Job hunting over 50?: Jobs Board

Job hunting over 50?: Jobs Board:

                                                                                                  


 This is a page which will advertise jobs with a share button enabling me to share them with my readers, it will be a limited selection in comparison to major job boards but since many of them are home based which may well help people like myself who are not fit enough to work but unable to get disability benefits and older people having to look for work , I hope it may be useful.

Valerie

  photo credit: FunnyBiz via photopin cc 

Blog maintenance

The blog has again been rather quiet for the past week and  I don't like to see it lose its momentum and my daily readership stats  drop. However, especially as one develops as a writer/blogger, you start to learn that there is more to running a blog than just writing and posting articles, as important as that is.

My stats have certainly risen but although that is great, with an increase in readership comes , just as in any other job I suppose, more responsibilities and work.

Of course stats will not increase if nobody see the blog and its blog posts, You can write fantastic engaging articles but won't make any money from monetizing the blog or get writing engagements  if you are unread and unknown. There is no point in a blog full of even the greatest content if few people read it.

The blogs with the greatest readership are the ones that then make money. As you learn more about how to  promote your blog , in my experience I found that I have been almost without realizing it , growing and improving my networking skills. With this of course comes one of the characteristics of blogging and the blogging community and that is networking and communicating with other bloggers. You read other blogs and articles , especially those in your niche and comment on them, and of course people answer and maybe also comment on  characteristics of your blog, bloggers are a real community where unlike many fields of business there is a lot of mutual support and encouragement..

One of the most important means to being noticed in the blogging field and getting your blog posts seen is unfortunately for those who dread learning how to use it ..SEO . This is ( as I understand it so far ) a sort of web language that the search engines trawl which then indexes your site and good SEO is the difference between being at or near the top of search engines, especially Google, or not being seen .

What makes for  a start in good SEO is ....language and learning the terms to use that the search engines pick up . I am a witty writer who tends to write in the style in which I might well chat to my friends and as much as it is a friendly, popular , easy to read style, especially if readers know you personally, it is not necessarily the best style at all for search engine ranking.

A good start is with your blog post title and then inserting the best relevant  keyword terms into the text when you can. A useful took to help you do this, especially when you are a beginner is to use a keyword research tool

I think many of my readers may gather that this part of blogging...the blogging maintenance and ;housekeeping; is still new to me, indeed as is developing the most profitable writing style, so if I suggest  a site, I am not an expert but am sharing resources that I discover and find helpful.  The keyword research tool which I  recently discovered and am currently using which will keep me going with suggestions for a long time is the very good http://ubersuggest.org/.

An example of its resources is entering the term blog maintenance for this blog post and receiving these suggestions :

blog maintenance
blog maintenance checklist
blog maintenance services
blog maintenance packages
blog maintenance provider
blog maintenance tips
blog creation and maintenance

 Nobody wants to read a blog which eg is full of broken links and references to sites which no longer exist or things which are no longer for sale and just like a normal conversation it is very rude to not answer a comment to your blog , to reply to comments you receive is a vital part of growing your blog, and certainly as important as writing.

Valerie

Geographically challenged

 

It didn't of course surprise me when I started job hunting to see that the job centre searches stretched search results not just a bit but quite a lot, although I did feel amazement and some anger when a local search in my area for jobs produced results in Manchester. My health and disabilities prevent my traveling and in icy winter conditions I am housebound, but like many in the same position I am being forced by the Department of Work and Pensions to look for work. Its very much a case of luck if I am well enough to get to the jobcentre ,which is some way from where I live, each fortnight to sign on, but although I am often not feeling well, I recognise I am far from being the only person in this situation and if you don't go for your signing you get no job seekers allowance. There is no room allowed for being able to contact the Job centre and say you hope to be better in a few days and can you come then. What happens is that e.g. in my case my day to sign on is Wednesday and the money is not released to go to my bank until I have been seen at the jobcentre, it is then in my account the following Monday. One week this past freezing winter, my arthritis was very bad due to the cold conditions and my blood pressure was up because I could not afford to heat the flat adequately and I was cold. There was still too much ice on the pavements for me to feel safe walking out with a metal plate and six pins in my ankle, even though the weather was actually not as bad as it had been. I telephoned the jobcentre and an adviser told me that she believed that weeks payment would have already been released and I would see it in my account but it would be the next one that would be a problem, They couldn't give me an appointment to see an adviser until the following Monday afternoon, but on Monday morning the money was not in my account. I went to the Job centre on Monday afternoon as arranged and was told that the money would be released and hopefully would be in my account on Tuesday morning. Tuesday came and I was like many others would be kind of desperate for the money, I dialed telephone banking for a balance and...no money. I then managed eventually to get through to the Department of Work and Pensions who explained that they had in fact just checked that my payment had been paid and realised that instead of sending it as an urgent payment, they had sent it via the normal system and it would not be in my account until Thursday. I Explained that I had no food and no money for gas and electricity for pre pay meters , so then began a process of recalling from my bank the payment that had been sent to arrive on Thursday and reissuing an emergency one.

