I’m 50 and need to get a job. What should I do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP was a sahm for the past how many decades, and is 50 years old. She is not going to get a job that pays more than $20/hr, even $20/hr will be lucky.

You can get a job as a receptionist at a small business that may pay $16 to $18/hour.

-52 yr old woman

This is often what happens, our society is punitive towards women who choose to raise their kids themselves and prioritize family and home. If you don't marry well and secure a nice divorce package or something befalls your husband you are SOL. Even if you have a degree, it can't help you. You have to keep working and raising kids, and part time jobs aren't easy to find and not available for professional jobs until you are so well established that you can call your schedule or consult PT. no wonder younger women are deciding to stay childless more and more.

The solution is not to stay childless, it’s to not become a sahm. Keep working ladies, even if you have children!

The best is to have kids early when you have much more energy to work and have kids and are junior in your career and can exit and return, or you can work periodically. Taking 1-3 years off is often not nearly as detrimental to your career as taking 20 years off from the workplace. Once your kids are teens you can lean into your career

Completely disagree with this especially since you’re saying the woman should drop out of the workforce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP was a sahm for the past how many decades, and is 50 years old. She is not going to get a job that pays more than $20/hr, even $20/hr will be lucky.

You can get a job as a receptionist at a small business that may pay $16 to $18/hour.

-52 yr old woman

This is often what happens, our society is punitive towards women who choose to raise their kids themselves and prioritize family and home. If you don't marry well and secure a nice divorce package or something befalls your husband you are SOL. Even if you have a degree, it can't help you. You have to keep working and raising kids, and part time jobs aren't easy to find and not available for professional jobs until you are so well established that you can call your schedule or consult PT. no wonder younger women are deciding to stay childless more and more.

To be fair, OP sounds like someone who probably went to college, worked a few years and then stayed home with kids. She is 50+ and has maybe only worked 5-10 years in her entire life. Most of her life has been spent unemployed. It makes sense she can’t find anywhere to work. She most likely doesn’t have many skills and is likely not that career oriented if she’s worked so little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP was a sahm for the past how many decades, and is 50 years old. She is not going to get a job that pays more than $20/hr, even $20/hr will be lucky.

You can get a job as a receptionist at a small business that may pay $16 to $18/hour.

-52 yr old woman

This is often what happens, our society is punitive towards women who choose to raise their kids themselves and prioritize family and home. If you don't marry well and secure a nice divorce package or something befalls your husband you are SOL. Even if you have a degree, it can't help you. You have to keep working and raising kids, and part time jobs aren't easy to find and not available for professional jobs until you are so well established that you can call your schedule or consult PT. no wonder younger women are deciding to stay childless more and more.

The solution is not to stay childless, it’s to not become a sahm. Keep working ladies, even if you have children!

The best is to have kids early when you have much more energy to work and have kids and are junior in your career and can exit and return, or you can work periodically. Taking 1-3 years off is often not nearly as detrimental to your career as taking 20 years off from the workplace. Once your kids are teens you can lean into your career

+1 I took 9 months off with DC1, and 18 months off DC2 to be a sahm, but I already had a network, and "leaned in", and I was in the tech industry. My ex-manager whom I was friendly with outside of work asked me to come back PT when we met up, and then again FT later. I had already established my career and reputation in that company.

