Are there any jobs for the over 50s?

NEWSTART_2

I have been out of work for a year since being made redundant from the civil service. I have done office based admin work for more than 30 years, not all in the civil service. I have been applying for similar jobs both in the private and public sector without success. I thought I would gain experience in a different field and started voluntary work in a charity shop in February but I have been rejected for retail jobs due to lack of experience. It has been suggested to me that I am just wasting my time as employers prefer younger candidates. I am 52 and although I don’t mention my age on applications or CV it is fairly easy to guess my age from my work history.

cmw1212

Employers are not allowed to discriminate on basis of age. Retail is tough at the moment as there are so many people looking for work, you are gaining some retail experience in the charity shop so that is a plus, which shops have you been unsucessful with?

NEWSTART_2

I have not seen any advertised vacancies for my local supermarket although they appear to have taken on a lot of young people and I know some have mums working at the store. I have been looking at the smaller local shops, some with petrol garages, and applying for the various shifts. I am single and don’t have any children so I can work whenever really

scooby088

How about asking friends that are in employment if they know of any vacancies, many of the jobs out there aren't advertised, maybe use social networking sites too. I didn't know about the job I just got until my OH told me about it and she got the info from one of her facebook friends.

Have you thought about doing something more than retail, you could try B&Q they do tend to employ various ages of people.

cmw1212

Most of the supermarkets only advertise online now, I know Sainsbury's are taking on loads of people for christmas you have to register and apply online though. I think Tesco and Asda are the same.

Caroline_a

Loads! It's not about age, it's about attitude. Waitrose takes a lot of over 60's on if we're talking retail, but in the admin sector I've been made redundant 3 times in the last 18 months and have been turning down jobs since I got this last one a few weeks ago!

PS I'm 58

gingerdad

Its not about age at all nearly all our staff are a similar age to you or older, just employed some one who's just turned 70. plenty of companies prefer older employees

TadleyBaggie

I was made redundant in 2010 at the age of 56, I'd been a software developer for 20 years or so. Didn't have much luck until I was became a little more realistic on salary expectations and the type of job role. After 9 months I was offered and accepted a software development team leader role (I'd actively avoided any form of management position up to that point) with a large multi-national. It was tough at first but now almost 2 years in I'm glad I was flexible.