So, I struggle to make it to the jobcentre, half an hours walk away , and would have problems being confident that I would be well enough to make it to a job interview in Manchester. However, another very significant issue is that while the Job centre are craftily slipping into their system job adverts hoping that we are geographically challenged and will indeed once we find the place do as the Tory politician Norman Tebbitt said get on our bikes to get a job , we are being kept rather strapped for cash to put it mildly and while being forced to take any job anywhere it often happens that we can't afford to get to the interview, while very quietly and with no announcement yet another scheme to help vulnerable people into the work they are being forced to take, the travel to interview scheme has been scrapped

Something for the weekend ....Getting by ?? Going without ??

Well, there I was looking for an article on the theme of something for the weekend, when I try to provide a bit of free  or at least cheap distraction from the strains and financial limitations of being a job seeker with no spare money for entertainment.. I had been going to write about as many of my readers know , my great love of tennis and Queens Club, where the final is being played out as I write after many periods of rain stopped play , and I was going to write on the theme of tennis and social  exclusion, with the games air of being for toffs, well that will be for another day, as I was prompted by the thought of writing an article about a broader sense of exclusion.

Being unemployed is  literally a wysiwyg existence, where we  have to put up with what we have got, that's even if you can still afford the TV license and many a job hunter has decided that they cannot. I have kept my TV and daily newspaper because I cannot afford to go out  and the strains of the past years have taken a huge toll on my looks, stamina and health in any case, I can certainly no longer dance the night away  even if I could afford it and so consider it is the only entertainment I do have and it helps to keep me current. The newspaper is also providing some ideas and material for writing prompts.However, it is a close shave. Job seekers allowance does not cover living costs. It is supposed to, worked out on the following budget  but I and I am sure many others in my position frequently have to choose between heating, eating or the TV license, with its very real threat of prosecution if you don't pay.

Food £25
Electric £15
Travel £10
Gas £10
Water £5
TV License £5
TOTAL £70pw

Note that there is no allowance for a telephone, Internet and certainly not a mobile phone. This is because these are not considered to be essentials and yet for the job seeker, they certainly help. Regarding Internet access to apply for jobs...and now for benefit claims, it is considered that you can find free access to the Internet at eg the local library, but many councils have started to charge and in any case the amount of time you can have on line is often limited to as low as half an hour, hardly time to look for and apply for jobs.
 A strange thought is that the official definition of poverty, although articles describing it do vary, often includes the absence of Internet access, it is not considered an essential by the powers that be who control the living standards of the unemployed, yet the United Nations consider it a human right. I think it is accepted  that although may claimants of job seekers allowance may not be living in absolute poverty, they are certainly below the breadline in relative poverty.

The irony is that poverty actually  makes  living costs higher, at a time when you can least afford it.Once you have difficulty paying gas and electricity companies will often force a customer onto pre-pay meters. On pre-pay meters, you cannot say 'well, this week I will pay another bill and the gas and electricity I will pay out  of my next lot of money' because if the meters need money in them and you have none, then you have no gas and no electricity. Also, the rate at which you pay on these meters is often higher than that charged to direct debit customers. Very often people are stuck on poor value deals because their credit rating is damaged my missed payments and payment agreements. An example of this is that I am with BT for telephone and Internet access, certainly not one of the better deals, but I cannot get a cheaper one as I would not pass a credit check. Also mobile phones are another example, if I was not job hunting it might actually be easier to manage without a mobile than it is, so many businesses appear to operate solely on con tact by mobile, but a decent smart phone on a contract is cheaper than my very basic pre pay phone

