You never thought this would happen to you, but it has. You’re 50+ in age and find yourself suddenly out of work, struggling to keep your head above water in a job market you no longer recognize, which bears no resemblance to the Greensheets and wanted ads you pored over during your youth. What should be a time for planning for your retirement is now filled with uncertainty, stress and scrambling to recover from your loss.
We understand what a shock this can be. The job market has indeed changed tremendously and will take some adaptation if you want to find success. If you are 50 or over and trying to find work, we dedicate this article for you. Follow these tips to help the process of getting back on your feet go a little more smoothly.
Research Your Prospects
Unfortunately, not all companies are receptive to older workers and seek out only those of younger generations. You don’t want to accidentally wind up in an office culture that’s unwelcoming to you. Look for companies currently experiencing turnover, as they and you will have similar goals—maintaining a long-term position in your field.
Work on Your Resume
This is especially true if it’s been a very long time since you’ve pounded the pavement, so to speak. If you haven’t already been keeping your resume up-to-date, you’ll want to modernize it as soon as possible to help boost your appeal to employers. You’ve racked up all sorts of great experience over the years, after all. Now it’s time to put it to use and show it off! Of course, you’ll have to adapt your resume to suit what today’s employers are looking for.
Focus on your strengths and tailor your resume to the types of positions you’re seeking out. Nailing your resume can be a tough job, even for those who have been immersed in today’s job market more recently. If you find you need a little extra help, you can always turn to a team of the best professional resume writers!
Improve Yourself
If your industry or former company is particularly stagnant, you may not have had to learn or deal with many of the technological requirements you’ll need to know for today’s jobs. Try enrolling in an adult learning course to brush up on your skills if you find yourself being hit with the same skill you lack over and over. This will look great to your prospective employers, as they will know you’re willing to embrace change and can bring this can-do attitude with you into their office.
Simultaneously, you may want to learn more about LinkedIn profile development and how you can utilize LinkedIn to network efficiently with other people in your field (and your shoes)!
There’s something that can cut deep into the benefit of changing jobs.
Before you actually look for new employment, make sure you understand the benefits you currently have, like health insurance, and how those will be affected. Health insurance is a complicated thing so you have to be aware of how a job change changes your status. In a recent survey, almost a quarter of the respondents said that their insurance benefits and out-of-pocket expenses worsened their financial situation more than anticipated.
That survey is cited in an article at the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) consumer site, Insure U. Job Seekers Beware: Prospective employer’s financial offer is about more than salary is part of some very helpful resources on Job Change that would be good to keep in mind.
NAIC Recommendations For Job Changers
To avoid surprises, consider the following before saying goodbye to a current employer:
See if your current group life insurance plan has a conversion privilege. If so, you may have up to 31 days after leaving your job to apply for coverage.
Find out if you can convert current group disability coverage into a portable disability plan that stays with you from job to job.
If your job change includes a move, check your homeowners’ policy to make sure personal possessions are covered in-transit. If not, consider a trip transit or floater policy.
Insurance rates and coverage vary greatly from state to state. Before a move across state lines, contact your state insurance department so you know what to expect.
Before accepting a new job, compare your current health plan with plans offered to assure the available mix of deductibles, co-pays and coinsurance will cost-effectively meet your needs.
Find out if your new employer has a mandatory waiting period before health insurance coverage takes effect. If so, consider a short-term plan through new health insurance exchanges to cover the gap. More than 10% of NAIC survey respondents said their overall financial situation was worsened by issues related to “the effective date of new health insurance coverage.”
If you have children and anticipate a coverage gap, you may also look into government-sponsored programs such as Children’s Health Insurance Plans (CHIP). These plans may provide coverage at low or no cost.
Finally, if you’re thinking of starting your own business and plan to use your personal car to make deliveries or visit clients, consider business auto coverage. If you’re involved in an accident while conducting these tasks, most personal auto policies won’t cover the losses.
One More Thing To Think About
Before you decide to search for a different job, get acquainted with all the job search resources on our site. You don’t have to explore each one, but the more you know about what you are getting into, the better prepared you will be for making that switch. Something as elementary as health insurance gets missed by many in the promise of a bigger paycheck, so plan carefully.
A job search or career change is like building a home: both require thought, research, and careful planning to be successful. When you look at blueprints for a custom-built home, you see the wisdom of many experts compiled to create the perfect house. Codes and construction standards, design details and homeowner’s dreams — it’s all there in the blueprints, ready to become reality. If the experts aren’t part of the design process, those blueprints will be missing something. It’s like a kitchen designed by someone who only eats at restaurants; the non-cook has no grasp on what is practical for a kitchen. You could end up with cupboards too small for cereal boxes, counters with no outlets to plug the toaster into, and an oven that can’t be opened when standing in front of the stove because the island is too close. With a job search, there are similar problems that can arise. If you are trying to design your career plans without expert advice, you are going to miss some important factors that will cause problems later on. It’s just the way things work; we learn through mistakes, and if we are smart, we learn from others’ mistakes too. When you are keeping up-to-date with regular reading of available resources you are going to be able to see where you can do things yourself and where to call in an expert. Our Job Search Resources list contains all you need to accomplish this goal, with links to many experts and tools. You can find links to:
career research and exploration
job search sites for free or pay
social networking
salary calculators
self-assessments
and much more
The more expertise invested in designing the plan, the better your blueprint for a successful job search or career change will be.