If you leave for much longer, and lose those ties, which can happen with people moving on and retiring, it is going to be so much harder to find anything not menial.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat. You kind of have to think outside the box. Society wants to make 50 year old women believe they are worthless but you have to sort of elevate your own status and think of all your skills as counting for something. What are you good at? Since you have a background in sociology, could you become a social worker? At least then your education would count for something. If you switch careers it will make your degree seem worthless. The hard part is getting references. The school systems lower the bar so you don't need as many references or can use a personal reference. It might help to get your foot in a door, even if it's like a month long Amazon warehouse job or a school instructional assistant. Then you can at least put something recent on a resume and switch to something better. There are also work from home jobs like in customer service but you might need a year of retail experience. You can also try part time clerical jobs. Older women sometimes just start their own business, like you could teach teens to drive or start a maid service. You could try freelancing or the gig economy or find a caretaking job on care.com. I know at our age we've been to school, done that, don't feel like going back again. Have you tried career counseling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same boat. You kind of have to think outside the box. Society wants to make 50 year old women believe they are worthless but you have to sort of elevate your own status and think of all your skills as counting for something. What are you good at? Since you have a background in sociology, could you become a social worker? At least then your education would count for something. If you switch careers it will make your degree seem worthless. The hard part is getting references. The school systems lower the bar so you don't need as many references or can use a personal reference. It might help to get your foot in a door, even if it's like a month long Amazon warehouse job or a school instructional assistant. Then you can at least put something recent on a resume and switch to something better. There are also work from home jobs like in customer service but you might need a year of retail experience. You can also try part time clerical jobs. Older women sometimes just start their own business, like you could teach teens to drive or start a maid service. You could try freelancing or the gig economy or find a caretaking job on care.com. I know at our age we've been to school, done that, don't feel like going back again. Have you tried career counseling?

If you have not worked for the last 20 years, why do you deserve a career suddenly. You took a risk staying home…it did not work. I worked the entire time and had kids. Too risky not to. At 50, man or woman, if you have not been employed for 20 years…or even 10…sorry, you are pretty much worthless for employment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I second the preschool option. They always need subs, aides and administrators. I would check with private schools as well.

but they get paid nothing. I think these are dead end jobs for most people. Substitute teaching is the worst. The pay is a joke.

Can these jobs be used as jumping boards to some other jobs? If you have no resume, and a general degree without special training that you got decades ago you gotta start somewhere. I don't think she can jump into a "career" type of jobs right away unless she has some specialized skills and connections or she goes for a new degree.

Preschool teaching can be lovely for someone who loves it but it's extremely low-paying and you don't have anywhere to go career-wise except if you wanted to start your own daycare or school or something, but that's a whole set of different skills and one I wouldn't advise to start at 50. Substitute teaching is a stop-gap but it can be a way to decide if you want to be a full-time teacher. The teacher resident program for people with a BA degree is a real career path that OP could start--if she at all thought she was cut out for teaching--as that's developing a profession and there's support in place to get licensed and they have benefits, time off etc. that many value. BUt it's a hard job.

This. No one is saying that teaching is an easy job; it's going to give OP the highest income and good benefits given the fact that she has no career. OP should take advantage of the teacher shortage and get a FT teaching job while she works on her certifications. It's the one career path that she actually can jump into right now.

It sounds like some posters want to punish OP for not having a career.

[Anonymous]

I was in a similar place to you a few years ago, though I had worked part time at a school for many years while my kids were little so I had some admin work. When I was 49 I finally started FT work and started at the bottom - admin asst at a large non-profit. It allowed me to start at the bottom but great benefits and a large organization, so lots of space to move around once I had the exposure and people could see I could do more than just admin. Moved up after a year and now working in a job there I love. You can do the same! You likely have way more skills that are applicable, but it's hard to have those parts shine right now on your resume. I would definitely get on Linked In, put in any work/volunteer you have, put in your degree if you have it (leave off the date you received it, it's not necessary) and take advantage of they new feature where they let you explain why you had a gap in your employment. It's a pull down menu, something like "full time parenting" or something like that. Just get your profile up there because once you start applying for any job at a big company or even temp agency they will look you up.

Also, I loved the idea of working at Costco - that was going to be my other idea if I didn't get the admin job. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP keep in mind you are entitled to half of all of your assets including half of retirements. I think also get half his social security since you were married more than 10 years but I’m not sure about that.

I’m 43 and if I got divorced I could make do with 1/2 of our current assets and a minimum wage job.

