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Allison Sabraw, left, a laid-off sales and marketing professional, takes a computer class at Sacramento Food Bank to improve her skills in hopes of working in a new career in health care, October 8, 2009. Woman at right is "Sunshine" Billeen Pruett. (RENEE C. BYER / SACRAMENTO BEE / MCT / October 8, 2009) |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — -
Jill Angel thought she had it made. After a wide-ranging career that included teaching and broadcasting, she took early retirement in 2005 from the California Highway Patrol, where she had risen over 23 years to assistant chief.
The plan was for her to stay home with her two daughters, now 10 and 13. After a breakup at home, a house refinancing and a recession, she worries she'll never get out of debt. She's eager to find a job to supplement her retirement income, which amounts to half her full-time salary.
So far, she's had no luck — and she thinks she knows why. "I'm old," said Angel, who's 52.
"I've had several really great careers, but you're just not marketable in your 50s. Your children tell you that you're near death. And the people interviewing you make you feel like you have nothing to offer."
In this weird new world of recession-era unemployment, looking for work can come as a shock to people who first entered the job market before some of the bright-eyed HR specialists interviewing them were even born. But according to career experts, people over the age of 50 just have to learn how to compete.
Out are Internet resume blasts. In is tailoring your resume to specific openings — and steadily networking your way into new employment.
"Generally when somebody says, 'I'm overqualified,' my thing is, 'Did you target your resume to the job?'" said Diane Miller, president of Wilcox Miller & Nelson, a Sacramento, Calif., executive search firm.
"You have to take time to target your resume to the particular opening," Miller said. "If you didn't sell what they're looking for, you didn't do a good job."
That's more true now than ever. With the national unemployment rate for people 55 and older more than doubling to 7 percent between December 2007 and June 2009, competition for jobs is stiff.
But even before the recession, a quarter of full-time workers aged 51 to 55 went through layoffs or lost jobs because an employer went out of business, says the AARP.
A person who has thought in terms of decadeslong employment and lifetime benefits instead must hone a nimbleness in navigating tricky job market trends.
"It's important to realize that the marketplace has changed," California AARP associate director Charee Gillins said. "And it's important to create a personal brand. You have unique talents that can benefit the employer. How can you help their company remain competitive?"
The plan was for her to stay home with her two daughters, now 10 and 13. After a breakup at home, a house refinancing and a recession, she worries she'll never get out of debt. She's eager to find a job to supplement her retirement income, which amounts to half her full-time salary.
So far, she's had no luck — and she thinks she knows why. "I'm old," said Angel, who's 52.
"I've had several really great careers, but you're just not marketable in your 50s. Your children tell you that you're near death. And the people interviewing you make you feel like you have nothing to offer."
In this weird new world of recession-era unemployment, looking for work can come as a shock to people who first entered the job market before some of the bright-eyed HR specialists interviewing them were even born. But according to career experts, people over the age of 50 just have to learn how to compete.
Out are Internet resume blasts. In is tailoring your resume to specific openings — and steadily networking your way into new employment.
"Generally when somebody says, 'I'm overqualified,' my thing is, 'Did you target your resume to the job?'" said Diane Miller, president of Wilcox Miller & Nelson, a Sacramento, Calif., executive search firm.
"You have to take time to target your resume to the particular opening," Miller said. "If you didn't sell what they're looking for, you didn't do a good job."
That's more true now than ever. With the national unemployment rate for people 55 and older more than doubling to 7 percent between December 2007 and June 2009, competition for jobs is stiff.
But even before the recession, a quarter of full-time workers aged 51 to 55 went through layoffs or lost jobs because an employer went out of business, says the AARP.
A person who has thought in terms of decadeslong employment and lifetime benefits instead must hone a nimbleness in navigating tricky job market trends.
"It's important to realize that the marketplace has changed," California AARP associate director Charee Gillins said. "And it's important to create a personal brand. You have unique talents that can benefit the employer. How can you help their company remain competitive?"