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Top Boomer Job Trends for 2014

aadmin — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:39:30 +0000

The work landscape for boomers promises to be unconventional in 2014. Employment trends have transformed, leaving middle-aged people with more alternatives and difficult choices. Change leads to challenges. Boomers face the spectre of ageism as younger wage earners enter the job market.

Boomer Entrepreneurship as a Necessity

Sarah Baldwin, from Highland Park, IL, is a creative freelancer and blogger in support of struggling boomers at Kool-aid Rehab for Bright-eyed Entrepreneurs. “There’s a perception that experienced people are too expensive to hire,” she said. “So the price of great talent is going down.”

To escape the inevitable onslaught of younger cheaper talent, Baldwin decided to work for herself. “I became an entrepreneur by necessity,” she said. “There are no opportunities for boomers.” She has partnered her talents with a company specializing in recovery wear, Goodnighties.com. The freelance marketer liked its product so much, she arranged to become its exclusive marketing and sales rep.

It was a deal made in the trenches. But Baldwin had special reasons to align with the online company offering recovery night wear for women with body temperature issues – over 40-years-olds or those undergoing chemotherapy.

Baldwin had suffered from sleeplessness and found the company’s product line beneficial for her. Goodnighties.com is still a work-in-progress, but Baldwin is working hard to promote a product of personal interest. “It’s make your own way,” she said. “Boy is it hard.”

Sabbaticals for Successful Boomers

Bill Van Eron – CMO of Headwaters Marketing – was born in 1946 in the first wave of boomers. He works out of Fort Collins, CO, in strategic PR and integrated research and communications for high-profile clients like Hewlett-Packard.

Over the past year, he has transformed his work and personal goals by capping recruitment with new clients. At 67, he has taken a partial sabbatical or GAP year. Similar to Baldwin, he advocates personal business values.

“People need to depend on a special sense of trust,” he said. On a practical level, Van Eron feels the pressure of a new, upcoming generation. “I don’t want to compete with young college grads and their cool design firms when I can re-envision my personal purpose.”

For Van Eron, a looming issue facing Boomers is to go beyond traditional retirement. “Retirement has taken on negative connotations. We almost need to invent another word.”

Telecommuting – The Flexible Alternative

Flexible work – telecommuting – has become a growing trend for boomers and will continue into 2014.

In 2006, Sara Sutton Fell was seven months pregnant and laid off. She began looking for flexible home-based work. “I was really astonished by all the scams in the niche,” she said. She came up with the idea for FlexJobs, a place where qualified workers could find flexible professional online work. She hatched FlexJobs in 2007; a company she said has helped over 650,000 job seekers in their search for adaptable work hours.

FlexJobs attracts boomers who need to remain in the work force, and others who want to stay active and involved. “The nature of how, when, and where we work has changed so much in the last decade,” said the FlexJobs CEO. “Many professionals are opting for telecommuting.”

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These are sample work situations that boomers will create of find available in 2014. The trick is to discover the right fit.

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Finances and Work

9 Tips for Over 55 Workers

aadmin — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:33:34 +0000

Over 55 brings a lot of turmoil, especially if a Baby Boomer is out of a job, looking for a new one, and trying to compete with younger people. A person of an older age - by law - shouldn't have their age held against them. But, what's an older person to do in the real world of job hunting?

In the Boston.com's Job Doc column, the question came up: How do you sell your age as an asset when you are interviewing without being overly pushy about it?

The Job Doc's answer to the over 55 job hunter was to persuade the interviewer to hone in on the over 55's value to the company, not the age factor. Value gets candidates hired, whether it's a new job or a new life - an Encore career.

Here are 9 tips for over 55 and looking for work:

1. Reduce the resume to two pages. Take out early, possibly irrelevant career roles.

2. Insert key words in the resume. Key words highlight current skills and update contemporary technology terms, industry trends and experience.

3. Review the resume and upcoming interviews with trusted colleagues for feedback.

4. Eliminate hurdles, such as: "I'm not willing to relocate or travel," or “I can't learn the newest version of a software." Instead, be flexible. Offer to keep up with latest trends, and how enjoyable it is to keep learning.

5. Email addresses with an aol.com extension, is considered dated by many employers.

6. Stick to current experience. Candidates who go too far into the past can be perceived as non-energetic.

7. Clothing and appearance need to be updated, not a long-ago purchased outfit.

8. Be prepared to reduce salary expectations. Come in with the employer's price tag. A candidate’s age may not be the major issue; it could be their salary requirements which unnerve the decision.

9. The key is to exhibit energy, willingness and enthusiasm. Companies look for engaged candidates, even if your over 55.

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Finances and Work

What are the best cities for older workers?

aadmin — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:27:51 +0000

Retirement isn’t what it used to be. More Baby Boomers and seniors are opting for encore careers and second jobs after their official retirement date as a way to bring in extra income or to continue their passions.

For seniors who are looking for an encore career, not all locations provide the same opportunities.

As reported recently by the U.S. News and World Report, Washington, D.C. has the distinction of having the highest proportion of older workers in the country (meaning a high percentage of seniors are still working), with cities such as Madison, Wisconsin and Austin, Texas close behind.

But the picture isn’t as rosy across the United States, experts say. Older workers frequently have harder times finding suitable employment, and a combination of both discrimination and inexperience can be to blame.

“Age discrimination is a barrier that older workers face, and older workers often do not have the skills that employers are seeking today,” Sara Rix with the AARP Public Policy Institute told the news source.

She added that one factor contributing to more seniors on the job hunt is increasing life spans, meaning that retirees have to find the money to support their lifestyle for longer than any generations previously.

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Japan's seniors work till they drop

aadmin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:39:11 +0000

In the USA and Canada there's a popular phrase - "Let's shop till we drop!" In Japan, a lot of aging people have transformed this phrase into - "Let's work till we drop."

Myinchew.com, a Japanese online publication profiles an older generation that finds so much meaning in work, they may work upwards of 12 hours a day, seven days a week. While European governments struggle to convince populations to delay retirement, Japan has found no such resistance.

A shrinking number of taxpayers in Japan end up supporting a growing elderly population. Older people are encouraged to work longer. A quarter of the Japanese are over 65. Low immigration means the government must encourage older people to stay in the workforce.

Older Japanese see their work as a source of pride. Koji Sato, a Tokyo tea shop owner, told Myinchew.com: "If I stopped work, I would feel old." The 75-years-old works 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Observers say the older Japanese attitude of hard work is derived from the austerity of its shell-shocked post-war years, transformed into a booming economy by a vitalized work force. Money is secondary compared to doing something useful for society. Large companies have faith in older workers and entrust them to handle things.

Seniors realize that the pension system has become a burden on younger generations due to the decline in childbirths, so they want to work longer. Austerity packages have led to outcries in Europe compared to Japan, where older people carry on without complaint.

Seichiro Fukui, who has worked for 41 years, said he intends to "work till he drops." Fukui, like many Japanese, continue to work because they see no meaning in retirement.

Because of this hard work attitude, the number of Assisted Living and Continuing Care residents in Japan is a fraction of those in North America.

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