Resources for Job Seekers Over 50 (Our Opinion)
If you are over 50 and looking for a full time job or freelance work, there are resources (aka, websites) that promote themselves as being designed especially for you. The resources range in their usefulness. Some are more traditional, job search focused, while others offer guidance on freelance work or retirement. Riff on Jobs continues to maintain the position that the best way to find a job is to work your network, not to search on a jobs website and submit a resume. Nonetheless, Riff on Jobs has reviewed a handful of sites and we offer links to them, along with our opinions, hopefully steering you in a direction toward the site(s) that will be most useful, listed in alphabetical order below.
www.aarp.org/work/job-search/job-seeker/ When you arrive at the AARP job search site, you will learn that, “according to an AARP survey, 62 percent of older workers say they have either seen or experienced age discrimination on the job.” Unfortunately, this is not new or surprising information, but you may find some comfort knowing that you are not alone if you feel you have been the victim of age discrimination. After some verbiage about the harms of this bias, the site offers a list of over 1500 companies that have signed a pledge to hire older workers. It is certainly useful to know which companies have signed the pledge, though there is no data about actual hiring practices. If there were some tangible stories there, it would be far more useful than names on a list. On the AARP site, there are jobs posted, some of which are senior level positions. Applying to jobs is fairly straightforward and you can set up job alerts.
www.imcusa.org – The Institute of Management Consultants offers online and face-to-face classes, workshops, conferences and discussion groups for practicing or potential (aka wannabe) management consultants. An annual membership fee of $325 is required, along with a $50 application fee, to join. The organization offers help to individuals hoping to become certified management consultants. They train individuals to become management consultants and provide marketing tools. However, the burden is on you to sell yourself and find opportunities so, if you are already a seasoned management consultant, this appears to be an opportunity to spend money you may not have for an outcome that you may not get.
https://newsolutions.org/ New Solutions is a staffing organization that claims to be “The Nation's #1 Nonprofit Experienced Worker Provider,” that is “proud to connect professionals, age 55+, with part-time and full-time opportunities throughout the country by providing skilled and experienced workers to government agencies. The jobs listed are extremely specialized and salaries range from $18/hour to about $65/hour. For anyone who has worked in the private sector in a leadership role, you would be hard pressed to find anything relevant here, but if you are a Senior Forestry Consultant, there is a job for you, paying $80/hour.
https://www.retiredbrains.com/index.html – This site is a great resource for a multitude of opportunities, including guidance on starting your own business or working as a freelancer. For anyone interested in freelancing, it offers several recommendations, including www.guru.com , www.upwork.com, www.elance.com, and www.TaskRabbit.com. On most of the sites provided, an individual can register as a freelancer and search a wide variety of areas including design, consulting, writing, administrative support, sales, telemarketing, accounting and finance. (While the retiredbrains.com site does not mention www.freelancer.com, that is yet another option for freelancers seeking work or companies looking for freelancers). It claims to be the “world's largest freelance marketplace.” Given these lofty claims, we did not want to exclude it from our list). Unlike most of the sites listed here, www.retiredbrains.com is not exclusively focused on job search or finding freelance work. It also offers a number of instructional materials and guidance on several topics seniors may find interesting - finding jobs after retirement, starting a business, planning for retirement, volunteering, and even travel and entertainment. There are many tools and guides on this site that are worth the time spent browsing.
https://retirementjobs.com/ - This site offers job search, career advice and company reviews. The site references The Age Friendly Institute Certified Age Friendly Employer (CAFE)™ program, offering a list of employers that are deemed friendly for workers over 50. At the same time, the site offers company reviews by current and former employees, which can be very useful. It is interesting to note that many of the companies viewed as “friendly” for older workers receive reviews that are not consistent with that adjective. This site is worth visiting, if only to read company reviews. Similar reviews of companies are available on glassdoor.com. The job postings on this site are comparable to any that might be found directly on company websites or on LinkedIn. If you do choose to apply for a job, you will likely be redirected to another site like Careerbuilder.com.
https://www.seniors4hire.org/ This is an online community for companies that want to recruit people 50 and older. The site has been online since 2003 and classifies itself as “the #1 Career Center for businesses that value a diverse demographic to actively find experienced workers 50 and older in the United States from all walks of life.” While the site claims a senior focus, the job postings all link to Zip Recruiter, and interested individuals will have to sign up and upload a resume before looking at job postings. There is not an option of perusing the jobs listed before deciding whether to “sign up.”
https://wahve.com- Work At Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE) offers a contract staffing approach “bringing together pretiring vintage professionals and businesses to create a win-win…” They claim to connect companies to highly skilled workers with the exact talent they need, while enabling retiring workers to continue their careers working from home. If it sounds too good to be true, maybe it is. We have no stories, anecdotal or otherwise, to validate the effectiveness of this company or the availability of opportunities. One of the offerings on the site is “Brainwahve,” which is an applicant qualifying system that helps businesses recruit and hire “qualified and diverse talent.”
https://www.workforce50.com This site has thousands of job listings, which appear to be a front door to zip recruiter, which you will have to sign up for in order to complete an application. Aside from job postings, there is a section of the site containing training and resources. For example, you can access the Workforce50 experts section, where you will find several short articles including: Transferable Skills such as: The Key Ingredient to Changing Careers, Selling the Age Advantage, When Grown Children Move Back.