Changing jobs and career paths is not unheard of.In fact, it is quite common. Many people realize after they have spent time in a career that they want something new. In some cases this is returning to a previous career path. The reasons for this choice are many and varied for each person. The reasons don’t matter. Whatever reason you have for returning to a previous career path, I am going to try and help you figure out how to get back to that path, without too much grief.
Look at your old job: If you enjoyed your old job, they enjoyed you as an employee and if you left the company with no bad feelings between you and your boss then you may be one of the lucky ones. You may be able to go back to your old boss and see if they are hiring. If they are, then you are one step ahead.
Look at new jobs in your desired field: If you are not one of the lucky ones from step 1, then you need to start searching for new jobs in your desired field. Use job search sites with filters and look for papers or websites that are tailored to your field so that you can find a job that matches your needs and wants quickly.
Update your resume: Make sure that your resume is up to date with your new work experiences, achievements, and accomplishments. Make sure that they can see you have experience in this field of work so they are more likely to hire you.
Prepare for your interview: When preparing for your interview make sure that you always remember to emphasize your experience in your field. If you can show that you have experience and have accomplished things in that field, then you will be one step above your competition.
Be prepared to start back at the bottom: While you do have experience, you will most likely be starting at the bottom just like any other applicant. This means that you need to prepare yourself for that. If you want a higher position immediately, you will have an easier time getting it at your current job and you should avoid switching career paths.
Hopefully this will help you get back on the path you want to be on and will help you be happier and more successful in your career.
In the list of most hated interview questions, the question “What is your biggest weakness?” has got to be number one.You go into an interview attempting to showcase your strengths and they want to hear about your weaknesses. It’s a question that is designed to throw you off guard and put you off balance, and it works very well at accomplishing both. However, there is a third reason that the question is asked: To find out how well you know yourself. It’s a character question and most people fail miserably at answering it well.
When job seekers know that they are likely to be asked about their faults or weaknesses, they prepare a pat answer that attempts to turn a negative into a positive. The most common answer is also the worst answer: “I tend to be something of a workaholic.” This is the wrong answer because that shows you to be unable to strike a balance between work and life. Without that balance you are more prone to stress, being difficult to work with, and a candidate for making mistakes.
So what is your biggest weakness? Everyone has one and all most people need to do is think back over what types of criticisms they have gotten to find one. I tend to ask a lot of questions and over analyze everything. This can be annoying to some people, but it’s also an asset in my line of work. Figure out your biggest weakness and look for a positive angle on it. Then you will be ready to answer the most hated interview question of them all, and turn your most feared weakness into a selling point during the interview.
While LinkedIn has become extremely popular with businesses and companies, it still seems to be lagging a bit when it comes to those seeking jobs. That’s a shame because it’s one of the easiest and most effective job search tools available today. Many company hiring managers check LinkedIn before looking anywhere else for new employees.
The main reason that LinkedIn isn’t being used as much as it should be by job seekers is because it’s considered a form of social media and that term alone makes people think of it as a leisure activity. Nothing could be further from the truth where LinkedIn is concerned. There are, of course, a variety of ways to use the service and some are naturally better than others.
To start, you want to make sure that your profile is 100% complete. If you aren’t sure how to go about doing this, consider hiring a professional to translate your resume into your LinkedIn profile. Having a completed profile that stands out is a great way to give potential employers a good look at you before the interview process.
It’s also important to note that many companies are asking for your LinkedIn profile when you submit a resume. It has actually become so common that many people just include their LinkedIn URL on their resume to begin with.
LinkedIn can also be used overtly for an active job search. Because thousands of companies have company profiles and use the site for headhunting, many of their job openings are published on the site before, or even instead of, any place else. Once you have a completed profile, you can simply click a button and apply for a multitude of jobs.
Consider updating, or even beginning to use, LinkedIn as a job search tool. It’s a great way to be seen by thousands of companies fast.
A common question asked during an interview is “Why Did You Leave Your Last Position?” A friend of mine who worked in Iran during the 1979 revolution offers an easy answer: his resume always says “civil unrest.” While that is a concrete and completely honest answer, most of us don’t usually have such a perfect answer when asked that question during an interview. Futhermore, the answer can be even more difficult if you are still in your current position and interviewing for a new position at another company.
If the questions “Why did you leave your last position?” or “Why do you want to leave your current position?” come up during an interview (and they will), your answers should be brief and honest. Simply stating that you are looking to advance your career or enhance your skill set are easy answers. You want to talk about using your skills, especially new ones you might have acquired through additional education or on-the-job training. You could also mention that you are looking for a position with more advancement opportunities and responsibilities.
What if the reason you are leaving is because of harassment, horrible policies, downsizing, or that your last boss was a complete jerk? Pretend it never happened. Under absolutely no circumstances are you to mention anything negative about you supervisor, your company, or anyone you have ever worked with. There is no possible way to complain without looking bad to the interviewer, so avoid it at all costs. If for some reason the interviewer knows that there was a situation at your last job, answer his questions truthfully, without giving a lot of detail, and direct the focus of the interview back to your qualifications for the job he is interviewing you for.
When interviewing, you want to leave the impression that you are ambitious, hardworking, and the best candidate for the job. Before you interview, take the time to rehearse concrete answers as to why you’re looking for a new job and how your skills, experience, and work ethic make you the best candidate.
You never thought this would happen to you, but it has. You’re 50+ in age and find yourself suddenly out of work, struggling to keep your head above water in a job market you no longer recognize, which bears no resemblance to the Greensheets and wanted ads you pored over during your youth. What should be a time for planning for your retirement is now filled with uncertainty, stress and scrambling to recover from your loss.