You are right that you can get half of spouses SS if married 10 or more years, assuming half is more than your own full SS. Then if spouse dies before you you can get their full SS instead of your own.

This just happened to a friend of my mom who has been divorced for like 35 years (but 15 year marriage I think). The ex-husband died and her SS doubled overnight. She was mightily surprised.

Wow I didn't know you could continue getting x spouses ss if he dies. But what if he remarried in another country?

You aren't getting the ex spouse's Soc. Sec. You would be getting the survivor benefit based on your past marriage to the ex spouse. You have to be 60 to get a survivor benefit based on the ex spouse, not re-marry, and of course, the survivor benefits have to be greater than your own Soc. Sec. based on your own work record. https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/2878#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20information%20you,spouse%20had%20enough%20work%20credits.

It's not like you just suddenly get to claim all of the ex's social security payments.

The same with a wife (or other spouse) claiming soc sec. based on the other spouse's work record. You don't get the same amount that the working spouse gets. You get to top-off YOUR soc sec. up to 50% of the working spouse's benefit. You don't get 50% of the working spouse's benefit PLUS your own soc. sec. benefit.

Soc. Sec. calculates what benefit you have earned based on your own work record (let's say $600/mo). And then they calculate the spousal benefit (let's say the working spouse's full benefit was $2000/mon.; so 50% of that would be $1000.... so they pay you $600 first from your own work record, then "top off" your benefits with an extra $400 -- which is the spousal benefit that makes your total monthly amount =$1000 --- which is 50% of the value of the working spouse.

You do NOT get $600 on your own record PLUS $1000 (50% of the working spouse's Soc. Sec.) for a total of $1600. Does not work like that. You get a max of 50% of the working spouse's benefit, OR your own benefit if it is greater.

Yes but i am sure 50% is good for OP who barely ever worked

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same boat. You kind of have to think outside the box. Society wants to make 50 year old women believe they are worthless but you have to sort of elevate your own status and think of all your skills as counting for something. What are you good at? Since you have a background in sociology, could you become a social worker? At least then your education would count for something. If you switch careers it will make your degree seem worthless. The hard part is getting references. The school systems lower the bar so you don't need as many references or can use a personal reference. It might help to get your foot in a door, even if it's like a month long Amazon warehouse job or a school instructional assistant. Then you can at least put something recent on a resume and switch to something better. There are also work from home jobs like in customer service but you might need a year of retail experience. You can also try part time clerical jobs. Older women sometimes just start their own business, like you could teach teens to drive or start a maid service. You could try freelancing or the gig economy or find a caretaking job on care.com. I know at our age we've been to school, done that, don't feel like going back again. Have you tried career counseling?

Home organizing pays pretty well, high hourly rate if you are good at it. Getting started is hard and you will work for lower rate first, but there is a lot of demand (think of all the working moms barely able to maintain their homes, like myself!) if your price is reasonable. You will need a website and start posting blogs with before/after pictures, tips for organizing, creating systems that work for different lifestyles, etc. You clients will be posting glowing reviews and recommending you and you business will take off.

My former professional organizer out of state has started like this, now her rate is too high for me, lol. She has a company now and 2-3 employees that she sends on the jobs. I am not going to insinuate that she is killing it or is going to get rich doing this, but she certainly can support herself and has flexibility and does what she likes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same boat. You kind of have to think outside the box. Society wants to make 50 year old women believe they are worthless but you have to sort of elevate your own status and think of all your skills as counting for something. What are you good at? Since you have a background in sociology, could you become a social worker? At least then your education would count for something. If you switch careers it will make your degree seem worthless. The hard part is getting references. The school systems lower the bar so you don't need as many references or can use a personal reference. It might help to get your foot in a door, even if it's like a month long Amazon warehouse job or a school instructional assistant. Then you can at least put something recent on a resume and switch to something better. There are also work from home jobs like in customer service but you might need a year of retail experience. You can also try part time clerical jobs. Older women sometimes just start their own business, like you could teach teens to drive or start a maid service. You could try freelancing or the gig economy or find a caretaking job on care.com. I know at our age we've been to school, done that, don't feel like going back again. Have you tried career counseling?

