Redundant at 53 - what the heck now?

[Toastandmarmite999]

Hi,

I was made redundant just before Christmas.

I'd retrained in this job 3 years ago and it's taken these 3 years for it to become clear to both me and my employer that I just wasn't cut out for my new chosen career.

So I'm returning to what I know - admin/secretarial/office managerial - and I'm currently applying for so many jobs - it's exhausting.

I'm a lone parent - I have enough savings to keep us going until March, but I'm finding that I'm not even getting asked for interviews despite having a strong CV.

This has never happened before and I can only assume that it's because of my age. The last time I was in the job market was over 10 years ago (I was hired at my previous role through an internship whilst studying).

Are others my age here finding the same - do you have similar experiences? I've registered with 14 recruitment agencies, but nothing yet.

Admittedly it's early days and there's been Christmas and New Year to get through - but I'm already panicking and applying for jobs that will leave us out of pocket, or a commute which will mean leaving my DD before she leaves for school and not being there for when she gets back (I was WFH before which was ideal).

Please send me some rays of hope you silver beauts - any tips, any success stories. Thanks x

Try Civil Service Jobs website - covers Arms Length Bodies and Other Government Departments as well as Civil Service proper. Most are hybrid roles, and I'm pretty sure that they don't ask you your age in the application. Read up on how they recruit before you apply for anything - they have a "way" of doing things. They have lots of admin roles, a decent pension and usually decent holidays.

I also came on to say civil service.

Recruitment consultant friend says he tries his best with 'older' clients but sends them to the civil service quite quickly.

Have you tried changing your CV to make your age less apparent? No dob, no dates on school/uni qualifications, leave off older employment history.

Is there any issue to you being older eg are you IT literate and can say you're proficient in Word and Excel? If not find an online course, Udemy are good.

Obviously this is ridiculous, you've prob got 20 odd years til state retirement age and have experience younger people don't have.

I did this. Redundancy from civil service aged 52. Ageism is everywhere and they make it difficult to hide on your application as they want to know when you left school and when you took qualifications. Plus jobs that required o levels years ago now ask for a degree. I eventually found an admin role in the NHS for half the pay but zero responsibility and it worked out well.

On a positive note. We took on a 63 yo last year for an admin/ accounts office role.
Very impressed with her. She doesn’t get flustered or overwhelmed. Will do anything you ask. Great on the phone even if the person on the other end is shouting. Will find something to do if she finishes her own work, even if the only thing to do is the washing up. All that comes with experience.
Good Luck with your search.

I was going to suggest NHS for a job; short staffed for admin everywhere!

NHS organisations often take on temporary admin through their own internal recruitment agencies, this is called being ‘bank’ admin.

In my experience there is always a need for experienced bank admin and they do lead to permanent jobs. I worked with a colleague who had been band 3 admin for years and years and got promoted over time and became a band 7 (quite a senior manager) at 67!

I will say they don’t usually offer WFM though.

Local authority? Ours remove the information sheet of the application form so you have no personal details, including age and sex, when you shortlist.

Not of much help but I'd rather employ someone over 50 than a youngster (I employed a 50 year old 11 years ago - who is still with us). I hope you find something soon but it's certainly been quiet with the Christmas holidays. Good luck.

Last year has been very difficult. After the Trussterfuck, the market went dry, but it appears to be moving again now.

Make sure you are on LinkedIn, and make contact with the recruiter for any job you apply for. Any applications you send without doing this are likely to just disappear into the void.

Make sure your CV highlights your achievements, and why you made a difference. 95% of CV's I see look like a job description and don't tell me anything about what the candidate did, or why I should hire them. Remove as many words as you can to get to your point quickly. Unfortunately most applications will be initially evaluated by a younger person, and with the greatest respect to them, they don't read long sentences like our age group do.

If you would like to PM me, I can introduce you to some really good recruiters depending on what you do, and what industry you would like to work in.

Don't be restricted by your age. You have experience and that is gold no matter what anybody else tells you.

Lastly, it is a numbers game. Keep a record of the jobs you have applied for and which agency it was with. It is very easy to lose track as you will be making a lot of applications.

Don't panic, no one hires in late December/early January!

Good advice on this thread, NHS, civil service, education are all less prejudiced.

Get on LinkedIn and sell yourself.

53 is not at all old these days but you do have to demonstrate that you have kept up your IT skills.

Sign up for temp jobs to keep the money coming in. They can lead to perm roles and no-one cares about your age - what they care about is you're reliable and competent.

Just as an aside, I would become familiar with what you would be entitled to in terms of housing benefit, Unemployment allowances etc as you may be entitled to enough to keep you afloat after your savings drop past a certain point. Also, do you have a mortgage? Maybe look into how to arrange a mortgage holiday if you haven’t been paid by March, it can take a while to get your first months pay depending on when you start

(And this is really random but our local nurseries are all crying out for temp staff (I believe you can be unqualified) so that might be worth some phone calls, prob with a really quick start)

Sorry if this is obvious but have you added your date of birth or anything age related on your CV? Employers don't need to see these.

I think 14 agencies is WAY too many. Take a deep breath, concentrate on building a killer CV - remove you DOB and anything like exams that gives your age away, last 10 years of work history and that highlights your achievements

You're panicking and you won't made good decisions in that frame of mind. An effective job search needs focus, not a scattergun approach.

Definitely try the nhs bank. They are desperate for admin staff.Look up nhs professionals www.nhsprofessionals.nhs.uk/
Lots of them will lead to permanent roles.

Look at jobs that require an application form - the additional hurdle of completing the form significantly reduces the number of applications they get. Schools in particular have to use application forms and can't just accept a CV.

It's still very early days so don't panic. There will always be a recruitment lull in Dec/early Jan but it will pick up again in the next couple of weeks.

It’s tough this time of year and the economy isn’t great.

My advice is to apply for all roles including those which are remote. LinkedIn is great for listing remote roles and some are quite well paid.

How do they know you're 53?

Not being facetious, but do you have work dates going all the way to 1990? If so, remove.

Forget the recruiters and focus on LinkedIn.

You need short, sharp sentences in your resume. Use buzzwords that are used by the industry you want to work in.

You're at the top of your game, not the bottom!!

Also, when interviewing, don't mention you've been made redundant, say you need a career change.

Hmmmm really? I've applied for a few and despite 15 years of NHS experience I haven't had as much as an interview. Early fifties.

They say my experience isn't recent. Admittedly it's was a while ago but then I was self employed for 10 years.

I empathise OP.

OP, I was made redundant in 2015 from a large corporate, aged 52, and again after furlough, during Covid, aged 58. I was able to find new positions each time within a couple of months.

You have skills and long experience. You are a calm, mature, safe pair of hands in the middle of a national staffing shortage. That makes you a valuable commodity.

You've signed on with agencies. Have you refreshed your profile on LinkedIn and flagged yourself available for work? Have you contacted ex-colleagues and let them know you are looking?

Have you decided how you are going to describe your decision to move back to your old sector? You will need a prepared answer.

Write individual covering letters for every job application (don't use ChatGPT) and keep track of applications, and the agencies they are through.

I live near a small industrial estate, and I also took my cv into each company, purely speculatively, which got me another two interviews.

Good luck.

Sign up to a temp agency and they'll pass you short term roles, employers don't screen for agency in the same way and it likely is your age, a temp role may well become permanent if you do well and it'll pay the bills in the meantime.

Yes I found this, was made redundant at about the same age. I did get a job though. But previously when looking for a job I would get offered multiple interviews quite quickly, this time it was really hard.
You will get another job, but ageism is real. And they can work out you are older pretty easily.