Going back to work at 50

Parent Cafe
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<p>Title says it all. 14 yrs ago, I left a corp job, with a staff, managing a budget, having timelines and deliverables to be a stay-at-home mom. I had a long commute, with additional travel, and 3 kids under 9. I went from full to part time to sabbatical to “retired.” I took my cube-name-tag and slapped it up on the fridge and tried to be that perfect mom - learned to cook from scratch (“shake-n-bake” was what I considered home cooking up to that point), learned to garden, grew veggies, learned to make pickles and jam. Led a girl scout troop, was class mom, had a position in a local volunteer org. But…just not happy in this role. Now with two in college, one heading in a yr, and another in middle school…this is probably as good a time as ever to get back to being paid for work. About 3 yrs ago, I attended a seminar by a group called “iRelaunch” - two women who relaunched their careers after staying home with kids and wrote a book called “Back on the Career Track”. Since then, I have been on their mailing list where they will let people know about companies open to “relaunchers” or training that’s being offered by universities to help people brush up on their skills. About 2 months ago, they mentioned a company not far from here starting 10 wk internships for people looking to return to the workforce. My background actually was a good fit and without having to explain the red flag of a 14 yr gap on my resume, I got offered the internship a week ago. If after 10 wks, they like what I can do, it would convert to a permanent position. </p>

<p>I have about a month before this experiment begins. After a flurry of trying to find work-appropriate business casual clothing for my now, very differently sized body (LOL), I figure I need to brush up on some business stuff, computer languages that people expect people to know in the workforce. I do know that they will be giving me training on the company, its products and systems. Maybe excel refresher? Powerpoint? Does everyone use Google calendar? For perspective, I left when Blackberries were being handed out! </p>

<p>Anyway, any suggestions? </p>

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<p>I have no idea what software to brush up on, but congratulations!
That sounds like a great opportunity!
They may be anticipating that refreshers are needed, but just in case they aren’t, look for classes at your local
Community center or maybe summer extension classes at the local U.</p>

3

<p>This is so cool! Congrats to you for pursuing and taking a first step. I hope that it will be a satisfying small leap back into the work world.</p>

<p>It would probably be helpful if you describe your type of employer you will be stationed at (without identifying of course). Small business? Big business? Non-profit? Who are your clients/audience? Science based? Health care? </p>

<p>I think a lot of people on CC are going to be googling " iRelaunch"!!! </p>

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<p>50 is very very young age. When D. started her Med. School, the oldest in her class was 46. By the time he gets to practice medicine (by far the most challenging proffession from any prospective), he is going to be in his late 50s. And physcial, emotional, intellectual challenges at medical school and beyond are unimaginable to anybody outside, not comparable to anything else that I have ever known. I myself is past retirement age and have no plans to retire.<br>
So, congrats! Great! Do not get started before you you know what to “brush up”. I would not polute my brain with unneeded info. You will have plenty that you will actually have to learn, polute your brain with it when you know what is “it”.
BTW, I have changed my jobs 9 times. I had to learn absolutely new things at every single one of them. I am talking about very detailed technical information that I needed to know as a computer programmer. Every job was absolutely different, including different industries (totally, like hospital and manufacturing), different computer, different languages, different business culture. I was hired to my last job in my late 50s. Got to learn on a fly, cannot learn ahead. I have to use Power Point (very rarely), I just say straight “I do not know it and I do not like it” I just use it as good as my limited knowledge allow me. This is just one example. I do not like Excel spreadsheet either. I do not like most of the available software. I can hardly use my cell and have very limited knowledge of the laptop. It really does not matter as long as you can do your job. For the rest, there is IS Service, they are good at it, they will help you with any software that is needed to perform your job. And mine is to wirte a new software, and I absolutely love it.</p>

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<p>You’ll need to know Microsoft Outlook – that’s for email, scheduling meetings, recording contacts.</p>

<p>What a wonderful opportunity! Many people I know would give their right arm to get to do what you’re doing!</p>

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<p>In the last 10 years, emails e-calendar, and soft copies of reports have become the norm for people to interact with each other. All of that have made our life easier, but also introduced its own complexities of etiquette. On top of that, there are also issues of information security - who can see what and when, clean desk policy… When they are doing brush up, pay special attention to the company’s policies. If they do not address those issues, you may want to ask. We just recently hired a PM who has been out for 10 years, he is rusty with a lot of office norms. Most US companies use Outlook for email and calendar, and a lot of European banks use Lotus notes. I would definitely brush up on Excel, Powerpoint if you are going to be doing some presentation. My younger staff make fun of older generation (us) if we can’t navigate Excel. </p>

<p>PS - congratulations. This sounds like a great opportunity.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the positive vibes! It’s a large financial svcs, not customer facing, operations and dealing with the business side, sort of business process improvement. I’m getting an inkling that the world has changed just from the hiring process - everything online, had to sign into a system just to see the offer letter. And don’t get me started on the drug screen! I think the processing for prison is along the same lines! </p>

<p>I am going to have to look at Outlook - things like that shouldn’t scare me but they do. I just started a Penn course on Coursera - just to feel like I at least have some vocabulary back. </p>

<p>For anyone interested, <a href=“http://www.irelaunch.com/”>http://www.irelaunch.com/&lt;/a&gt; The book is a good read - and probably can find it in a library. The one thing that it emphasizes is getting your confidence back - to realize you have skills and are not just that woman on the playground. </p>

