By: PrimeCB
I’m sure many PrimeCB’ers are taking a look at the site and checking out all of our articles and resources because you’re considering changing career tracks, or planning for the next few years of your career.
Here’s an interesting article about this trend. The article talks about workers who have changed career tracks in their 40s and 50s. These weren’t minor changes; one worker became a licensed cosmetologist, while another got a nursing degree (not an easy feat).
If you’re considering a change, there’s several questions you should answer before you make the leap.
One important question is what kind of job you’d like to have. CareerPath.com can help you get an idea of the kind of jobs that will really speak to you.
Another question is whether you have the skill set you need, or whether your new job will require additional training. Are you willing to invest time and money into additional college courses or training? You can research various schools at DegreeDriven.com. There’s also additional practical training being offered at CBInstitute.com.
The realization of your long-term career goal is likely to be sweet and rewarding. But you may have to deal with some challenges along the way. If you’re entering a new field, you may have to assume an entry-level position and take a pay cut in order to get your foot in the door.
Make sure as you ponder this career change that you draw from your professional network of contacts. if you don’t have one, be sure to start a profile on BrightFuse to connect with other professionals. Those contacts will provide you with an honest and objective perspective about your potential new career path.
Why experienced workers are valuable
By: PrimeCB
I was reading a recent article about a keynote speaker who talked to her local chamber of commerce about the benefits of experienced workers.
According to a recent AARP study, only 19 percent of companies nationwide have a plan in place to retain those employees.
The speaker (Sandra Mol) said that older workers bring these skills and traits to the table:
- Experience
- Loyalty
- Attention to task
- Perseverance
- Work ethic and work habits
- Emotional maturity
For more details, check out the article here.
Generation gap: Working with younger workers
By: PrimeCB
Susan Peppercorn is a writer and the creative force behind Career Outside the Cube, a career advisory service. She worked for several years at Boston University’s School of Management with younger colleagues.
Susan has some ideas and tips for working with younger workers, and building relationships with them.
Be a mentor - Many of us had worked for one company for many years, and expected our loyalty to be rewarded. But Generation X/Y employees don’t share the same expectations. Offer to help a younger employee learn the ropes, and offer counsel if they are ready to make a move up or out of the organization.
In two cases, I helped coach younger employees for new job interviews. Both received the job offers, which happened to be outside of organization. I also kept the fact that I was helping them strictly confidential. Although we no longer work with each other, I remain in touch with both of them.
Find a reverse mentor: I asked a younger employee to teach me about social networking sites. Since I was responsible for building recruiting relationships between employers and the School, using social networking became an invaluable tool for me, and helped me build mutual respect with this individual.
Update your image: A touchy subject, but an important one. Some older employees often don’t realize that they’re still sporting styles from the 1980’s. It makes for a negative perception among younger employees, who tend to be more style conscious.
This may apply more to women then men, but I’ve also seen older men wearing “Steve Urkel” glasses or wearing outdated office attire. Be sure your wardrobe and appearance is up to date.
I also shared shopping tips with the Millennials in my office. This signaled my flexibility and willingness to collaborate.
Show Compassion: Although not technically a colleague, I worked with an MBA student from India whose father died while she was at school, leaving her an orphan. Because of our age differences, I was able to help her through the crisis, end even attended her graduation.
Just as we expect respect from our co-workers, we need to respect them and where they’re at on their career path.
By: PrimeCB
We’re talking to PrimeCB readers and experienced workers who are telling us their perspectives about the workplace, and what experiences they’re having on the “front lines.”
Today, we’re hearing from Sylvia Seger. Sylvia is 59 years old and is a retired elementary school teacher and school counselor. She often worked with younger teachers in those roles.
She’s now working part-time at a theme park, where many of her co-workers during the park’s operating season are high school and college students.
Here’s what Sylvia told us.
In terms of working together, what has your experience with younger co-workers been?
I think most of my experiences of working with younger co-workers have been positive.
When I was an elementary school counselor I worked with teachers who were young enough to have been my children. I appreciated their enthusiasm and energy. They were still new enough in the profession to be excited about teaching kids and still believed that they could change the world – or at least the lives of their students.
I worked with high school and college kids the past three summers. Again, I appreciated their energy and ability to work long days in the heat, which I can no longer do. Their innocence in dealing with some customers was also interesting.
Has there been a substantial difference in how you use technology vs. how younger co-workers use it?
The differences include:
- They are aware of how to use some of the basic software in more ways than I.
- They are faster typists and can use the numeric keypad faster than I.
- We have touch screens in our department where I work in the summer – I am so used to using the mouse; so that continues to be easier for me. The younger folks all use the touch screens as much as possible.
- They seem to learn new computer techniques and programs faster than I. Once during my first summer job a younger supervisor was trying to show me a new process. She quickly touched the screen in various places and went through the steps very quickly. The first time she did that, I let her go and figured it out on my own when she left. The next time she did that I told her that I don’t learn as quickly as I used to. I explained that I needed for her to tell me what to do and let me do it so I could learn the process by doing it.
What are some of the other differences between the generations?
