thing that most people who are unemployed and over fifty consider is being an intern. Interns are for young people, right?

Not necessarily, even though everyone pictures interns as recent college grads or even college students, there is no reason to believe you can’t become an intern at any age. Is it going to be easy? Of course not, in this economy there is nothing that is easy. You will probably have to work harder than anyone else and you will have to impress the hell out of everyone.

But you have to think that you can do it.

Before you sign up for anything keep a few things in mind. Will the internship be helpful for your job search? If it doesn’t add value to chances of getting a job don’t do it. How much time do you want to spend being an intern? Getting paid nothing or next to nothing wouldn’t pay the bills so don’t make a career out of it.

Where are the intern opportunities? The government has an intern program called the Career Intern Program. You might want to check that out.

There are also websites such as internjobs.com, monster.com, careerbuilder.com and others which list intern positions.

Of course if you are really ambitious you could contact a company and ask if they would consider you as an intern. The worst they could say is no.

So don’t use your age as a reason you can’t become an intern.

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Reinventing yourself after 50

Can an old dog learn new tricks? Maybe, but you should definitely be able to make changes or reinvent yourself after the age of fifty.

Fifty isn’t that old, although society has always made the fiftieth birthday some kind of over the hill milestone. Your life is more than half over and now you are going into the last phase of your existence. Of course that is ridiculous. As you have probably heard a million times, age is just a number not a road marker on a dead end road!

The first step toward reinvention is self-evaluation. Where are you right now and where do you want to be? What would you like to change, your health, and your job, your everything? Write it all down and give it some thought. Over the course of a few weeks, add items and cross out items that you might have changed your mind on. You really want to be sure so take your time.

You made your list and you pretty much want to change everything. Look at the list and decide which item you want to change first. This is important because you don’t want to try to change everything at once. Take small deliberate steps to making the changes because if you try to do everything at once you will fail.

Health is always a great place to start because being in good health will make all your other challenges easier. You will have more energy and you will feel better about yourself. Starting to exercise and eat right takes time so don't get discouraged.

Let’s say another goal is to find a job or a better job. You have read and heard that folks over the age of fifty have a hard time finding jobs because of the myths that are perpetrated by society about older workers. You can’t let other’s perceptions stop you from your dreams and dreams can be as big when you are fifty as when you are twenty. Stay focused.

Change can be exciting as well as nerve-wracking. If you make deliberate and thoughtful plans and stay with them you will find that change very rewarding. You’ll probably wonder why you didn’t make any changes to your life before this.

Turn a hobby into a business

In these uncertain times the unemployed and over fifty crowd must be open to any opportunities. One possible avenue to pursue is to turn a hobby into a business.

The idea of turning a hobby into a business sounds great at first. You can picture your self being at home all day doing the one thing that you love and making a living out of it. Nothing would be finer! Of course those negative thoughts that live in everyone’s minds crept forward and remind you that not everyone is interested in your hobby. And there is no way you will ever make money off of them!

Maybe the negative thoughts are right, but maybe they aren’t.

Don’t shoot down any idea until you have examined it carefully. The world is full of different occupations and that number grows all the time. People make a living off of things that we would never consider. Look at the internet, there are many bloggers out there that make a terrific living and some that just make enough to be satisfied. They start out with a passion for something and stay with it. That is definitely the key to most any successful ventures.

Certainly there are a lot of opportunities available on the web but you can do other things that don’t involve the internet. People have made a career out of such things like: photography, writing, painting pictures, making scrapbooks, making furniture and many other things.

So give it some thought!