Some employers especially those in the suburbs are set in their ways and unwilling to budge when it comes to salary offered. For older persons, this could be deadly as well as for local economy.

These are the pet peeves of some of my customers who, at one time, had fast-paced, glamor-type jobs in media in the Big City and now that they have found themselves in the suburbs, older and on their own, they find themselves applying for and interviewing with employers not willing to hire them because they want “young kids” for eight dollars an hour. Important professionals like doctors notoriously under employ. They want and need accuracy and good workers to ensure that, but they won’t pay decent salaries by which one serving their business needs can support oneself—like pay the costs of living—a roof over one’s head, a car because you need a car in the ‘burbs—and, oh, God forbid—food!

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(Ed.Note) Welcome to our journey into the world of recession blogs! The 405 Club wants to get personal via a handful of questions with our favorite fellow bloggers who are documenting the recession and unemployment firsthand.

Today we have the pleasure of sitting with the man behind Unemployed & Over 50.

…………

Before we chat about the blog, what will you be having for brunch?

* I’ll just have a burger please.

1. So let’s get to it.  When were you laid off and what did you do? Or are you employed/self-employed? If so, what do you do now?

* I am still among the fortunate, the employed.

2. When and why did you start your site?

* The company that I work for as been laying off people on a regular basis for the past few years. I believe that it is only a matter of time before my number is called.
Blogging is a wonderful way to not only communicate but also to research any thing that you are blogging about. Since unemployment is on the horizon for me I thought that I would go ahead and start my blog Unemployed and Over Fifty.

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Time to turn back the clock.  The Time:  November 2009!  The place:  Somewhere in Suburban New York.  Although I did not have a job offer yet, things were looking promising.  I had just completed four interviews. I also had jury duty, and I wondered if there would be a conflict between interview time and jury duty.  Somehow I managed to make my way through, but there were some moments that I was very concerned.  As the results came in, one company turned down my application and notified me within twenty four hours after my interview.  The other interview was for a position I had no experience for.  True I could get training, but I wanted to see how the other interviews turned out.  The third was one that my headhunter told me that I would definitely get an offer for….That definitely ended up turning into a definitely not, and was the basis for my “Cautionary Tale” writing.  The final one…well we’ll get to that one later (as that is where I am now employed).

I am, however getting ahead of myself.  When we last left my nightmarish experience, I found myself transformed to a version of my younger self for another discussion with my mother. As I left the house, I began to age quickly.  Fortunately I stopped aging when I reached my current age.  The next thing I knew I was job hunting in the meat district of New York City.  What happens next?  Please read on.  You will find the answer in Part 2 of Nightmare….Again.   Enjoy

-Howard K. Young
Find Part 1 here

———-

Part 2

Good Evening. I am not sure you know me. My name is Howard K. Young. I like to think of myself as a professional. I am not in business to make friends, but once I leave the office, I am a completely different person. All was going well until my job was taken from me in June of 2009. I know what I have to do to get re-employed but like a bad joke without a punchline, I just cannot seem to get that elusive employment offer. As a result I often have problems sleeping at night. When I do sleep, I find that I am often plagued by nightmares. My nightmares put me in strange places, strange situations. I feel like a passenger on a train that is going to some strange Twilight Zone!

I find myself in positions that I would never consider taking in real life…

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(Ed. Note) We are excited to introduce Lesley Pink, an editor and writer who has worked in marketing, financial journalism, and immigration law.  She wishes she could swim for a living, but for now you can find her here in her new “Single White Unemployed Female” column. Enjoy.

I’ve been wading through a lot of emotions since I was downsized earlier this year.  And I realized that I lot of feelings I’ve been having are similar to ones I’ve experienced after a break-up.  There’s a lot in common between being downsized and being dumped.

As an employee, I had a relationship with my [former] company for several years— a long-term relationship if you will.  The relationship, like any other, had its good days and its bad days.  But I was getting something— money, health insurance, a sense of worth— out of it.  And the company was getting my skills and ideas.  But one day, the company decided that it no longer wanted to be in this relationship and unceremoniously dumped me.  Allowing me to get unemployment and giving me a small severance package seemed to be the company’s way of saying it still wanted to be friends, a common tag line after any break-up.  But I was angry and hurt and humiliated.  I didn’t want to be friends with the company.  It had betrayed me.  It had wooed me, said it wanted to be with me and then decided it didn’t.  Hmm.  Sounded kind of familiar.

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Job search is about trying to decipher and analyze what employers are looking for and then attempting to convince them we can fill it. You take your cues from advertisements for (sometimes alleged) job openings, company research on the blind without an ad, which is bold and creative, or hearsay through a grapevine connected to somebody out there. You repeatedly pour over advertisements and try to make your resume conform. You repeatedly redo cover letters to sound like you’d fit in so perfectly with the company’s personality, culture and be admitted into their crowd just like in your high school days.

We hear sages, spiritualists and shrinks alike, tell us that part of good mental health is to live in the moment. Like shopping for a suit or dress that fits right, the job-finding-and-getting process is totally consuming, engaging and often depleting. You really live in the moment when you look for a job. Science calls it survival of the fittest (notice, science doesn’t call it “best”) and an organism adapting to its environment. O, let us count the times we twisted ourselves inside out to some held-out standard, just for something we could do in exchange for money. O, just to be hired. O, just for the illusive Job.

Hopefully we haven’t sold our souls in the process of trying to be employed or becoming employed. But if we were to write our own advertisement of us as professionals, what would we say?

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