Career advice late in life

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If I were in your situation, I would go to a local job placement center and ask for help in finding a job that is right for you.

We have a job placement center in our city that has several “pathways” depending on your needs and qualifications. One of the pathways is “manual labor and entry-level employment”–this is for high school grads, and includes such jobs as food service, janitorial, packing, home care aides, child care etc. A lot of younger people go with this, as they can go to school (college, trade school, etc.) and work at the same time.

Another pathway is college degrees (including associate’s degrees), and the jobs/careers are “professional.” This would be where I would go, and probably where you would want to start. I know that they do an extensive evaluation of your skills, physical limitations, and of course, your interests. This would be a great way to learn about those odd-ball jobs that no one know about, but would be perfect for you with your teaching degree and mothering experience!

I believe the third track is “Management Level,” and this is for the executives and Ph.D types!

I know there are fees, but IMO, they would be well worth it for you to have the evaluation and have someone else do the “job search” for you!

Good luck! Have fun.

And if all else fails, perhaps you would enjoy going back to a career college and becoming a Medical Laboratory Technician. There is DESPERATE NEED for more lab workers! We are dangerously short-staffed all over the country. If you have been a mother (cooking, cleaning, meeting needs all day and all night!)–you would love lab work and the people who work in labs! And lots of people in labs are in their 50s or older–the work isn’t that physically difficult, and it’s interesting and gives you a lot of personal satisfaction because you are helping people.
 
Sales is an area which may be closely related to teaching.

Those sales jobs which require a “hard close” are not what I am talking about; they require (often) a memorized pattern of presentation with a “beat down” approach.

There are more professional sales jobs which use what is often referred to as the Xerox approach - or something similar - which has a proces rather than a memorized spiel and is consultative; it is also referred to as “needs satisfaction” selling.

Decades ago I worked for a national publishing company selling tax and business law publications. The sales process would vary based on the client (I sold t tax prepares, accounts, lawyers, controllers, heads of HR, and people involved in the process of taking a company public.

It might require contacting some head hunters and inquiring how one goes about prepping for (learning the method) and obtaining a professional sales job.

It can be demanding and very satisfying; prospecting is a constant demand, and it may require some travel (not everything gets done on the internet)

I also sold real estate for 7 years; and that is another means of needs satisfaction selling. It requires clearly understanding what the client wants (to sell or to buy) and finding what it is they really want, really don’t want, and meeting those two qualifiers. It is also the most demanding sales position I have ever had, an prospecting is a non-stop process and can wear you out; additionally the success rate winnows out the field fast. 50% or more agents have not made a sale or a listing in the first 6 months and are out; after the end of a year 20 to 30% more are gone, and after 5 years, 90% of those who started are out. Those who approach it as a profession will succeed.,

Just some thoughts.
 
I recommend finding out more about the machines court reporters use. They don’t use the QWERTY keyboard. Find an explanation of the process and the thinking behind court reporting before you commit to taking a course that costs a good deal of money.

Also, I didn’t understand this sentence you wrote: “Here’s the thing about court reporting: court reporters are in really high demand because the drop out rate for students is 90%.” What does the drop-out rate from the course have to do with high demand for court reporters?
 
ThisOne said:
They don’t use the QWERTY keyboard. Find an explanation of the process and the thinking behind court reporting before you commit to taking a course that costs a good deal of money.
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I bought a steno writer already. Pricey, but I think I can return it. There’s a free 6 week intro class I took which covered the basics. I was pretty good to go, up until that phone call.
ThisOne said:
What does the drop-out rate from the course have to do with high demand for court reporters?
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Because since there are few graduates, they can’t meet the expanding demand. There’s a nation wide shortage.
 
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I would suggest legal assistant. I also liked the above suggestion for medical transcriptionist, since I know an older lady who enjoys this. But also, it’s great work to do from home. You must have enjoyed being home all these years for this to only come up now.

