Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I know someone who won the lottery so everyone should play and stop complaining about searching for jobs.
I hope you don't find yourself jobless at 50+. If you do, you will be in for a rude awakening. Try reading all 40 Volumes of Gawker's Unemployment Series and tell me that ageism is a myth.
I'm in my mid 30s and save about $2,000 a month so that I that I can weather the storm if I'm hit with long-term unemployment or provide myself with enough capital to buy an existing small business. I know you think it can't happen to you but a lot of people learn the hard way how unpredictable life can be.
There are programs geared toward people who are 55 and older who helps them find employment along with the AARP advantages. This is evident from the link below so it's not like people who are 55 and older have no hope at all.
I saved up a good deal of money over the years as a cushion against possible layoff, but as it turned out, I wound up leaving my job under a buyout. I would not have done it if I didn't have considerable savings. I also made sure I didn't have an ounce of debt.
I'm getting interviews, but they're for poor-quality, high-stress jobs at companies going nowhere. I'm prepared for low pay for the rest of my life, but high stress + low pay is not something I can live with. In the meantime, I've had some modest success with freelancing, but freelancing is such a glutted field in my city, that you really have to be offering a novel service for it to work as a long-term career. (For instance, building websites/web design is totally glutted and the "client from hell" ratio is rather high.)
All that said, my prior life was at a complete dead end. You know, sometimes you just hit the end of the road no matter what you do. You have to be prepared to have your entire expectations and values about life change. The problem with leaving the rat race is that you have to sit back and watch the rats race. :-)
As for women over 50 (whose condition I will join in just a few years time)...
A lot of women over 50 have been living beyond their means for some time. They often have high debt (from going back to school, from buying homes, from putting kids through school, and from being divorced -- which almost always leaves the woman in financial straits). They did everything society expected them to do (and then some) and now society has no more use for them. I would read these stories years ago in the Times where divorced women over 50 would talk about their job search difficulties, and it always seemed the story was the same - they'd spent a lot of money, were in debt, took expensive vacations, got expensive but useless master's degrees, bought big houses (even if they didn't have kids), etc. They hadn't saved any money. They believed in society too much.
STOP BELIEVING that society has a place for you, and go your own way. I wasted five or six good years (years I could have spent getting used to my future life) because I still believed.
On the other hand, beyond their control, women over 50 are usually the unpaid caregivers for their aging relatives. If you think the health care industry is strained to the breaking point today, if every unpaid 50something woman caregiver abandoned her family, the health care system would collapse.
Unfortunately, the information I'd really like employers to have -- that I don't have any kids to take care of, so I'd never be asking for time off to take care of kids -- they're not allowed to ask in interviews.
Last edited by Jeromeville; 01-04-2016 at 01:13 PM..
Well, after two years of reading of the joys, heartbreaks, and frustrations of the job market by fellow C-Ders, here I am looking for a job.
Last month, I graduated college and had hopes and dreams that reached the sky. Now, they're starting to come to earth, as I apply and apply for jobs, and get no response.
Well, after two years of reading of the joys, heartbreaks, and frustrations of the job market by fellow C-Ders, here I am looking for a job.
Last month, I graduated college and had hopes and dreams that reached the sky. Now, they're starting to come to earth, as I apply and apply for jobs, and get no response.
I'm an over 50 woman too.
If you are 55 you have the option of Senior Employment Program depending on your state.
Stay positive since a 53 year old was hired at my job last year which means it's all about the experience not your graduation date.
You are just not getting it are you?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