This coming week, I as I have so often had to do before, will have to make choices.. My last Job seekers allowance and some very careful saving beforehand meant that I managed to restore my mortgage payment to its full amount for the first time in many months. Just as well since the arrangement to pay less, which the lenders gave me when they increased the mortgage rate last October and I was unable to meet it, with the hope that I might manage to get a self employed income or job had come to an end and there is already a suspended possession order on the property, which the lender can go to court and activate at any time I cannot meet a mortgage agreement. I had cleared the arrears I had on my gas and electricity bills, which forced me on to pre-pay meters as EDF energy refused to let me pay  them off any other way , and had even managed to be accepted on to a better deal with another company Scottish Power. When I explained that I had been forced by EDF energy to have pre pay meters but I live alone and in icy weather am housebound, Scottish Power changed the meters back to ordinary ones on direct debit. The first direct debit for gas and electricity is due to come out of this fortnights Job Seekers allowance and will take all of it except  for £2....TV license payments are due, and in two weeks time comes the next mortgage payment...somethings got to give.....perhaps I qualify for the food bank ....

Of course just about the very first thing that had to go when my circumstances changed was cable television....as I say, something has to give and you know immediately that some things will have to go, but don't immediately think of giving up the TV altogether.

Its no good, indeed it won't help and would be foolish to think that life on benefits can carry on as it may have done  when you had a salary , but there can be some compromises. Some time ago when I first got a cheap reconditioned laptop meaning I was no longer chained to the spare bedroom and my desk top PC,  I imagined myself watching free Internet TV, as if  as they say because of course I didn't have the time, job hunting is a job in itself.Quite a few of the links I saved no longer seemed to be there when  I came to write this article. or they had changed to paying sites. I suspect this is a sign of the times, for those who can afford it, Sky and other cable, satellite TV systems have become so easily available on every device including portable ones such as tablets and smart phones, that free sites which may have got their revenue from advertising may now not be seeing the traffic and having to charge. However, here are a few which seem to offer at least free videos of previously aired programmes...Youtube of course being at the top of the list and still very popular. but here are a few others

 http://www.alluc.to/

 http://wwitv.com/

 http://www.channelking.com/

If you are perhaps looking for a cheap laptop  these sites are well worth a look :
 http://www.ijtdirect.co.uk/c/404/Laptops-Netbooks/

 http://www.cheaplaptopcompany.co.uk/

 http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/



 Valerie

Tales from the Job Centre 2

Well, the blog has been quiet again this week and my regular readers may quite possibly be recognising a familiar pattern.That of the panic that sets in as Job centre signing day nears and my blood pressure rises. Some are not aware when they have high blood pressure and it is up, others are, and I am in the latter category..

Like thousands in the same position as myself, I have high blood pressure, a heart condition, sight limitations, arthritis and other bone conditions and mobility issues, but am considered fit for work by the Job centre. Since I can type and write as I do, I don't in theory object to trying to find some work I can do, but the problem is indeed trying to find a job that I might physically be able to cope with, in a building where I can manage the layout, and preferably a job that doesn't mind my being housebound in icy weather and unable to get out to go to work. As for writing or any other possible means of becoming self employed and working from home, its a very slow process before you even begin to have a living wage from it. The Job Centre refuse to entertain my requests for help to become self employed, seeing it as a means to avoid looking for a job and fulfilling my Job Seekers agreement that I look for work. One adviser, and she was a disability adviser even told me 'You have been declared fit for work and you have to do as you are told !!!' I reminded her that actually I haven't been found fit for anything since the Job centre won't even sanction my applying for ESA, the successor to Incapacity benefit and say that if I do apply I will be refused and put back on JSA....she looked blank and didn't reply.

When I have pointed out to the Job centre that there is supposed to be help for people who want to become self employed, they have promised me that they would look into it and tell me at my next signing, and when my next signing comes, I am passed to another adviser who of course knows nothing about it. Eventually I was told, 'We have to say there is help and money available because we say so in our literature, but the money is in the hands of private providers, and they don't want to pay it out.....so......

I have to do as I am told and apply for jobs. My email job search in box is full of automatic replies acknowledging that my application has been received, and that if they wish to pursue my application someone will be in touch, also many messages saying that they have loads of responses to job ads just now and if I have not heard within seven days then they are sorry but I have not been successful on this occasion. Then come the messages thanking me for my application but saying they are sorry I have not been successful ...on this occasion.... and they would like to keep my application on file. Even one of the job centre advisers whose job it is to bully me into applying for jobs and cutting off my Job seekers allowance if I don't , repeats the phrases as I tell him.

