Has Anyone Ever Gotten a New Job at 60 Years Old?

Parent Cafe
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<p>As I think I’ve mentioned here before, my company has announced it is relocating from NYC to Atlanta. I am seriously considering going, but I am also seriously considering not going. </p>

<p>If I don’t go, I still need a job. I’ll be 60 once the move occurs. </p>

<p>I do have a great resume and, once I submit it to appropriate positions, I often receive a phone call, often followed by an interview or two. That said, there’s quite a difference between getting a phone call and being offered a job. In fact, the last time I was unemployed, it took 11 months to find this job. (If that happens again, I’ll start a new thread called, “Anyone Ever Gotten a New Job at 61 Years old?”)</p>

<p>I also have a lot of contacts in my field in NYC who will keep their eyes out for me – in fact, I’m having lunch with someone on Monday who might soon be leaving her position, which I’d like to take over.</p>

<p>So, great – great resume, lots of relevant contacts, good experience. Will anyone offer a job to a 60-year-old?</p>

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<p>I’ll be honest with you. It’s tough. Sometimes it’s just sheer luck- find a company that seems inclined to like older workers. It took me 13 months to land the job I have now (age 54 at the time) and I was starting to panic. They say a month for every $10K in income, but we are in a tough job market now. That said, there are some fields and industries where you might not have any trouble. NY is a large market. That helps. I was willing to move for a job, and I did. I had a great resume, too.
If I were you I would head for Atlanta.</p>

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<p>You are lucky in that you are in a huge job market where it is easier to find another job than in many parts of the country where the economy is smaller. My H’s company was taken over and his function moved to a part of the country that we had no desire to live in (and the company that took his company over was Slime Incorporated, to boot). He was in his late 40s at the time. He has never been able to replace his job in our area, and he also has an excellent resume and excellent qualifications. When he applies for jobs that would have been considered “beneath” him, the boss is always younger than he is and obviously doesn’t want someone who is older and more experienced.</p>

<p>Frankly, I’d say rent out your house in the NYC area if you want to return, and go to Atlanta until retirement at 65, assuming that you can retire at 65. If you like it there, you can always sell your NYC house. Or buy a retirement house elsewhere.</p>

<p>If you want to stay in the NYC area, figure out if you can afford to retire right now, because you may never be able to get another full-time job. Think about supplementing with consulting or contract work, if that is feasible in your field. And of course, you will have to buy your own health insurance for 5 years… That will not be fun.</p>

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<p>[USAJOBS</a> - The Federal Government’s Official Jobs Site](<a href=“http://www.usajobs.com/]USAJOBS”>http://www.usajobs.com/) the federal government is hiring and they don’t discriminate based on age.</p>

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<p>I agree completely with Consolation’s comments. Optimism is appropriate for young people and good economies, neither of which applies to OP’s situation.</p>

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<p>It depends on location and the type of skills you have. My H was recently laid off (bad economy), He got another job (at even higher salary) within a month. He’s 60+. I know someone who got a job at 68 about three years ago.</p>

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<p>Sure. Both my wife and I obtained full-time, fairly high level, employment after we retired from the Federal Government at 60. I now work at a Big Ten university at a senior level, and my wife is a manager in the state government where the university is located. She was well known to the state because of her work in the Feds. The only caveat I would add is that we were both hired because we brought very specific skills sets that were needed in the university and the state.</p>

<p>We both work for public employers. Private employers may have some wrongheaded views about older workers.</p>

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<p>It’s not even just the “wrongheaded views”. Sometimes it’s just that they can pay someone with 10 years experience a WHOLE lot less than they are going to have to pay a 50 or 60 year old. I also ran into the issue of the interviewer not giving me a chance because he regarded the job as “below me” and thought I would leave as soon as something better came along. Interestingly, where I work now has an older workforce (at least in our department). Our boss is the youngest at 45 and many of us are over 50 and heading for 60. The downside (we joke about it) is that we are at the orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist half the time!</p>

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<p>I just turned 50 and decided to change careers from Banking to something a little more fun. I just took a job with a major university doing development work (fundraising) at one of their regional offices. Not only is it fun to be part of a university where I can use all my CC found knowledge, it’s also an office where all of the staff is close to my age and most of our prospects are up there too. At least in NYC there seem to be a number of these jobs posted (also for other non profits). It’s something to consider for that second career.</p>

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<p>VeryHappy, absolutely. I just hired for an expansion position, at the executive level. From nearly 100 resumes, it came down to two persons: an Ivy league grad who didn’t have 100% of what was needed in the position but who was so likeable and who would have fit the culture so well it would have been worth the lack of experience, and, someone with very, very grey hair. </p>

<p>Grey hair got the job. We need the experience and the knowledge.</p>

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<p>You were very lucky, RozPal. Plum development jobs usually go to people who have already had such a job. One of the many things H was well-qualified and suited for was an investment-oriented development position at a college, went through several levels of interviews, was one of two or three finalists…job went to someone who already had a development job elsewhere. I’ve seen several development jobs for local non-profits in the paper/online this very week. All of them require several years of prior experience in the same job. It gets depressing…This happened repeatedly in banking, also. They would simply decide to wait until someone who was a trust officer at another bank showed up, even if it took months, even though they interviewed H through several levels and said they liked him and he has plenty of relevant experience. It’s a CYA thing: if the person doesn’t work out, you aren’t blamed if you hired someone who already had the same job.</p>

