To feel over the hill at 48?

[Unemfuckingployable]

I used to have a career. Now, after five years out, acquiring a higher degree, I can't even get interviews. Somewhere I took a wrong turning and now I can't find a way back to a place where I can make use of my talents. All I can see now is forty years of domestic administration and financial dependency, leading inexorably to poverty and decline.
Every rejection lessens my confidence and makes it harder for me to get back on the horse; but only by getting back on the horse can I have any hope of a future that consists of more than dragging myself through each day.
What is the answer?

That sounds bleak. Surely there is something out there. Is voluntaring a route to making contacts and then jobs. Does your alumni have a careers office. They do have a duty to advise and help. I really don't know but wanted to respond as I am a similar age, though employed. Still feel, is that all there is my friend and all that.

When did you stop having a career?

Career imploded five years ago.
I don't think an alumni office would help me as my situation is too unusual. Nor is vokunteering really an option.
There are so few jobs in my field and they all go to people twenty years younger than me despite their vastly inferior skills.

I feel over the hill and I'm in my twenties. Can't seem to get a career off the ground and the longer it goes on, I'm not even sure what I want to do anymore,plus I get more and more anxious about my capabilities. I'm on shit money too. People say "ooh retrain" but with what money? I have an English degree from an RG university and although I enjoyed doing it, it's not worth the paper it's written on. My student finance quota has been used up and we have no money for retraining. I'm going to be stuck in a badly paid, fairly mediocre job forever. I know I can do better, but I need a chance first

What kind of job did you leave & what kind of job are you applying for now?

After 8 yrs out, I went back at bottom of ladder but quickly moved up. I didn't expect to go back where I was before.

I don't want to out myself but I was in a senior management role. I have gone to the bottom of a related ladder but my experience is seen not as an advantage but as evidence of past-it-ness.

Then you just need a foot in the door to show how great you are.
Bit of networking might be helpful, Linked In type connections.

Do you really want to get into the (new) Related area?
Maybe your cover letter needs to express more enthusiasm about why you want to get into this area (not go back to the old area) & what skills you will bring.

Are you rejected after applying or after an interview?
You are definitely not past it.

Is why your career imploded relevant?

No wonder you feel fed up.

In my previous career I had got myself into an unsustainable situation. It certainly massively dented my confidence and makes it very difficult for me to do the networking that probably would help me now. And the networking is hard because I don't fit in anywhere - I seem old and strange to the young ones starting out, and negligible to the established ones.
In the field, there are routinely hundreds of applicants for every post, and I don't think the first cut looks beyond my date of birth.

I wonder if you need a complete change - and colunteering might be the route to that. Boosting your confidence is the major priority here, and by attempting to do the same thing whilst you are so bruised may make you feel worse

This is not to say that you won't ever go back to what you did before but maybe not now

IME confidence building is a combination of just doing and maybe some Careers/Life Coach-type counselling,

It is also horrible to realise that there are real reasons why people are not even giving you a chance, beyond your own confidence issues

volunteering

Also

Think about whether your idea of who you are is very wedded to the status of your job.

You could try applying for jobs but leaving anything which gives your age off it and see how that goes. Good luck.

The workplace is very ageist especially if you are trying to get a new job and even more so if you have taken some time out.

In my game you are old by 40 and by 50 employers are looking at ways of getting you out even if that means paying you off. How we are all supposed to work till 69 or whatever I don't know.

I agree that experience is not valued.

You can either keep trying or widen your options by applying outside your field.

There's no need to put your dob in cv's; if you are it's not only announcing your age but that you're not up to date with current practice and law.

In my profession you don't apply with a cv. You have to fill in a generic form and accompanying application letter.

Date of birth came off CVs when age discrimination came in - though in my case that makes me look older as I graduated at 19!

Honestly, keep going, you'll find the right place. Took me a year of rejections to get a job, and I only got interviews in that last month. I'd changed career completely, and looked too 'clever'. The job I got though was for an organisation I volunteered at, and a friend there helped me prepare for interview - was familiar with the sorts of questions they would ask. Would not have got it without her help.

4 years on, my pay is back to what I got in 2004 😳.

Would you be able to work on a consultancy basis i.e. Offering your experience to employers for defined periods of time or specific projects?

I can so relate to this. Did the rounds of graduate school applications - did so well (HD average, internship in a big company, etc) I got up to partner/manager interviews. That's where the fun stopped.

There is something out there for you, 48 is NOT over the hill. It is dishearteneing, we moved, (gave my notice in to retire from permanent job although I was going to work pt locally) 5 days later DH came home told me his company had liquidatd there and then) he was in his mid 50s, had a breakdown, applied for over 50 jobs, lots of people told him he would never work again "at HIS age", I had to rescind my notice, do almost 100 mile round trip for the next 4 years. He did eventually get a job, exactly the same place he was before (taken over by new company) he hasnt had a pay rise for 7 years now, is earning the same as when I met him 30 years ago, (he is highly qualified in his field)

It's hard to advise you because you are being a bit obtuse over why you left your previous job.In my previous career I had got myself into an unsustainable situation. If it was incompetence - what does imploded mean?- then where are you for references etc? If you want advise here, you need to be more open about what went on.

I think you need to take a big step back and maybe invest in something like career coaching. (choose carefully.) You seem stuck because you are thinking only of going back to what you did before, even though you say it's a young person's market and there are few jobs in that type of work.

I think you really need to think about what you want from a job, your core values, what makes you tick and which other sort of work might fulfil those needs. It might mean re-training and considering something different.

48 is young. I added new skills, new direction to my CV at 50, and again at 55. I am self employed and it works for me. Stop thinking you can only do the work you did before- what do you want from work and how can you find that?

Your career = self worth, try and get away from this way of thinking, there's more to life than that for sure.

I don't think the first cut looks beyond my date of birth.

That's illegal... to discriminate by age is illegal. And anyway, why would you put your DoB on the application?

I don't put my date of birth on my CV but my age is pretty obvious from my employment history.
In my last job, I was in pretty constant conflict with my boss who was nonetheless actively supporting my applications for extremely high-profile promotions. This did my head in - was he being utterly cynical or was I being over-sensitive in reading the conflict personally? Eventually he revealed his hand by threatening me with disciplinary proceedings and then demanding my resignation when it became clear that there were no grounds for disciplinary action. Fortunately I had excellent legal representation and a strong case.
It was all, however, extremely soul-destroying and, five years in, I find it difficult
to feel any self-confidence or self-worth.

I get the confidence thing. It's really hard after a break. I worked as a dinner lady (supply!!) for 7 months to get my confidence back.

Do you need to juggle childcare before you can get work?
I ask because if not, you could register as an office temp. Just to get used to knowing you CAN do work & back into office routines; if you're good, they may ask to take you on permanently & in a large organisation there will be interesting career progression opportunities. Also, you can research carefully what kind of CV you need to write for your target industry. I now use a skills CV even though I'm in an industry where skills CV isn't usual... but that means it has novelty & stands out.

I am in industry where people being hired for junior positions at age 65 is completely normal, though, hence easy for me to be optimistic. Good luck. x