Over 50 and just lost job

[geek84]

Hi Folks

I hope you're all well. A friend of mine (male) who is just over 50 years of age lost his job last month. He was working in an accounts department as a credit controller. He has about 15 years' experience of the job and has always done office work, - administration & credit control. He is now very upset and doesn't know what to do next, and wondering if anyone would employ him at his age.

He is now looking for other opportunities and needs to find a job/career that brings in a good wage which would cover his usually household bills and mortgage payments. He also has 2 young children attending secondary school.

Can someone be kind enough to advice the best course of action to take and whether he should keep in the same field of work (accounts) or retrain for something else?

Thank You.

There is a funded project called BBO which helps people get back into work through help job searching, interview skills, CV writing and various other help. It's free if he's unemployed. Look to see if there is a project in his area, I'm not sure they are everywhere but possibly in most places.

I have no advice but a friend has just got another job after being made redundant in his sixties.
Don't give up.

Would first off get his name down with employment agencies. 15 years of experience as a credit controller should not have trouble finding agency work and you never know where that may lead. Can also keep looking alongside that, but any agency work will pay the bills at least.

I second contacting specialised accounting agencies (eg HAYS, Robert Half) - they can help him with cv & interviews etc and they will be able to help with both permanent & temp roles. Indeed.co.uk also good for looking for new roles.

Charities often love people with this kind of experience and the bigger ones pay well. Worth looking into?

I think he might have heard too many horror stories. He must crack on with job hunting, not assume his age is an issue.

I've worked in credit for years and it isn't an ageist industry - my advice would be to remain in credit and get registered with agencies.

Good ones are Hays, Robert Half, Robert Walters and Page Personnel nationally.

He should upload his CV onto reed accountancy and Indeed UK and make it visible to recruiters. I was offered a new job from adding my CV to reed, and then being headhunted by an agency.

I run a large credit team and would happily check his CV.

Ensure he is on LinkedIn (it is often used by recruiters as a place to search for people). Also upload CV to fish4jobs, totaljobs, monster.

I don't think 50 is old in management finance roles. I'm in finance and almost 50 and I wouldn't be worried about having to find another role at my age. Experience and references would far outway any age concerns.

And yes, apart from my current role I've found all my jobs through agencies, actually Reed Accountancy for the 2 previous ones.

I'm 60 and I have been offered 2 jobs in the last year, though eventually I decided not to take either of them. I recruit in the course of my present job and there is no age discrimination. I do however think it is important not to refer to it or to say things that indicate it is on your mind. I was looking for someone to promote from working in the community into an office based post a couple of months back. I asked one applicant why the wanted to apply and the answer was that they had arthritic knees and needed an office based job! Not the successful applicant.

If in UK if he's been made redundant he can apply for contributions based job seekers allowance or universal credit, this will be paid for a certain time period or if he gets a job.