Having covered beauty in part one I thought it was time to get more serious and cautionary. It isn’t as though we don’t know it’s coming. It resides deep in our souls.
The truth is that in todays job market, unless you are lucky and latch on to one of the very few organizations or jobs that hire employees that stay on for years – unless you are independently wealthy or already run a successful business, you know you may find yourself out of a job at any moment. When you are young – as long as the reason you are out of a job can be blamed on the vagaries of the economy, i.e. the company folds (happened to me) or you were hired for a position that the company discovered it didn’t actually need (happened to me) or the stockholders, new owners, etc ,etc, etc, wanted cutbacks (deep) then you will probably be ok. If you are young and viable you will either find another job fairly quickly or you can change direction (and then find another job).
We all fear this job-loss thing and tend to hold-on-for-dear-life to the jobs we currently have (if we can) because we know that our E-Z pass to job security ends about 10 – 15 years before our retirement funds are due to kick in.
That last 10-15 years are probably responsible for more stress related health problems than anything else. And they wonder why we have rising health-care costs?
It is a sign of modern times that experience is undervalued and enthusiasm is overvalued. Its a sign of modern culture that you have to at least look young (never mind that we are the coolest demographic in the last 100 years).
I started writing this post quite a few weeks ago and have been holding onto it for a while. I decided to finish it up after reading an article on boston.com that I thought worth sharing. This article Discrimination Comes in many Shades of Grey is well worth reading.
I am an essentially positive thinker and I know I am good at what I do. I’m independent and have come to love the flexibility that being in charge of my own time has given me. I have had more than one friend email me job opportunities that I don’t want to even look at. I want clients now – not jobs – and the wonderful thing is that I have clients. I have the time and flexibility now to learn new things in my profession that the chained-to-the-desk types simply don’t have.
If you find yourself looking for a job at 50 or above – Stop. Relax. Take stock in your skills.
Plan now to package your expertise (I am sure you have expertise) and be prepared to become a consultant or otherwise start your own business. It can be any business as long as it is an area you know.
The trick is confidence, friendships and building a network.
And your good ideas and experience.
** and then there is this. working at age 101
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