Jobs for Women Over 50

Straight talk about job hunting after 50

Using U.S statistics, this article on Vibrant Nation is also relevant for women over 50 anywhere.

With the slow economy and biases against older workers, it can be frustrating and scary to find yourself looking for a new job in your 50s. If it's been a few years since you conducted a job search, your job search skills are probably out of date.

Let's look honestly at the realities of the employment environment for workers in their 50s, and share a number of tips for those searching for that new job.

The hunt for a new job is rarely fun. Even at the best of times, it can be stressful and time-consuming. So, what happens if you are a 50 something woman and find yourself laid off, or trying to switch jobs?

Unfortunately, it seems to be true that older workers in general face more challenges in the job market than their younger colleagues. They figure more prominently in layoffs according to the Labor Department. Their data shows that workers 55 and older accounted for 18.6 percent of the layoffs in 2007, up from 13.4 percent in 2000.

Re-employment is tougher as well. The most recent Labor Department statistics (2006) show that 25 to 54 year olds have the best chance of getting another job. Seventy five percent of those had new jobs within a year, compared to 61 percent of workers between 55 and 64.

The situation becomes more complicated if you’re a woman in her 50s who exited the workplace for a few years to care for elderly parents, for example.

What gives? Several things could be at work. Many companies:

•  Believe they can hire younger workers for less money than a seasoned 50+ year old professional.
•  Fear that older workers bring with them a higher possibility of medical and health complications that can raise the company’s health care costs and lead to greater absenteeism.
•  Believe many older workers aren't as tech-savvy or flexible in their ways as their younger counterparts.
• See older professionals as having a more limited skill sets and range of work experience. For example, many workers in their 40s can expect to hold 14 jobs during his or her work life as compared to seven for the average 50 something.

While sobering, the situation isn't hopeless by any means. But, it may require some changes in the way you think about the job search.

First of all, understand that if you have not had to search for a job in the last four or five years, you are likely to be completely out of touch with how the process works these days. Kate McLagan, Vice-President for Right Management in Austin, Texas, manages outplacement services. She offers some words of advice for an older woman looking for employment:

• Think about the job search as a sales and marketing campaign with you selling yourself.
• Networking, not resumes, get you the job. But, there is an art to making networking work for you. Find help with this to keep from wasting precious time.
• The first step is getting your verbal and written strategies/materials in place. This includes the important step of distilling your particular gifts into three or four "diamonds." If you skip this step, you can count on doubling the time it takes to find a position.
• Figure out and communicate what your role in the company could be. Too often, Kate says, we are trying to "get a job."  We are aiming at some box defined by a job description, rather than thinking about (and helping the hiring manager see) the broader picture of how our particular gifts fit with the organization’s goals. It's critical to understand the broader trends that are driving change in our industry to keep ourselves up to date and informed.