So, as every other Wednesday gets closer, the blog articles get fewer while I am going through the job application responses and filling in my job search record book, out of my mind with fear that it won't be enough and I will be sanctioned and get no money or forced onto a workfare programme that physically I cannot manage....and every now and then I have an interview....

This Wednesday there I was at the jobcentre and my name was called, not by the adviser I was booked to see, she was too busy but by another one. He sat scanning my job search book and I'm frantically telling him 'I have an Interview !!!' I told him that I applied for the job because I felt it might be a job I could physically manage, but I would just have to cope somehow with the fact that it is in Richmond , at least 90 minutes each way on two buses from where I live , and I cannot access the underground, which would still involve a bus and two changes of train.However, as I explained , I had applied for it because I felt I may be able to manage it and as for the journey as I told the adviser I knew the Department of work and pensions didn't care how far I traveled as long as I got a job....

Much to my amazement , the adviser checked out the travel route on his computer and told me that I was to scrap the application because nobody would expect me to do the journey to get to the job, and if I was asked about the application then I was to say so. I pointed out to him that kind and reasonable as he was being, the powers that be at the department of Work and Pensions would take a different view of whether or not it was reasonable for me to take the job ....

He then asked me about the Work programme and if I had heard anything from them since he last signed me a month ago. When I replied no, but I would have to phone them since I never hear from them he replied that they are being paid to get me a job, but that nobody really thinks they are working. Job centre advisers are also very put out that if a person on the work programme does get a job, they might well have got it by themselves and the programme played no part in it to help, but they get paid..It might actually be that a Job centre plus adviser helps a claimant to get a job, but the work programme gets paid. Regarding self employment, now that I am on the work programme, whether I hear from them or not, I am not entitled to help from the Job centre for self employment such as the Enterprise allowance and any help that is available now has to come from the Work programme

I then mentioned to him that on one of the very few occasions when I did hear from the Work Programme... in February , the adviser said that she felt there was a better programme for me... Work Choice. The Work Programme adviser wanted me to ask the Jobcentre about Work choice

You do indeed have to ask..most people dealing with the Jobcentre and threats of sanctions to benefits if you don't find a job know about and quite possibly dread the Work Programme, but Work choice is voluntary and kept very quiet. From my experience Work Choice isn't exactly offered to you in the same way as you will be forced on to the Work programme, you have to ask a Job centre adviser i.e volunteer yourself.Until recently when the system was changed so that Work Programme members had to sign on and meet with Job centre plus advisers in the same way as they used to before going on the work programme, they didn't see a job centre adviser.

I now have to phone the disability employment adviser, the very person I asked to see at my last signing when I was told to wait until the next lot of changes when I could be ordered to go to the Jobcentre once, even twice a week, and then ask for a Disability Adviser, now I have to ask one about Work choice....

As for the interview....I acknowledged by email the invitation to a first stage telephone interview, which probably would have decided if i was invited or not to a face to face interview...and I haven't heard another word.....

Valerie

Selling yourself

photo credit: The Nothing Corporation via photopin cc

                         
 When you are looking and applying for a job you are really practicing your sales technique..and the product is you !!!

You need to promote yourself and get yourself known and noticed...but for all the right reasons. It has already been mentioned on the blog that many employers now look up an applicant on the web, to see what they can find out about them, so make sure that you are a great salesperson for your product...yourself, and watch your internet image.

The most obvious places to develop your image, just like a photograph of yourself, are of course Facebook, 
Twitter  which is a surprising feature packed resource for job hunters, and LinkedIn. Many less technically confident job hunters are hesitant about using LinkedIn, but if you are job hunting....you need a LinkedIn profile. It will often be the very first place that a prospective employer will go to find out all about you..There are even some albeit divided but to be considered opinions that in time LinkedIn will replace the CV.
These are the most likely social media sites for job hunting but do not rule out others,,,even Pinterest which is a great place to put a portfolio

If you are needing to look for a completely new job for  any reason, perhaps in cases such as mine where having been a nursery nurse for many years ,  now that I am older I am not fit enough to do the job due to health problems, you may have done one type of job for many years and need to grow a new skills set to be able to change careers. Take a look at what free courses might be available.

