Blog Post: Over Fifty and Out of Work? What's a Boomer to do?

A re-submission of a popular blog regarding Baby Boomers, now more than ever being prepared for the challenges of the job market is critical to the success of the Boomer. 

Russ Haines, CPRW is President of ECI Careers who helps job seekers achieve their career goals.  He provides coaching and training in the art of Networking, Interviewing and develops résumés and cover letters that demonstrate value to a prospective employer.  He can be reached through email at Russ@mycareerstartshere.com.                    

Over Fifty and Out of Work.  Not the best place to be at this time in your life, as the commercial says today’s 50 is yesterday’s 40.  If that’s the case then the baby boomers have a number of productive years ahead.  Finding the next career is challenging for boomers, especially those that spent the majority of their life with one company, or in one vocation.  Why is it difficult to find that next great career position?  There are a few reasons; many are self-imposed limitations such as:

¨         My salary requirements are too high

¨         My age will eliminate me from most jobs

¨         My skills are not up to date, i.e. computer skills

¨         I‘m competing with a younger more savvy labor force that is willing to accept a lower salary to do the same job

¨         Unemployment is at 6.6%

¨         I never completed college

¨         My résumé does not reflect my abilities

¨         My interview skills are weak

¨         I do not know enough people who can hire me

¨         I need to change careers

These are only ten of a much larger list of self-imposed limitations.  There is an element of truth in each of these statements, which make it easy to believe that the next career is a virtual impossibility.  However, these are self-imposed limitations. You must believe that you can overcome these problems.  

First things first, determine what you can control.  The first thing you can control is your attitude, it must be positive.

¨         You can’t control what the market is determining as a fair salary for a particular job. 

o         You can control your expectations and make sure you are seeking the top salary for that position you are seeking.  Undervaluing yourself never works.

¨         You can’t control your age.

o         You can control your enthusiasm and passion.

¨         You can’t control the skill sets of the competing labor force.

o         You can control what you have to offer and how you present your value to the market.

¨         You can’t control the unemployment rate.

o         You can control how you react to the current conditions.   

As you go through the list of 10 items, identify those that you can’t control and those you can control.  Manage those items you can’t control, that is, put strategies into place that will diminish the impact on your search.  For example, look at age as offering more experience, more value and that great baby-boomer work ethic.  You can’t control the unemployment rate, however you can control the way you let it effect you.  The unemployment rate is meaningless; it serves to reinforce negative thoughts whether its high or low there always seems to be a disadvantage to the job seeker and if you are out of work, the unemployment rate is really 100%.

Things you can control include your resume. Does it reflect your value or does it read like an obituary or a task list from “Things I’ve Done” list.  Does it give away your age ?

Your formal education. Are you concerned that you have not completed college and that although you were very successful in your career without the benefit of college, you feel you are being filtered out from jobs you could easily perform?  You can go back to school, take classes, and attend seminars that will build on your current education and job skills.

Your interviewing skills. Have you not been on a serious job interview, not including internal promotional interviews, for quite some time?

Your networking skills.  You read about it in every book, how to find a job article and everyone you meet, you must network.  Do you know how to network; do you know what to do if you are not networking successfully?  Do you know if you are networking successfully?

I need to change careers.  Do you have to change careers because what you do is no longer being done in companies?  The job description and responsibilities are no longer needed or have been automated or simplified to allow a lower paid employee to perform the task?  Or has your job been devastated by some type of economic shift?  Can you present yourself as an expert in a field that you have no experience?  That is the key to the career transition.

Therefore, Baby Boomers control what you can, manage things that you can’t control and seek professional help to learn how to control the things that are in your control.  Visit my website, www.Mycareerstartshere.com for information on running an effective career search.   

General rule of thumb, if you have been out there for more than 30 days and have not had any serious meetings or interviews, your search is not going as well as it can.  Contact me for a free résumé assessment   Russ@mycareerstartshere.com.