If you have not worked for the last 20 years, why do you deserve a career suddenly. You took a risk staying home…it did not work. I worked the entire time and had kids. Too risky not to. At 50, man or woman, if you have not been employed for 20 years…or even 10…sorry, you are pretty much worthless for employment.

NP. This is such a shitty attitude. Whoever is willing to work should be able to work. OP isn’t worthless or unemployable just because you’ve been pushing papers around your desk for 10 more years than her.

[Anonymous]

Uber. Daytime hours for safety.

Network with everyone you drive.

I've had a number of drivers network with me for jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I second the preschool option. They always need subs, aides and administrators. I would check with private schools as well.

but they get paid nothing. I think these are dead end jobs for most people. Substitute teaching is the worst. The pay is a joke.

Can these jobs be used as jumping boards to some other jobs? If you have no resume, and a general degree without special training that you got decades ago you gotta start somewhere. I don't think she can jump into a "career" type of jobs right away unless she has some specialized skills and connections or she goes for a new degree.

Preschool teaching can be lovely for someone who loves it but it's extremely low-paying and you don't have anywhere to go career-wise except if you wanted to start your own daycare or school or something, but that's a whole set of different skills and one I wouldn't advise to start at 50. Substitute teaching is a stop-gap but it can be a way to decide if you want to be a full-time teacher. The teacher resident program for people with a BA degree is a real career path that OP could start--if she at all thought she was cut out for teaching--as that's developing a profession and there's support in place to get licensed and they have benefits, time off etc. that many value. BUt it's a hard job.

This. No one is saying that teaching is an easy job; it's going to give OP the highest income and good benefits given the fact that she has no career. OP should take advantage of the teacher shortage and get a FT teaching job while she works on her certifications. It's the one career path that she actually can jump into right now.

It sounds like some posters want to punish OP for not having a career.

I am the poster who mentioned how brutal teaching is. I agree that it is the best choice as far as job availability and benefits, but don’t underestimate how rough the job is. I watch people devote tons of energy to teaching just to quit at the end of the first year. I don’t recommend the profession because the “stay” rate is so low. Most who start don’t last.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I second the preschool option. They always need subs, aides and administrators. I would check with private schools as well.

but they get paid nothing. I think these are dead end jobs for most people. Substitute teaching is the worst. The pay is a joke.

Can these jobs be used as jumping boards to some other jobs? If you have no resume, and a general degree without special training that you got decades ago you gotta start somewhere. I don't think she can jump into a "career" type of jobs right away unless she has some specialized skills and connections or she goes for a new degree.

Preschool teaching can be lovely for someone who loves it but it's extremely low-paying and you don't have anywhere to go career-wise except if you wanted to start your own daycare or school or something, but that's a whole set of different skills and one I wouldn't advise to start at 50. Substitute teaching is a stop-gap but it can be a way to decide if you want to be a full-time teacher. The teacher resident program for people with a BA degree is a real career path that OP could start--if she at all thought she was cut out for teaching--as that's developing a profession and there's support in place to get licensed and they have benefits, time off etc. that many value. BUt it's a hard job.

This. No one is saying that teaching is an easy job; it's going to give OP the highest income and good benefits given the fact that she has no career. OP should take advantage of the teacher shortage and get a FT teaching job while she works on her certifications. It's the one career path that she actually can jump into right now.

It sounds like some posters want to punish OP for not having a career.

