Comments on: ‘I have filled out resumes for about 380 to 390 positions’

By: AnnaDavidson

AnnaDavidson — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:07:02 +0000

The whole concept of going to school, being guaranteed a job, and retiring no longer works. The Entrepreneurial Model is an answer to our FiftyUps crowd. Those who begin now will be at the start of a golden era. There is so much money to be made on the internet. Research wisely. Don’t wait until you are in the abyss of desperation before the small economic investment needed to start any home business becomes impossible. Good luck everyone. I know how it feels. By the way I am 52 years old and having to earn an income to support my children in university. I am not wasting time getting a job as I have not worked in 10 years. I am earning an income that I am generating myself.

By: jehoener

jehoener — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 02:09:19 +0000

Dominick and others: At 65 I’m coming out of retirement and returning to work in agriculture. I stumbled onto my new position by chance: the business owner happened to have graduated from the same college as I, and is about my same age, both door-openers. The job is physical work outdoors, and doesn’t pay that much. But it’s the work I’ve done for 30 years, so my previous experience was a factor in getting hired. So unexpected good things can and do happen.

Congratulations on your persistence and positive outlook. Keep up the struggle: the result will come from a direction where you’re not looking, at a time you don’t expect it.

By: KurdtCobain

KurdtCobain — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 22:33:52 +0000

I completely support what gameplan just said in the comment above. I spent the last ten years building up an Internet business outside of a full time professional job. After my nine-to-five, I would go work at my five-to-nine, as the saying goes. Last year, unhappy with a lot of us being sidelined by a power grab in my department, I quit the job and now do the Internet business full time.

I think that this is the big thing that so many people haven’t picked up on about our current situation: there’s more opportunities for us than ever before, not less. We can all find work from any other place in the country through the Internet. Forget the idea of a full time job (as we all know employers don’t respect us anyway) and go out and find your own means of work. You’ll reclaim yourself respect and dignity and wonder why you ever stayed at place that treated you like a number.

By: Albak

Albak — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:39:59 +0000

This story is very true, especially about the stigma of being out of work for more than a few months. It is presumed companies “vet” their employees before a layoff, and let the “weaker” ones go.
It is significantly easier to get a NEW job if you are already employed, than to wait till you lose one and become “unemployed”.
On a parallel note, if you lose a job and take an extended vacation with your severance pay, you also will not be considered for a position. I know more than a few people who made this mistake.
I have lost jobs and found new and equivalent positions twice in three years, at age 58 and 60. But I pursued positions while I was still working, colored my hair, lost 15-20 pounds, and took best advantage of my college diploma date, which I completed at age 39. The trick was to look 15 years younger than I was and present myself as an aggressive “job hopper”, which carries less stigma than being out of work for months.

For those already out of work for an extended period–I hope you saved some bucks during the good years; you will need them. But keep plugging, because it’s not YOU that is the problem, it’s the economy.
K. C. Albak

By: gameplan

gameplan — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 02:31:07 +0000

I’m 68 years old and never been laid off. And, I’ve had many jobs. The reason is….. I work for myself and not at the whims of a corporation.

My advise to the older unemployed is to take whatever skills you have garnered over the years and find jobs, yes multiple jobs, as a part time independent contractor.

Start out offering your services at low wages that you would not ordinarily accept and then figure out ways to increase those wages as you learn the ins-and-outs of your self employment.

In today’s world you don’t need to travel any further away than your computer to find “telecommuting” work. You can work anywhere in the world. And when you offer your services, you don’t have to state your age nor waste time buying lunch/coffee for anyone.

Most companies who are looking to hire independent contractors are only interested in qualified people who are willing to work for less than the job would normally pay. Or they’re willing to pay full wages for a job that lasts several months or so. Either way,you’ve got to do what it takes to move on.

You have to experiment a bit to find out what method works best for the type of work you are qualified to get. Once you learn, repeat it to get more work.

