Job seeking at 60+

Clueless56

I was made redundant in my mid-50s and sent my traditional CV to agencies and recruiters.  After a period of only receiving insulting 'we can offer you an office junior post' type contacts, I produced a skills based CV, which just concentrated on what I could do.  I also targeted age friendly employers such as local authorities, charities etc and this was successful.  I wish you luck, OP.

eamon

Update. I've got a new job, start next week.

I took onboard all your comments and decided that the best method for me was to target my CV and continually review/adjust it to best meet the advertised JD for the jobs that interested me. I decided that I would restrict my geographical area i.e. less than 25 miles and a journey time of less than 45 minutes (I do drive) but doable by public transport should my car be out of action. I wondered a lot if my choice was career suicide but decided to stick to my guns. Some years back I did a 120 mile daily commute but quickly realised that long term it wasn't sustainable both in time & fuel costs etc. Luckily they made me redundant before I quit.

So I suppose my message for other older people getting made redundant is don't give up if you can. It is tough out there and you will have many set backs. Getting your CV in top notch takes a lot of time & effort and you will have to revise/adjust it for almost every job that you apply for. Take the time to go through the JD's note all the key words/phrases and stick them into your CV. If it is an actual company advertising then research them. I don't think there is much joy in applying for a job that had you known more you would'nt have bothered. Thats one of the reasons that I'm not a fan of agencies that don't provide more details e.g. more precise location, what the employer actually does (they can do this and not reveal the name). That way you/me can make a more informed decision as to apply or not.

As it happens I only applied for 21 jobs. Not many but why waste your time & energy with  a scattergun approach when you can be more targetted with your job search. I will have looked carefully at dozens of other jobs and not applied for a variety of reasons e.g. too far away, the JD is garbage, salary is a joke, its an agency harvesting. I've even reported (though it appears to make no difference) one employer for continually posting a "Fake" job. Out of those I got 4 x interviews (3 rejections), 5  x rejections at application stage, 11 x No reply (equal split between agency & employer) and I have 1 remaining application and the closing date is tomorrow. Oh before I forget I've been mostly using Indeed and I think it has the best user interface.

Shirker_Bee

I changed jobs last year at 62. Piece of cake!

Probably helped that I have a few high security clearances. 

Just go for it!

tizerbelle

eamon said:

Update. I've got a new job, start next week.

Congratulations eamon!  

Shirker_Bee

eamon said:

Update. I've got a new job, start next week. 

Well done that man. 

TBagpuss

Congratulations on your new job! 

happyc84

nearly 60 - 4 years to go.
My brief job search history.

Jan 2022 left job - After 20 years.
Feb 2022 1st job offer Started in March 2022.
Left that job change to another one in Sept 2022. 
After 4 months left that one - They were dodgy.
Job search started in March 2023, New job in May 2023.

The skill is knowing which ones are legit .

Good luck