It's jealousy, because it's hard to have a career while raising kids, it's draining, and most women fail at building successful high earning careers anyway and just tread water. Sure, you will be able to support yourself and have low six figures if you mommy-tracked and didn't make partner or managing director, or whatever. In the meanwhile, OP had lived without doing dreaded double shift, and was able to at least do one thing well. I've been working since my late teens and cannot wait to retire, there is no glamour in working FT while raising kids. In fact while those like OP can jump into the workforce with renewed energy excited to do something different and likely being able to work into their older age, I am so burnt out, I don't think I can last till age 55.. If you tell me I have to keep working till 65 (and now there are talks to increase the age to 67), I would just want to jump off a bridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the same boat. You kind of have to think outside the box. Society wants to make 50 year old women believe they are worthless but you have to sort of elevate your own status and think of all your skills as counting for something. What are you good at? Since you have a background in sociology, could you become a social worker? At least then your education would count for something. If you switch careers it will make your degree seem worthless. The hard part is getting references. The school systems lower the bar so you don't need as many references or can use a personal reference. It might help to get your foot in a door, even if it's like a month long Amazon warehouse job or a school instructional assistant. Then you can at least put something recent on a resume and switch to something better. There are also work from home jobs like in customer service but you might need a year of retail experience. You can also try part time clerical jobs. Older women sometimes just start their own business, like you could teach teens to drive or start a maid service. You could try freelancing or the gig economy or find a caretaking job on care.com. I know at our age we've been to school, done that, don't feel like going back again. Have you tried career counseling?

If you have not worked for the last 20 years, why do you deserve a career suddenly. You took a risk staying home…it did not work. I worked the entire time and had kids. Too risky not to. At 50, man or woman, if you have not been employed for 20 years…or even 10…sorry, you are pretty much worthless for employment.

I don't think she is asking for a career, she just wants to make a living. What are you doing for your career? Are you a successful business owner, medical practice owner, Big Law or consulting partner, MD or C level exec at a medium/large company? If you just have a regular job paying the bills, that's not a career, and if you are 50, it's not awesome in the workplace either, and job security isn't great.

I have a friend who was high earning for 2 decades, raised kids, and then lost it all, unable to work due to health issues, and in the same shoes as OP trying to start from scratch in an alternative "career" at 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I second the preschool option. They always need subs, aides and administrators. I would check with private schools as well.

but they get paid nothing. I think these are dead end jobs for most people. Substitute teaching is the worst. The pay is a joke.

Can these jobs be used as jumping boards to some other jobs? If you have no resume, and a general degree without special training that you got decades ago you gotta start somewhere. I don't think she can jump into a "career" type of jobs right away unless she has some specialized skills and connections or she goes for a new degree.

Preschool teaching can be lovely for someone who loves it but it's extremely low-paying and you don't have anywhere to go career-wise except if you wanted to start your own daycare or school or something, but that's a whole set of different skills and one I wouldn't advise to start at 50. Substitute teaching is a stop-gap but it can be a way to decide if you want to be a full-time teacher. The teacher resident program for people with a BA degree is a real career path that OP could start--if she at all thought she was cut out for teaching--as that's developing a profession and there's support in place to get licensed and they have benefits, time off etc. that many value. BUt it's a hard job.

This. No one is saying that teaching is an easy job; it's going to give OP the highest income and good benefits given the fact that she has no career. OP should take advantage of the teacher shortage and get a FT teaching job while she works on her certifications. It's the one career path that she actually can jump into right now.

It sounds like some posters want to punish OP for not having a career.

I am the poster who mentioned how brutal teaching is. I agree that it is the best choice as far as job availability and benefits, but don’t underestimate how rough the job is. I watch people devote tons of energy to teaching just to quit at the end of the first year. I don’t recommend the profession because the “stay” rate is so low. Most who start don’t last.

Depending on how the numbers are done, 35-45% of teachers leave within the first 5 years -- though that includes people who left for maternity to SAHP and who may later return. Also, OP would be in the position to try it out for a year without having to go through the licensure part so less of a loss. I would recommend subbing this spring if she really were interested to know if it's 100% not for her.