I don’t want to imply independent contracting is easy or doesn’t have its own problems but it can earn you a living and return to you a sense of self worth. Maybe even eventually land you a full time job.

I know a CPA who was laid off from her corporate job and now does personal taxes half the year and takes wedding photo (photography is her hobby) the other half. She makes a good living from her taxes work from ongoing clients and from word of mouth for new wedding photo jobs.

Forget about your resume. State what you specially can do for the company who’s looking for an independent contractor.

Here are some place to start looking:

Linkedin: Freelancers
(this is only one, there a many similar groups)
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid =2018015&trk=anet_ug_hm

Elance
https://www.elance.com/
Here you are competing with people from Russia, China, etc. But keep applying for jobs, something will happen

O’desk (same as Elance)
http://www.odesk.com

Good luck to you old laid off guys. I wish you the best……

By: snowgear4u

snowgear4u — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:59:52 +0000

I fell greatly for this gentleman. i am 58 and 20 years ago i foresaw that i could be someone in that position – years with the same company, highly educated ( graduate degree) , and over 50 years old and then get laid off and told ” you are over qualified, too regimented, etc. etc. shoot, i can screw up just as well as most of these CEO’s who get absurd pay. If i had stayed in corporate america, and then suffered how the unemployed suffer ( get a job, when there are few jobs, and then discriminate against you cause you dont have a job ( can you say catch 22??)), i would have committed a felony. its all a bunch of BS!!!

By: eamonnc

eamonnc — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:49:25 +0000

Interesting, I was laid off in June 2008. So far no job, I just passed 3000 applications and resumes sent. Worked my whole life, college grad. Now I have lost everything, house, retirement. I am 59 years old. Wonder what the problem is ? Oh, yes, my age

By: L.N.

L.N. — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:03:14 +0000

It is bad out there. I myself am unemployed. I worked for a company in Dallas, TX called Pinnacle Technical Resources which staffed for AT&T providing Uverse Technical Support. We came in at $17.00 per hour. Well, soon after I was hired AT&T agreed to contract with Pinnacle and have them take over all of the Uverse Tech Support even bringing in their own managers, HR, etc. AT&T paid its own people $26.00 per hour for the position, but that was too much. So they outsourced it to Pinnacle who paid $17.00 and then decided they could fill the positions paying $13.00.

Pinnacle forced all of us making $17.00 to take a $4.00 paycut. Not because they were struggling but because they could. Then they started to hire folks right out of highschool mostly who had no experience. The company then advised management (who were also temps) to routinely write up everyone for anything. Managers weren’t trained and would tell employees incorrect information only to turn around and fire them for it.

As soon as work became slow, the company fired half its staff. Overnight. ALL for misconduct. Longterm associates and all. Then maligned these associates to the Texas Workforce Commission in an attempt to fight everyone’s unemployment.

That is the way the job market is now. Cutthroat and ruthless. People need to wake up and see that these major U.S. companies care nothing for their employees. That is one reason they outsource so much to other countries. They sell their services to Americans, yet Americans aren’t good enough anymore to work in these companies.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:39:41 +0000

Being a hiring manager I can’t disagree with some of the discrimination that happens. I will say that when a candidate is over qualified or previous pay is a concern it is because I know that the company won’t be able to retain that candidate for those very reasons.
That being said 6 years ago I lost my job and was unemployed with no degree and higher than average earnings.
I try to reenforce with my team that people can be happy in a new job and make less money. Its about personality and desire/ willingness to change because a lot of times the skill set is already there.
I do appreciate the perspective of the article and will be sharing it in my next team meeting.

By: roys5775

roys5775 — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:02:58 +0000

I am 55 years old have been laid off since February 2009 and I can relate to this gentleman’s story I have done well over 2500 applications and resumes without any success I live in Northern California where the State unemployment rate is over 12% and the county rate is over 15% I have been without a stable income since September 2011 and am at my wits end. I am very healthy and capable of doing any job in manual labor or retail but as of this posting I have received very few calls for interviews.