As for being 54, I’m close in age. I’d say that many younger people can’t even stick to an appointment time. If forty people are asked to interview, probably thirty of them will forget to come or want to switch the time on the same day. Five won’t know how to get to the interview, despite having GPS. At least one of them won’t even be able to read cursive handwriting. Watch this funny video to see your possible competition:

 
Young lady, how old was this interviewer?
And will he be making the final decision on your graduation?

There’s a certain amount of dislike and prejudice in our culture against middle aged women, and I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on here.
 
Lara said:
You must have enjoyed being home all these years for this to only come up now.
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I absolutely loved it! I still love it! The only thing that I didn’t like about being a SAHM was the loneliness for adult company. But I thoroughly enjoyed my kids. They’re great!
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
Young lady, how old was this interviewer?
And will he be making the final decision on your graduation?

There’s a certain amount of dislike and prejudice in our culture against middle aged women, and I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on here.
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I’m not sure how old he was, probably his forties I’m guessing. He was the founder of the school, but what would determine my graduation would be speed and accuracy on the stenograph machine. Yes, unfortunately I think he was a bit negatively biased.
mary77 said:
do something sociable and fun. Not typing boring court cases.
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Well, I’m an introvert, so that would be fun for me. 😂
 
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Call center or bank teller? There are many jobs that pay $20/hour with no experience and come with health / 401K benefits.

$20/hour + incentives and benefits =
$45K-$50K/year.
 
As somebody who works from home, I’d say be happy you don’t have to deal with adults. I’d save adult company for your social life when adults will actually have something in common with you. Adults in a work setting are going to be very different from you and present you with many challenges you don’t need.

I would definitely heed the advice of the man who said court reporting will be hard for you. He did not mean it to dissuade you unfairly. I think he’s right.

Once a guy gave me advice that could have saved me a lot of money and time and I didn’t take it. I wasn’t humble enough to consider he might be right.
 
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Lara said:
I’d save adult company for your social life when adults will actually have something in common with you.
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That’s what I meant. The friendship of adults. It was a pretty isolating time.
Lara said:
I would definitely heed the advice of the man who said court reporting will be hard for you. He did not mean it to dissuade you unfairly. I think he’s right.

Once a guy gave me advice that could have saved me a lot of money and time and I didn’t take it. I wasn’t humble enough to consider he might be right.
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Yeah, I’m definitely considering what he said. He has more experience than I do, and like I said, he could have just taken my money and said nothing. However, I think I could probably do it if I’m willing to work harder than everyone else. I think that is what it would take. I’m assessing whether I’m willing to do that or not.
 
TMC said:
My humble suggestion - talk to some court reporters your age and see what they think. I know that court reporting is tough on the hands and wrists, and I get his point about how these kinds of things are harder to learn at your (our) age. But one can learn such things.
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I don’t think I would have trouble keeping up or getting work once I graduated, because it’s pretty much muscle memory by that point. I think the tough part is school.

I belong to some court reporting groups on Facebook, and I sort of polled people my age to see what their experience was. They said they are struggling a lot more than younger people in their class, and it’s not for lack of study. Basically, it is doable, but age is a factor. So I have to evaluate if I want to work harder than everyone else, when everyone else is working very, very hard.
 
It takes a lot of energy to get a new career or a new business off the ground at any age. That gets more difficult as one gets older because most people don’t have as much energy at 50 as they did at 30. So that and one’s health are definite factors. Not saying don’t do it, only that one should evaluate one’s age and one’s health vs what the career requires.
 
Ive only worked as a Nurse but I know thats a great career and takes two years at a community college and when you finish you can work night shift, the more introvert Nurses love nights and they make the most money!
 
Thanks for your help an (name removed by moderator)ut everyone! I am going to go ahead and give court reporting school a go. All I can do is put in the time and effort and leave the results to God. If I can’t do it, well, tally ho and on to the next thing. I’m sure I’ll know soon enough. Anyway, if anyone reads this please pray for me if you think if it. Thank you!
 
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