A very good way to grow your skills and get experience and a work record can be to work on the many freelance sites available

looking for a job is a job....you are valuable and have a service to sell..be your own best PR

A change of direction...different routes to a job

photo credit: Valerie Everett via photopin cc

                                      


If you are registered with the UK job centre, you will be familiar with a Job seekers agreement, of the things you are going to do each week to look for a job, and the book that a claimant has to fill in with details of their job seeking activity, which is then inspected and signed by a Job centre adviser.If the adviser is not satisfied that you have met the job seekers agreement then your benefits will be sanctioned....ie stopped. Other countries operate a similar system .

The agreement  of acceptable actions to find a job is not limited to sending off your CV to jobs advertised on job site banks such as Total jobs and Monster. 
Indeed it is said that this is actually one of the most inefficient ways to find a job, especially for the older job hunter. I have fired off my CV to countless jobs, many of which have a software  counter which tells you how many applicants there have been.....463 is not unusual. The majority of these CV's an employer receives will never be seen let alone read. Increasingly software is used which scans the Cv's for the required keywords for the advertised job.

Even a jobcentre adviser has admitted to me that for each job I apply for there are hundreds of applicants ahead of me .

There may well be certain aspects of an  older jobseekers application which will immediately rule them out in an on line application. An example of this is that usually there are questions to fill in along with pressing the button which uploads and sends your CV and one of these questions is to ask your age . It is actually illegal but job boards get away with it by putting it in the data monitoring section, claiming it is for their statistics.

There are additional job hunting techniques which may be more effective for the older job seeker and indeed should be attempted in any case in order to have the best chance of meeting the Job seekers agreement.Years ago, before the Internet  many job seekers found their jobs in the local or national newspaper and although certain newspapers now carry far fewer jobs than they might have done years ago, many , especially smaller businesses choose to recruit using this method.Also. because the application often involves the personal contact of a telephone call or sending your CV to the email address of a company directly , there is much more chance that your application will be noticed.

However, what happens if on a very limited income the newspaper has been the first victim of your budget. The weekly local paper is often delivered free  but other  daily newspapers are not cheap. Even the job clubs I have attended are I notice, taking delivery of fewer papers than they used to.However, there is a way to read the papers for free on line. They may not be the full version that you would buy at the newsagents, but often still feature a jobs section and even a facility to upload a CV to a jobs bank.

Some of the best sites where you can access online newspapers are:

 http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/#.UbYw-diwV5D

 http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/englanda-k.htm
This one allows you to easily search UK regional papers  by A-Z plus many worldwide issues.

 http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=11&cid=5&tid=8698&parent=7658

 http://www.thepaperboy.com/england/newspapers/country.cfm

 http://www.wrx.zen.co.uk/alltnews.htm

And  ....the London daily freebie... http://metro.co.uk/


Valerie

NOT a Lazy Sunday afternoon...Tennis Memories

Some of my friends and readers have learned something new about me....my being a great tennis fan. Yesterday I set off a lengthy debate on Facebook with the following comment

:If you put two ants on a tennis court with rackets I would watch it ...I love tennis but I so wish certain lady players would shut up !!!...and play quietly....its whack...URRRGH !!! whack.....ARRRGH....whack...OOOOH !! whack ...GRRRH ...whack ....YOWOLL !!...please please shut up and play !!! I don't remember Martina and Billie Jean and Virginia making that racket ( I truly didn't intend that pun LOL !!!)....

In the end it was  Congratulations to Serena Williams winning  her second French Open title - 11 years after her first.

  photo credit: y.caradec via photopin cc

                                          

Well. OK, I don't like the groaning, yelling and grunting ...but since lots of good things have some price to pay its almost worth it for a good match !!!


I would never say that today's tennis players do not have talent , the number of matches that a top player wins is evidence that they do have talent and skill, but the days of elegant classy tennis are long gone. It is professional yes, but today's players are power machines. on legs This has been the downfall of many a more recent British player. We have of course British number 1's. Our hopes rose and fell and we kept faith through their era's with ..now let me see...Jeremy Bates,



Andrew Castle,   John Lloyd,   
 Buster Mottram,   ...
 and Mark  Cox 

Tim Henman...now he was something else and we really pinned our hopes on him but Pete Sampras, who seemed to me like a human tank on legs and the likes of  Lleyton Hewitt were too often in the way and proved his nemesis. by overpowering him. Our players have tended to be good...great even but not quite good enough, although they would have been perhaps, had they been playing at a different time against different players. ...
Now we have Andy Murray...who has at least proved he can win Grand Slams at the U.S open