<p>I’m sorry to be such a downer, but we are so tired of struggling…</p>

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<p>Sigh. Your answers are conflicted. There is no one common theme here. I, too, am conflicted.</p>

<p>Right now at this very moment in time I’m thinking that I will move there by myself (no DH) for a year or two, just to keep this gig going. And then we’ll see where we go from there.</p>

<p>But stay tuned – tomorrow monring I’ll be thinking something else.</p>

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<p>It seems like keeping the job and still looking may be the best financial solution. That way you won’t burn bridges you wish you hadn’t, I’m presuming you can always quit, but once you quit you can’t get the job again. If H’s health insurance can cover you you have better options, especially if you can make other finances work. The extra money without DH may not be worth it, especially considering that the older we get the more likely we are to die, make sure neither one of you feels they may have lifelong regrets (but if illness strikes you could always quit and return to NY, anything sudden is unpredictable and you can’t be afraid to do things for “what ifs”)- not very helpful, am I? I did some job bridge burning many years ago- will never know how our and son’s futures would have played out…</p>

<p>Just remember that hindsight is 20/20 and have no regrets, no matter what you choose to do.</p>

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<p>MWC:</p>

<p>You may be right about the impact of salary differences between inexperienced and experienced applicants. I think that may be especially true for teachers. Generally though, I do believe that public employers are much more welcoming than private employers to older applicants.</p>

<p>My wife and I both have pensions so we could afford to accept less money. Plus, we both had skills that the public employer wanted and needed. I was hired after one previous failed search for the position. My wife was hired after she had to decline two previous offers from the state because she had provided grant money for the particular programs. She is not allowed to work for two years in programs that she had funded when she was in the Federal government.</p>

<p>After 60, for me it isn’t so much about the money, but after a career where I was not always happy, it’s about a job that’s fun. When it is no longer fun, I’ll really retire.</p>

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<p>It’s about a job you like, but it’s also about medical benefits.</p>

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<p>The current jobs has better medical benefits at a substantial lower price than the health program we were able to carry over into retirement from the Feds. We are fortunate.</p>

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<p>MOWC brings up an important matter, as practical as the salary itself. (Perhaps more so, given age?)</p>

<p>Also, just in general:
Do not assume even that private employers look askance at the older worker. You might be amazed that not everybody who is young, or younger, is shallow, or fails to take the long view. Many of them do value experience which has no substitute.
Example:
There are franchised companies and other start-ups that not only welcome the older worker, but often seek someone with that much broad experience. I’m not necessarily talking about Burger King here, but companies with more appeal to the educated, skilled, seasoned employee – companies with services as their product, for example. Companies seeking to expand or start new branches in new locations often recruit within a large category or several categories of occupations: they may be looking more for general management experience, general sales or marketing experience, education, retail, or finance. Often they welcome or seek a combination of experience in more than one field.</p>

<p>Someone opening a new location for an established, successful venture may have the cash, motivation, & commitment for it, but needs a seasoned team to support the new location. That team is often more experienced in the field than the owner, and may be more expert, and older. </p>

<p>I’m not suggesting necessarily that you seek such opportunities yourself, but more that you post your resume on multiple kinds of job sites, in as many related fields as seems realistic. It’s because these & similar openings are often filled by recruitment. </p>

<p>What the older worker brings to the job site is not just experience, but importantly, more self-confidence (usually), and a comfort level with their own authority. They tend to have made their mistakes & learned from them much earlier; they have a sense of the way any office or business is run, appreciate lines of authority & general unwritten business protocol. (Much shorter learning curve in all those areas.) They don’t believe they need to ask permission for everything. They are generally stable in terms of residences & relationships – without the young ‘love angst’ most of us encountered & experienced in our Salad Days. </p>

<p>I am only restating the obvious to the OP, because you need to be internally confident to handle the job search & interview! Own it, assume it: you’re not just valuable, you’re invaluable.</p>

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<p>Older people may take more time to think things through- but that is because we have more experience to dig through.
[Older workers looking more glamorous to recruiters | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004375894_jobsolder27.html”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004375894_jobsolder27.html&lt;/a&gt;)
Ya that’s it!</p>

<p>[Fields</a> that value older workers – Newsday.com](<a href=“http://www.newsday.com/business/custom/retirement/ny-bzside0620,0,3524362.story]Fields”>Newsday | Long Island's & NYC's News Source - Newsday)</p>

<p>One problem I have found though is that with physical work, I start out like a sprinter, but I end up feeing like a character in " They shoot horses, don’t they?".
Bodies can be * so rude*
:p</p>

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<p>It depends on the field, but generally it is much harder. It also depends upon if you are willing to work on war related materials - planes, bombers, computers. You will find most of the jobs in the DC area are war related.</p>

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<p>In answer to the original thread starter: “Welcome to Wal-Mart, may I help you find something?”</p>