What do you do when the career you’ve spent decades building vanishes overnight and the job market isn’t receptive to your return? For Robert Poe, a 56-year-old onetime e-commerce director, the last 18 months have been a boot camp in resilience, reinvention, and reframing success. After dispatching over 1,000 résumés without finding full-time employment, he’s discovered harsh realities about ageism, the dysfunctional hiring process, and the psychological strain of long-term unemployment but also about the potency of persistence and purpose.
1. The Shock of Sudden Unemployment
Robert’s career began at IBM, and for years, he believed, as his brother once told him, “You’re always going to have a job.” That belief shattered when his last role, paying $120,000 a year, ended after his company was acquired and the new owners filed for bankruptcy. The transition was brutal: he and his wife sold their home, filed for bankruptcy, and downsized their lives. Based on recent polls, close to half of all older job hunters have been job hunting for more than a year, and just 21% are confident that they will find employment within six months.
2. Why the Job Search Feels Broken
Robert sends out two to five resumes per day, but far too often, recruiters disappear after some contact, or jobs are arbitrarily “placed on hold.” This ghosting is echoed in a larger phenomenon AARP says 74% of employees aged 50 and older feel that their age is a roadblock to employment. Nancy LeaMond of AARP explained to legislators, “Simply put, sidelining workers is a loss we cannot afford.” Yet insidious ageist signals, from “digital native” in help-wanted ads to inferences about computer skills, continue to taint hiring.
3. Experimenting with Gig Work and Its Limitations
Set on staying active, Robert attempted real estate and Amazon deliveries. The latter involved lengthy commutes and commission-only compensation; the former left him exhausted. “When the evening was over, I could not climb the stairs,” he remembers. Gigging can provide secondary income, but for most midlife professionals, it’s not feasible as a mainstay.
4. Entrepreneurship as a Lifelong
Robert started a digital marketing business, JBP Media Group, with an old friend. Early success is a few clients and offshore employee support, but at $200 per month per client, it takes a while to scale. He also wrote a book on the high yearly expenses some $60,000 per child confronted by families with special needs children, as a result of his twin sons. These activities keep his abilities current and his mind active even without the promise of immediate financial gain.
5. The Emotional Burden and How to Manage
Long-term unemployment can drain self-esteem. “I feel like a failure, right now,” Robert confesses. According to experts, job search burnout exists, with 72% of job candidates reporting it affects their mental health. Resilience research coping strategies include maintaining a stable daily routine, mindfulness practice, and acknowledging the small victories whether that’s a recruiter’s response or a successful networking call. As one guide suggests, ask yourself, “Is this thought helping or harming me?” to reframe negative cycles.
6. Reinventing in Midlife
For those contemplating a career change, professionals suggest beginning with a defined objective, followed by finding skill deficiencies. This could involve taking certificate courses or using websites to master hot technical skills. John Henry Weiss, author of Moving Forward in Mid-Career, suggests retooling résumés to showcase “evergreen skills” such as project management and budget accomplishments that appeal to all industries.
7. Building a Support Network
Isolation exacerbates stress. Robert also works as a volunteer with the Special Olympics, teaching paddleboarding a job he’s now considering pursuing as a career change, despite a reduction in pay. Support can arrive in the form of mentors, accountability groups, or professional societies. Networking in a target field, as career coaches emphasize, tends to open doors sooner than cold submissions.
8. Breaking Ageist Assumptions
In spite of stereotypes, 92% of employees aged over 50 report that they’re keen to acquire new skills, including technical ones. CWI Labs’ Gary Officer refers to an age-diverse workforce as “an economic imperative” as he points out that discrimination against workers older than 50 cost the U.S. economy $850 billion in GDP in 2018. HR leaders can do their part by reconsidering recruiting practices and training hiring managers to appreciate the worth of experience.
9. Redefining Success
Robert’s experience illustrates an increasingly common trend among older professionals: sacrificing big paychecks for purposeful, mission-oriented work. AARP’s survey revealed that 10% of older job seekers value making a difference more than increased earnings. Robert’s ability to make a difference through working for the Special Olympics gives him purpose and a new beginning glimpses of reinvention that are possible even after receiving a thousand rejections.
