Free Career Counseling for Husband? Or Job Ideas?
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Anonymous
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My husband needs to transition back into the workforce after staying home with our children.
Are there any free/really cheap career counseling programs he could use, especially in Montgomery County? I'm trying to help him myself but need a third party that he'll really pay attention to. Plus I certainly don't know all the details of what's going on with employment in this area. Or does anyone have any ideas for the types of jobs he could look into? He's about 50 (but looks about 42-45), and has a general administrative background. He needs to earn about $50,000-$60,000. He's not looking for a big career and wants an uncomplicated job. He wouldn't mind repetitive tasks/paper pushing, back-office, or even assistant-type work. |
Anonymous
| Most community colleges have free career counseling for students. He should check out Montgomery College. He could take a class to update his computer skills and at the same time do the counseling. |
Anonymous
| Have him contact his college's alumni office. With the recession, many are now offering career guidance for graduates. |
Anonymous
| Hello this is such a tough economy to be transitioning back to workworld. I helped my sister get back to working after a divorce. She is midforties, bachelor's degree and very old banking and admin experience. I also volunteered with organization to help women get back in job market. My take is that it is completely worth the money to get some help with the resume, it will only be a few hundred. I helped redo resumes in the volunteer job and can't tell you how many I saw that would close the door on possible jobs. Be sure he knows what he's seeking...and realistically, not too many admins make 50s or 60s to start. I'd say 40s are more realistic based on the dozen or so people I worked with. And there are so many people applying for jobs now, each opening has dozens of applications, really the best way is through personal connections and networking. Be sure he's up to speed with the business networkignj sites. Don't close off paying for 5-6 sessions with a counselor, getting a good job that maximizes income is a great return on 1,000 investment if you can swing it. My husband went to a a counselor for six session when he was job transitioning. He argued we couldn't' afford it but it provided a great structure and he got two offers pretty soon after the new resume. This is not an area to skimp in! |
Anonymous
| GWU does free career counseling through their "community counseling" office. It is where they train their grad students. |
Anonymous
| I would also suggest finding a temp agency that specializes in admin work so that he can gain experience in various companies that might lead to a permanent job. There are several in the DC area. I used Randstad several years ago when I was in between jobs and they were really helpful in both finding temp work and assisting with permanent placement. |
Anonymous
This is the OP. Thanks for this suggestion. I left a message with this office and hope that he'll be able to use the service. |
Anonymous
| If none of the above work, and I don't know what your husband's field is, but you could suggest he intern or volunteer at a nonprofit doing work in his field. That is what my husband (who is in IT) did when he immigrated from abroad and it helped a ton (giving him references, letting him see updates in his field). ymmv |
Anonymous
| 10:05 and 11:20 gave great advice. And I agree that entry level admin positions are more like mid-forties. We recently hired a new admin in my division at a large org in dc and I can tell you we received nearly a thousand applications. We stopped reviewing applications after we skimmed the first couple hundred, and we essentially didn't bother with resumes from more seasoned folks since the assumption is that older folks will either bolt as soon as they find something more lucrative whereas kids fresh out of college will usually stick around for a couple years before going to grad school (that's what most kids do...they come to dc for a couple years for some experience and fun before applying to gra school). I think many orgs employ a similar mindset, so perhaps a career counselor can steer your husband to certain fields/types of employers. And he should tell all of his friends and acquaintance that he is looking for a job and that he's willing to do admin work....anything to get in the door. Volunteering at a nonprofit doing admin support might get his foot in th door somewhere. Best of luck to him! |
Anonymous
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I'm a college career director. I like someone's advice to have hubby contact his alma mater.
I also like the advice to check out temp firms. Here are some good ones: *Trak Services *Ruthi Postow Staffing *City Staff *Beacon Staffing Have hubby set up a free indeed.com account which is a spider collecting job leads from multiple sources. Check out church netoworking groups. Make sure hubby has a LinkedIn account...many recruiters hire right off of profiles they find online. Good luck! I actually think he'll be fine. |
Anonymous
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The At Home Dad's Convention just had a speaker on transition back to work this Saturday. Unfortunately I did not get to attend that session, but I will see if I can get a link to the presentation.
The presenter was Sheila Murphy from Flexforce Professionals. I understand they have a lot of former SAHM's as clients. |
Anonymous
| Holy Trinty in Georgetown has a program |
Anonymous
| Yes pp -- I am an earlier poster (13:34) (college career director) and I had included church programs in my litany. Very small world -- I attend Holy Trinity in Georgetown and that is what I was referencing as well. I know other churches have similar programs that might be helpful as well. |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks, PP. Unfortunately, faith-based is probably out since we're not regulars anywhere. Please keep the ideas coming! Also very interested in specific job types/titles that would fit HB's profile. Stories of transitioning back into work (good or bad) are also interesting. We have almost a year before he really has to start working, so we figured now was a good time to start this process started. |
Anonymous
| Op you seem to be doing a lot of the work, is your H vested in the process too? |