They are much more educated in technology and equipment. I don’t know all the latest kinds of phones and iPods. I also am behind them on the newest vocabulary that’s connected with these technologies.
Often at my summer job I have used phrases such as “that sounds like a Peyton Place” or “here’s a new country heard from.” Young workers have no idea what I am talking about. I forget how old I am and how long it’s been since some of my language was first developed.
One of the older teachers at school once talked about her days as a “car hop”; one of the young teachers asked what the heck that was – she had no idea.
How would you compare the role you play in your workplace now to the role(s) you’ve had earlier in your career?
When I left the education field I was the head of my department and helped to train and lead the younger staff.
After I retired from education and started my summer job, it was difficult being out of my comfort zone and having to learn so many new things. And it was strange to be learning many of the skills from those young enough to be my children. After two years in my summer job, I again worked myself up to a position of helping to train others in our department, though.
Now in my current job I am in an assistant’s position (which I love and want to be) and the younger staff are teaching me. I so am grateful that they are so knowledgeable and willing to help me.
By: PrimeCB
This is an interesting article that points out a new trend for experienced workers. It appears that for Prime workers who want to switch careers, and retired workers who want to get into an “encore” career, working for nonprofit companies or in fields where helping people is key is in demand.
According to this survey, those companies are also identifying experienced Prime workers as ideal candidates for those jobs, and are actively recruiting them.
Ironically, this is an interest that Prime workers share with the Generation Y or “millennial” demographic. As this study shows, they’re also looking for a chance to work in more meaningful careers!
By: PrimeCB
Ellen Muraskin is a senior writer at Comunicano PR.
She’s been writing on telecom and IT topics since the early 1990s, and worked at several magazines including Electronic Design and Computer Telephony Magazine.
Ellen shares her thoughts about working in her “virtual office,” where there’s an age difference between her and most of her co-workers.
When I joined Comunicano PR two years ago, I quickly and happily settled into my role as one of the senior writers and technical village elder.
It’s a complicated industry, full of cryptic abbreviations and layers of tech that have been confounding reporters and marketers alike for many years. So my greatest kick around here is helping out (and winning the undying gratitude of) the twenty-somethings who need to know (and don’t want to bother the boss) about who competes with who, or what works with what, or doesn’t, and why.
These hard-working young women will give me a long list of conference speaker topics, and another long list of clients, and ask me to help match A to B.
They then jump on their virtual pile of conference and award applications, getting clients highly prized opportunities to address key audiences with market trends and product introductions or to be bestowed a “best of….” title.
Their thank-yous are profuse and, I think, heartfelt, even though this is my job just as much as winning spots and awards for clients and coordination is theirs.
Because my “village” is virtual – we all work from widely scattered zip codes, passing work products from hand to hand over broadband — I have all the advantages of experience with none of the drawbacks of age.
I’m not the only grey eminence. Telecom’s dot-bomb years ago let loose quite a few highly placed people from major industry players, several of whom now work with media from the other side of the fence. But I’m the one who most likes to teach, and perhaps the one who the young feel safest asking.
With slightly less-junior staff, on conference calls with clients, I send simultaneous interpretation through instant messaging whenever terms or acronyms are used that I suspect they don’t know. They send back appreciative emoticons. This makes me feel… let’s say, venerated.
Then there are those rare occasions, at conferences that Comunicano writing staff attend, when we are physically together. On those days I surely I feel the earth’s gravitational pull return, firmly and not-too-gently reminded, by their high-heels, their smooth skin, their energy and their quick texting thumbs, that they’re the same age as my eldest daughter.
Then I can only marvel in the press room at how they multiplex inputs and outputs, craning their necks into smartphones while they pull briefing pages out of their laptops, ID editors and reporters from a page of mug-shot jpegs, introduce clients to analysts and change flights, seemingly all at once.
Of course I pack a laptop too. And I might have four programs open at once. But my mobile phone is dumb. Like my phone, I tend to do one thing at a time – at most, two. (This means I can chew gum while watching and listening to Powerpoint presentations.)
By: PrimeCB
Embracing opportunities for fun and innovation is a great idea for workers of all ages. Check out this post about a new book that encourages PrimeCB readers to do just that.
Writer Kevin Carroll has written a series of books that approach work in a unique way.
His ”Red Rubber Ball” series have addressed professional development and workplace issues over the span of all three books.
The first two books, Rules of the Red Rubber Ball and What’s Your Red Rubber Ball? discussed Carroll’s own professional path, as well as ways to identify your own path.
His new book, The Red Rubber Ball at Work, profiles a number of people, from tech gurus and business experts to actors like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and writers like Paulo Coehlo and captures their ideas about play and imagination, and how those translate into personal and professional innovation.
The book outlines 5 major areas of focus in the workplace – innovation, results, teamwork, leadership and curiosity.
In addition to the testimonials of the people profiled, Carroll’s book also features action plans where the reader can implement these ideas in their own lives.
Kevin Carroll’s blog can be found here.
By: PrimeCB
I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely getting the holiday spirit. It’s getting dark earlier, the stores all have holiday displays up, and I even saw flakes of snow this week.