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<p>The problem with learning Outlook now is . . . which Outlook? My new laptop has Outlook 2013, but my office just switched from Outlook 2007 to Outlook 2010, and they’re quite different. If you can get some information on which version of Office (like Outlook, Word, Excel) they’re using, then a little brush up may be fruitful. And of course, they could be using something that’s not a Microsoft product at all! And is it a Mac or PC shop?</p>

<p>Too many questions to ask even to begin brushing up!</p>

<p>And another hearty congratulations, and good luck!</p>

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<p>There’s more than one?? (oh crap…she mumbles…)</p>

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<p>If it is a financial company, you need to be careful about emailing spreadsheets, word, jpg files to your personal email. Some people want to do extra work at home, instead of bringing their laptop or vpn to their desk top, they would email their work home. It is a big no-no. IT has software to flag those emails and send them to your department’s information security officer. IT can also back up all of your emails for your manager to view in matter of an hour, and it would include your deleted emails. Regulators are watching financial companies very carefully. I am sure you will go to many training courses.</p>

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<p>You may be nervous, but your good judgment and real world experience will invaluable. For any of the applications such as Outlook or Excel, you will start out doing one or two basic things and expand your use of features gradually. There is really no point doing a crash course as long as you can open and send an email and set up a very simple spreadsheet. New questions will occur to you as you try to do real work.</p>

<p>I think that age is very much perceived by how you act, walk, and talk. Color your hair - it is the only thing men use to figure out how old a woman is.</p>

<p>I am so glad you decided to jump back in and not decide it was all too late.</p>

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<p>And I should mention that being a girl scout leader was much more difficult than any paid position I have held! The parents were difficult customers.</p>

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<p>Yes, the girl scout thing was an eye-opening experience - had no idea that parents would object to their daughters being outside, nature walks etc. They thought I was crazy when I mentioned the possibility of camping. Outside. But that’s the nature of the town I live in. @movedtomi - don’t worry, color is something I wouldn’t go without.</p>

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<p>Brushing up on applications like excel is never a bad thing, it is still commonly used, as are word, and it never hurts to know powerpoint if you might have to make presentations. The financial world has changed a lot, between regulations and the change in the financial world itself, it could be very different from what you once knew or thought you knew. It would be wise to do some research on what the company does (financial firm is a broad term, and for example a firm that specializes in private wealth management is very different than a retail broker, an investment bank is different that a retail bank, a commercial lending service like GE capital will be different once again, equities and options trading are very different beasts, and so forth. Coming in with a broad understanding of what the company does will help you, and allow you to do research in gaining that understanding. When I started my current job (tech, but even so), my background was mostly equities and fixed income with a smattering of options, and I did some reading up on derivatives trading which let me be useful almost from the time I walked in the door. </p>

<p>And yep, some of the other things are companies are a lot more paranoid then when you worked last, the internet has brought a lot of benefits, but it also has brought all kinds of risks. Sites like you tube are blocked, not necessarily because they think people will waste time watching videos, but because you can post comments there, and they are afraid someone will post confidential information there (especially true in trading areas); E-mail often has filters on it, to pick out keywords, and even something innocuous can be flagged (usually, though, the person reading the filtered message has a laugh or two). A lot of collaboration is done electronically, documents can be written by a group , for example, with software that allows collaboration, and IM (generally something like Microsoft OCS/Lync) is very commonly used to talk to colleagues all over the place. </p>

<p>On the other hand, skills like being able to think on your feet, being able to navigate things that are nebulous, getting the job done and making the time and effort to do it, including working from home as need be, is always appreciated, and maybe also someone who shows enthusiasm for the job:).</p>

<p>Wish you luck, I hope it pans out, let us all know, I am rooting for you!</p>

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<p>If you had no problem figuring out e-mail and other applications “back in the day,” I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>

<p>Don’t bother coloring your hair, and don’t apologize for your age and/or recent experience at home.</p>

<p>(I returned to work full-time in December for the first time in about 14 years at the age of 53.)</p>

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<p>I agree with @MiamDAP, wait to see what you may need to brush up on. As a relauncher participant company, I’m sure they’ll provide appropriate training. Anyhow because you know your way around a Blackberry it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to pick up on technical things technical. </p>

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<p>Yup, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and Word. And it does depends on what version your company is on – the 2010 versions are pretty different from earlier versions, but quite a few companies have not upgraded yet. I am a consultant who switches companies a lot, and they are by far the most used applications. </p>

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<p>Congrats on this opportunity! I just went back to work over a year ago after a 17 yr hiatus. I did run the office for a business we own for the previous 7 yrs but now I’m actually getting paid!!!</p>

<p>There are great online tutorials for the Office suite at Microsoft.com. Look at those if you need help. I hope it all goes well. </p>

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<p>Er, rather than asking online about software - I think you should ask your employer. My daughter current works ina Mac-based office - I have no idea how they manage their email, but it probably is not MS Outlook. </p>

<p>So don’t worry – you’ll probably pick up what you need to know very quickly. It’s also possible that your company has developed a proprietary system – or heavily customized whatever program you might be used to. </p>

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<p>Outlook still runs on a Mac, and is now far and away the company standard these days. You might find a few companies using something else, but that is pretty rare these days. It wouldn’t hurt to brush up on those skills no matter what (what if this opportunity doesn’t work out and you want to look for something else?). You won’t be sorry you did it.</p>