During Jeremy Bates era , I was living not far from Wimbledon Tennis courts and two years running I indulged my tennis mania by going on the first two days of the tournament. On the first few days, all of the courts are in use, they have to be as there are so many matches to play, and you can buy a ticket which allows you to go to what they call the outside courts, ie not the major courts. Because it is early in the tournament, even on these outside courts you get to see major players For years I kept my programme signed by Jeremy Bates and  Jo Durie and Betty Stove and can claim to have spoken to the very proud mum , who was sitting behind me ....of a very young Venus and Serena Williams . Of course I had strawberries and Pimms.because its part of going to Wimbledon , although I'm sure that to this day Wimbledon serves the most expensive tiny pot of strawberries ever !!..But is is very special and somehow at Wimbledon when you are a tennis fan  the strawberries taste different !!!...You are eating them in hallowed ground...

photo credit: jay galvin via photopin cc

                                                   


After two years of staying in a seat all day  on a tennis court because if you left it  you wouldn't find another, I realised that actually you get to see more tennis at home on the telly because you cannot leave your seat and see what's going on  on other courts unless you want to risk standing up !! I got very bad sunburn and after that decided to stay home.....sitting on my balcony with the wind in the right direction I could hear the cheers and claps from the courts up the road.

photo credit: ReeSaunders via photopin cc

                                      

Carine06 via photopin cc

                                        
Of course mention has to be made of the  great women players who have dominated British tennis ...Anne Jones Winner of Wimbledon in 1969.



We have already had a mention of  Jo Durie so here she is in action against...a very young Steffi Graf



Last but not least I cannot pay tribute to the greats of British tennis without of course Virginia Wade. Virginia won Wimbledon in 1977. H.M. The Queen does not usually attend Wimbledon but it was her silver jubilee year and there was the prospect of a British winner as Virginia was playing the Dutch Betty Stove....Virginia won, the British fans went mad with joy and pride and so it appeared did Virginia ....



According to Virginia Wade we used to think that there was a British winner every eight years'.
Since Virginia was the last British winner  of this home grown tournament we would be extremely happy with every eight years !!! I truly believe that Andy Murray has the ability and power to do it, he is a superb athlete which helps the modern game, and he proved his ability at the US Open. However, he is unfortunate to play in the era of Rafael  Nadal and  Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.....

It has long been a similar story for British tennis. Each  time we have a good player they come up against the greats of tennis...Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe......indeed of these human machines 'You cannot be serious !!'




Also in the list of greats are Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase..nasty but nice ...and Bjorn Borg
I'm sure I must have left some out....

Our lady players fared no better for many years they were outplayed by such greats as Steffi Graf,
Chris Evert,    and Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Martina Navratilova ...... and of course the great  Billie Jean King....lets see some action,,,





Of course so many of these famous tennis greats were starts of my childhood and teenage years and I still smile fondly at memories of rushing home from school to turn on the telly and watch tennis all by myself in peace before my mum and dad got home from work and it was the heavy business of a weekday evening...dinner, homework and bed.

.It does seem possible with the early promise shown by players Laura Robson and Heather Watson British w omens  tennis may be having a revival, indeed along with Andy Murray British tennis has probably not been in such a good place for many years.Quite likely this is because the importance of  early good training when potential is spotted is being given more attention.

However, I could never write an article about my love of tennis without giving acknowledgement and respect to the late Arthur Ashe





Finally to ends lets have a walk through Wimbledon's history....

Something for the weekend...fit for the job

photo credit: MotiveWeight via photopin cc

                                            



I have on several occasions written about the psychological effects of being unemployed. Debt resulting from a lowered income has a big impact on your mental and physical health as also does pressure from the job centre and other relevant government programmes to make you look for jobs that are hard to find, while threatening you with benefit sanctions. Unemployment can only too easily result, scary as it is of living in the official definition of poverty with its resulting isolation, depression, anxiety and ill health. However,it is never more important to try to remain mentally and physically fit than when you are looking for a job, for one thing job seeking is stressful and hard work  and also if you get an interview, appearances count.

Good health shows that you care for yourself and this gives an employer the feeling that you will care about your work.

