Going in Circles in my Job Search

Wow! this is frustrating. All of my passions seem geared to being self-employed and independent. So I think, read, and think some more. Every time I read about a job opening in the field of health and wellness, even jobs that seem to be what I am looking for, have this heavy feeling about it, rather than a feeling of goodness. There is just something about job searching at age 59 that just doesn't feel good. I have a friend who is 60. Even though he has a master's degree, he too is looking for employment. He found a part-time job as a census taker and has ended up with so few assignments, he is hardly making anything. Another man I know is retired at 61, barely surviving. He writes, "no one wants to hire an old man." He too has a college education but was forced into early retirement at age 59.

We seniors all read in job descriptions that a company does not discriminate in regard to age, but we do not believe it. How are there so many college educated seniors who can't find work if their age doesn't matter. Plus, we are seniors who do not qualify for social security yet. As the old saying goes, "We're between a rock and a hard place."

Emma Faye
My job search diary

Wellness jobs clear across the country

When searching for jobs today, I did find a few jobs related to wellness. The problem is they are part-time or as-needed position that are clear across the country from me. One part-time job was in Kansas and a PRN (as-needed) job was in Washington D.C. I am okay with moving to another state, but I certainly can't afford to move across the country for a part-time job that allows 10 - 15 hours a week. Absolutely nothing is coming up in cities that are near me. For that matter, I can find nothing available that fits my qualifications in the entire state of Florida. This is getting ridiculous.

Emma Faye
My job search diary

Wellness Specialist for a corporate employee wellness program

I received an email from Indeed.com today with links to numerous available jobs. The search words that I use are health and wellness. There is a lot of stuff that seems to fall under those words. One of the jobs was for a kick-boxing instructor. Well, I don't kick-box, so obviously I can't apply for that. My master's degree is in Psychology of Health & Wellness, not kick-boxing. Another job was for a bi-lingual health coach that is also an RN. Well, I am not an RN, so I don't qualify for that. However, there were a couple of jobs that I did have the education for. One was for a wellness specialist in a corporate wellness program. So I uploaded my resume and cover letter and proceeded to fill in the online application. I did receive an email confirmation that they had received my application.

I keep thinking if I do enough of these, something will open up for me. In the mean time, I continue to write and work on small projects that bring in a small income.

Emma Faye
My job search diary

Job application at a grocery store chain - My job search diary.

Today I came across a job for a "wellness associate" for a rather large grocery store chain. This seemed to be a real wellness job working with employees, not a sales person selling vitamins. So I decided to fill in the long online job application. The job application took "forever" to complete, or so it seemed. It must have taken me 2 hours to complete the application, even with my resume uploaded. Half way through the application, it asked, "Are you willing to work 45 - 55 hours per week? What, as a wellness associate? Well, of course I put "yes." Then question by question went by and I felt rather competent for the job. Then I came across questions about my computer skills. In general my computer skills are quite good. But then they asked a question about my experience with a program I had never even heard of. Well, that didn't seem too good. I have full confidence that I can learn a new program, but there was no place for comments, so I could not add any reassurance of my abilities to learn. I had no choice but to put that I was at a 0 in regards to competency in my skill level for that unfamiliar program. That was frustrating. The question came near the end of the 2 hours I had spent filling in the application. That probably knocked me out of the running. So far, I have heard nothing, zip, not-ta from the company. I tried to go backwards in the application to find a place where I could state something to the fact that I was capable of learning any new computer program not yet learned, but no where to be seen was a place to go back and edit any of my previous comments.

That was a bit disappointing, because it was actually a fairly good paying job, and I believe I would have been capable of doing a good job, with a bit of training in my weak areas.

Oh well, the job search goes on.

Emma Faye
My job search diary.

Health & Wellness Jobs vs. Medical & Nursing Jobs

My background and education is in Health Promotion and Wellness. I have signed up for so many email alerts for jobs in health & wellness. So I click on the link and it takes me to a medical job for nurses. Now I purposely did not go into nursing. I did not want medical; I wanted to focus on health promotion and illness prevention and wellness. It is interesting to see who advertises for wellness jobs and what they mean. A hospital or skilled nursing facility wants a wellness coordinator to be an RN. A worksite wellness organization wants a certified health educator and maybe someone who is trained in fitness. A couple of the job sites that have been a little bit helpful has been www.indeed.com  and simplyhired.com. I will post more as I find them helpful.

My Job Search Diary
Emma Faye 

Blog Post #1

This is the first post for my new blog, as I journal my quest for employment. My biggest problem? I am a senior; I am 59 and self-employed (without enough work). So who wants to hire a woman who is 59 (almost 60) who has spent most of her life as a stay-at-home mom and a self-employed mom. I am educated; I have a graduate degree, but somehow that doesn't seem to help when I am one of many applying for the same job. This last year has been a frustrating year, to say the least. What am I looking for? What do I want? Where do I even want to live? On top of that, I got injured a few months ago and am still recovering. I don't qualify for disability. I have no retirement (because being a stay-at-home-mom does not add to a retirement fund). So I am competing with all of you younger adults for jobs that demand high energy and ambition. What a ride we are having.

Emma Faye