50 Is the New 65: Older Americans Are Getting Booted from Their Jobs -- and Denied New Opportunities

[SheilaT]

107. I think an awful lot depends on what field you were in to begin with.

I never had a career or profession, just some jobs, none of which I liked. For ten years I was an airline ticket agent at Washington National Airport (GREAT travel benefits, especially back then) but left, got married, worked at various temp things, then had my first child and became a stay at home mom for 25 years.

The actual good thing about that job history is that I'd never had a profession, and so when I returned to the world of work, I was entry level. I also had returned to school and gotten a paralegal degree, and had a couple of paralegal jobs I liked. Then a divorce happened, I moved 800 miles to a new city for a new life and started again.

Even though I was now 60 years old, I honestly do not think my age has been held against me. I like to think I look younger than I am, but I certainly do not look 22 or even 42. I got plenty of interviews, and almost always made it to a second interview, and when I didn't get the job it turned out that the one hired had some skill that I did not have. Darn.

On the advice of a cousin who is a nurse, I applied at the local hospital, and got a job registering outpatient procedures. Entry level, yes. But the benefits are quite good. And as I may have mentioned, I didn't have a profession or a career in place.

If I were even ten years younger, meaning if I were only 55, I'd look carefully into programs at my local junior college. I'd probably think about something medical related, such as coding. That's not a job that's going to go away any time in the near future. Or something else. I'd talk to them at the junior college and find out what programs they readily place students from. Every school has some sort of career placement office, and those people should know for sure what is actually out there.

I would also cheerfully lie about certain aspects of my job history. Two jobs that I got fired from have simply disappeared. When I fill out a job application the first job I list, even though they always say they want a chronological listing, is the job I had for the longest. Sometimes you just have to be a bit creative.

The other underlying issue is that those who have had a career, a profession, have come to depend on the salary they've earned. It's easy for someone like me to think, Oh, you shouldn't have spend so much, should have saved more. But the reality is when you have a good job with a good income you of course spend that income. Doesn't mean you've gone into serious debt. But you do depend on that income. And when it goes away, it's a huge shock. It's very difficult to scale back significantly. And now, not only is your income zero, but the chances of replacing that income are not good. THAT'S the problem. Not that people have lived beyond their means. No. They've lived at their means. They've believed the American Dream that things will always get better. And now, they've been shafted. It simply is not right.