This is also the time of year where many workers, including our PrimeCB job seekers, are looking for a seasonal second job for the holidays. In seasons past, they might have looked for a retail gig that would give them a fantastic discount, or any part-time job or temporary job that would yield a little extra holiday cash.
But a recent poll by staffing firm Express Employment Professionals found that more people are looking for a second job to make ends meet than any other factor. This is a clear sign of the impact that the economic downtown has had on all of us.
The web-based poll asked: “Are you looking for a second job?” Here’s what the poll of over 1,400 readers revealed:
- 42% said they were looking for a second job to make ends meet.
- 26% of respondents said they are currently unemployed and seeking a position.
- 18% said they are looking for a second job to get their foot in the door at a new company.
- Only 4% responded they are not looking for a second job because their finances are fine.
CareerBuilder.com features a number of part-time, temporary and seasonal jobs in our enormous database of available jobs. If you’re interested in retail, either as a part-time job or as a possible career, you can also check out WorkInRetail.com for opportunities in your area.
By: PrimeCB
Susan Peppercorn talked to us a few weeks ago, and she’s back to share more of her insights with us.
Susan is a writer and the creative force behind Career Outside the Cube, a career advisory service. She worked for several years at Boston University’s School of Management.
This week, Susan’s talking about making those tricky midstream career changes.
During the past ten years, beginning at the age of 45, I made three career changes.
In 1998, after a successful sixteen-year career in sales and marketing with the major technology vendor, Digital Equipment Corporation, the company was acquired, and my job was eliminated. Feeling burned out, I decided that I did not want to look for a job in the same industry, and turned my sights to higher education. My primary motivation at the time was to have an improved work-life balance.
I networked with friends and contacts that worked for universities, and eventually heard of an opening at Babson College, a local business college that had a highly regarded executive education program, and was looking for someone to develop new business. I interviewed and was offered the position.
I loved the job, but after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the job required increasing amounts of travel, which created a conflict with my personal goal of work-life balance and the requirements of the job. After much soul-searching, I decided to leave the position after two years.
Through another networking contact, I learned of a position at the career center at Boston University School of Management, which also required business-development skills. The dean of the career center was looking for someone to develop recruiting relationships with employers to create more job opportunities for students. Thus, my second career change was launched.
While at Boston University, I coached students to prepare and interview for job opportunities. Then, the light bulb went on! I discovered that I loved coaching and wanted to devote my time to it. This experience led to my latest career change; the creation of my own career coaching and writing practice. I am still in the process of making this vision a reality, but am excited and believe that I am on the right path.
- One underlying reason that enabled me to make these transitions was an understanding of my transferable skills, in this case business development and marketing, and the ability to communicate how my skills could benefit a new employer.
- Networking was another key component. Through networking, I researched the requirements of positions before I applied and could tailor my approach based upon the organizations’ needs.
- Finally, my successful career changes were related to my strong interest in the positions I was applying for.
Based on my experience, I recommend that mid-life career changers not underestimate the power of passion for a role, company, product or service in tipping the scales their way.
Career transitions: Your experiences
By: PrimeCB
A few weeks ago, we talked to some experienced workers and asked them about mid-career transitions – from one job to another, or one career to another.
Here are some of their comments:
Sue Chehrenegar: I used to pursue a career in biomedical research. In March of 2003, I retired early.
My first day at home, I sat at my computer and looked for ways to display my writing skills. I had done a good deal of writing while in graduate school. I had also edited a newsletter for three different organizations, and I had conducted public relations outreach work for a faith group in my own town.
After more than a year of writing things “for free,” I got a job writing for my local newspaper. I also managed to get some ghostwriting jobs, positions that had me writing web content. In addition, I took a course on writing for children. I had two articles accepted by Boys Quest Magazine. I also had a short story that I wrote accepted for inclusion in an anthology.
Linda Tancs: After 22 years in the legal field in a career that ran the gamut from paralegal to partner, I made a radical career shift to brand strategist and coach.
On the branding side, I am leveraging several years’ experience in the field of trademark law to help business owners identify, manage and promote their brand identity. On the coaching side, I am using my own personal experiences to support others in career transition and entrepreneurship. I also have a specialty coaching practice devoted to legal professionals.
Tom Ingrassia: In 2001, I chucked a successful, 25-year career in higher education administration (I was assistant dean at a university business school at the time) to pursue my lifelong dream of working in the entertainment industry. The world-wide chaos following the terrorist attacks should have dashed my dreams to dust. But I persevered, seizing opportunities and making them my own.
Today, I run a successful artist management agency, Ingrassia Artist Management, representing an international roster of 15 eclectic performers, ranging from classical and jazz artists, to an actor, a children’s edu-tainment act, and a writer.
Along the way, I have had the opportunity to work for and with some of the legendary performers from the 1960s–including Mary Wilson of The Supremes (who gave me my start in the business, and for whom I worked for 4 years); Arlene Smith of The Chantels; Barbara Alston of The Crystals (whose autobiography I ghost wrote); June Monteiro of The Toys; Carl Gardner of The Coasters (whose autobiography I edited)–the very people I grew up listening to and idolizing. I am living, breathing proof that dreams DO come true. And I have never looked back!