Not retiring: Looking for a job in middle age

Looking for a job is not a walk in the park, unless you are very lucky. It can be harder if you are older, at least that is definitely the perception of many older people. Partly that might be because changing jobs has changed. If you’ve been in a job for a while it can be scary looking in a whole new jobseeking environment, with interviews done online, Applicant Tracking Systems and keywords all featuring in today’s world.

Also, if you have been in a job for a while, madly paddling below the water to keep the whole work family show on the road, you may have had very little time to take a step back and reflect because you are so busy getting from one day to the other. You may not even know what you want to do next or who you really are now that you are middle aged. Just as when/if you have children, that represents a huge shock to the system, raising all sorts of questions about your own identity, losing a long-term job and trying to find another can represent another one. It can also coincide with a lot of other factors, such as children leaving home, parents needing more care, divorce or health issues.

I’m reading Perfect Bound by Lindsay Nicholson. She’s had more than her fair share of awful life situations, from losing her husband and daughter to divorce, crashes and more. For her work is the thing that keeps her going, as it can be for others who have been through various personal crises. But while it can be the thing that stops you falling into the crater, it can also stop you from processing what has happened. And as fast as you can run, it will usually catch up with you.

That is what makes middle age so interesting, way too interesting from drama, films and novels to ignore. It is often a testing and challenging time, but having negotiated our lives to this point we have a lot of skills. Yet if you look on some of the jobs sites for older workers you’d think we were completely incapable. I was looking at one the other day. More than every other job was in retail, which is not a disrespect of retail, but it doesn’t show a particularly broad view of older people. Then there were the volunteering opportunities. Other sites exhort us to create our own perfect job. Who has the time? Most of us have to earn, and earn fairly quickly. We don’t have the luxury to build something slowly.

Ideally, we’d have the support to find out what it is we want to do as we go through the redundancy process. Friends have looked at coaching for that very reason. But, of course, it’s not cheap. In fact, it’s more expensive than counselling. Most people will not be able to afford it. Yet, like good careers advice, what a wider social boon it could be – getting people into jobs they want to do, giving people confidence, reducing stress…Maybe the best thing is to go for the cheap option of doing it yourself, with the help of coaching books. Most of them say much the same thing after all and many of them have exercises that help you to work your way towards some answers, if, of course, you have the time.

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