Get the day off to a good start and  be sure to have breakfast. It is not a myth that it sets you up for the day and a good breakfast can help to stop mid morning munchies when you reach for the biscuit tin

Try in spite of and to help your anxieties to get enough and regular sleep. Few things are as stressful as job hunting and money problems and sleep is very important for your health and blood pressure. Also, it is good to try to keep in the same time routine as you had when you were working. This will make it easier to adjust to getting up and going to work again if you get a job . Whatever they say about job hunting or self employment being opportunities to stay in your pyjamas all day it doesn't do much for your moral. Keep a routine, go to bed, get up...get dressed.

Take time to make dinner and eat properly. Its tempting when up to your eyes in job applications to rely on ready meals you can put in the microwave. Buy a chicken for Sunday dinner  or vegetarian alternative like a nut roast and you have a healthy meal for at least two days...cheaper and much better for you.Eat oily fish which is good for your heart, fresh oily fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, pilchards, herring and kipper are still reasonably priced at my local supermarket and stay hydrated by drinking water, its good for your skin too and free !!! , also read up on the increasingly documented benefits of tea

Go for a walk...its free exercise and sitting in front of a computer all day and not having your usual activity at work can easily lead to an unhealthy weight gain,which in turn leads to other health risks like high blood pressure. Also weight gain will affect the clothes you can wear and the image you give at an interview. if you are lucky enough to be enjoying the sunshine then don't sit indoors..sun is vital for our levels of vitamin D, which is important for bone health. I have spent so long indoors with no money to go out and looking for a job or trying to make money that my own levels of vitamin D are seriously low and this may well be responsible for my tendency to falls and serious fractures when I do. low levels of vitamin D are now thought also to have an effect on other aspects of our health such as heart disease and risks of multiple sclerosis.

If you smoke and drink too much...then stop !! It isn't easy when you are stressed, but not only will it improvee your health but of course help you to save money.

Valerie

Finding your way...job hunting and over 50 ?

Finding your way through the maze of job hunting and making a living when you are older is quite a daunting task but there is a lot of help and advice out there to help you to navigate and explore options.

Know what your skills and experience base is .There are some good self assessment tools on the internet
although the people closest to you will often surprise you knowing skills you do not realise you have. I helped a neighbour looking for her first job after raising her children to identify her skills for putting on her CV, she was a mum who home schooled her daughter who had a school phobia and coped with an alcoholic husband.We looked at the skills a housewife has.

Consider doing some voluntary work  to update or  get new skills and build up evidence of experience via freelance work. You may be good at web design, telesales etc but not have a history of career experience and freelancing is a good way to build up experience

if you are still holding out on using social media ...then don't !! you need to get with it because social media is where it's happening.Some say that LinkedIn will replace the CV Others are not so sure about that but certainly  many employers seeing your CV  look you up on the web. Do however, be careful to protect your internet image....Take charge of your online reputation

A very different place...job hunting over 50

Quite a few older people job hunting today might not have done so for several years. They may well feel that they are finding the world of job hunting a very different place from when they last did so.

In the area where I live, Mitcham South West London , older people talk of days when they could walk out of one factory if they didn't like the job or lost it and get another job the same afternoon. In its history Mitcham provided employment in industries as diverse as market gardening, the lavender industry, sweet making and fireworks. Sadly, other than a few old family businesses which still hint at our history such as Webbs the shoe shop, and Strowgers hardware shop, both old Mitcham businesses, little evidence remains of this industrial heyday.

 

                      Webbs shoe shop can just be seen on the far corner

                             photo credit: satguru via photopin cc

 

More and more companies, especially the small ones said to be more likely to employ older people, are moving away from employing staff on a full time employed basis with all the perks that go with it ..a contract, regular salary, pension etc. and are using the services of freelancers advertising themselves and their services on freelance job boards such as peopleperhour. People needing work now have to be prepared to consider having a portfolio of jobs rather than the one job, or a combination of part time jobs.. There is no doubt that it can be an exhausting prospect for the older person with health problems whom the government have forced to get a job at threat of benefit removal. The advantage of freelance work is that it can often be carried out from home ….but don't think of it as an easy option.

Getting  a full time job that will pay your bills, and not leave you being underemployed, instead of unemployed is not easy and especially if you have the government threatening to stop your benefits which is your only income, you may not be in a position to be fussy and you have to take what you can get..

Freelancing is far from unusual now and everyone has some skills that they can make use of, not just office related skills..people are earning money from all kinds of opportunities from baking cup cakes to walking dogs. as well as online opportunities

Valerie