What I am about to share I learned completely by accident. After 30 years as a media executive I decided at 50 years of age it was time, time for a change .. didn’t want to see the rest of my life in the rear view mirror. So I pulled the plug, walked away from a great career and a terrific safety net financially. Why? Because it was time to reinvent ME!

Here’s the hard truth of what I learned very quickly

- at 50 years of age you are not as easy to hire regardless of experience
- at 50 and unemployed, people assume you must have been downsized or fired
- at 50 they assume you want too much money
- at 50 no one wants to invest in you as you won’t stick around long

Here’s the hard truth as I know it

- at 50 I have very tangible assets to offer any company
- at 50 I don’t need as much money as a 35 year old with kids & a big mortgage
- at 50 my work ethic is a generation old and extremely well disciplined
- at 50 I now know what I don’t know & am genuinely interested in learning

What I thought were very marketable skills were in fact not so at all. Even though I hired and fired many people over the years I myself was out of touch with what recruiters were looking for.

A friend of mine who was a Campus Director for a private college asked if I’d consider teaching as part of their Facility of Business. With 30 years experience and a great many anecdotal stories to tell I said “absolutely .. let’s do it”.

Within a few years I had taught Paramedics, PSW’s, Pharmacy Tech’s, CSW’s and the like many of the softer courses. Modules like Sociology, Interpersonal Workplace Skills, Job Search, Marketing and Advertising to name a few.

In that experience I learned that regardless of your education and skill set you need to master the Job Interview as it relates to now and what’s expected in 2007. Just having experience or the proper degree is just not enough. They will get you the Interview only. It’s acing the Interview that lands you the job .. PERIOD!!!

I do a lot of tutoring on the Job Search process to people from 20 through 60 years of age. And it’s the 85% rule that most disregard and thus wait for months to be hired or rehired. But that is not at the heart and soul of this article. Here’s what I really learned:

At 50 I was never going to allow myself to be downsized or fired. All I needed to do was to have three jobs … stay with me on this! Lose one job, no problem, pick up another. No risk here as no one is paying you huge money.

With the amount of outsourcing these days, it’s fairly easy to pick up short term, one year contracts. Contract ends naturally and you qualify for unemployment .. hey why not, you’ve paid in for years and years after all. That’s just a few bonus dollars and hey, if your pride or ego is too big to accept that then fine, it’s a personal choice.

So here I was teaching college students part time, managing a short term contract for a year and also doing some consignment selling on eBay etc. At the end of the day I actually had three totally different jobs. At 50 this was the best of both worlds. I felt like I was contributing, being paid fairly and doing work I truly enjoyed. It was fun again and fun mostly because I was completely in control.

I could write a paper on the huge dilemma that awaits corporate America. Through their downsizing and outsourcing just to save a buck, the brain trust of experience, not to mention the best work ethic ever, was slipping right out of their hands and into a reinvented world, as I just described. After regaining control of my life. why in God's would I ever want to jump back into the corporate jungle. NO THANKS!!

This new life actually pays me as well as the executive job I walked away from. Mind you it took me a few years of being angry and mad as hell at the world. Finally I just decided to take charge, after all I came from a solution oriented career in the first place. What was I waiting for? I just had to stop waiting for someone else to make it happen.

An acquaintance said to me recently, “WOW with all your business experience why don’t you just hire yourself”. Bingo, that was it! Hire myself, hmmmm what a novel idea!

So here I am .. teaching college students, doing some business development for a junior IT company and having fun on eBay, going to auctions and generally just having fun and taking charge again.

Life is short .. take charge & you’ll never be downsized or unemployed again!

Mike Perras
www.jobsearchrules.blogspot.com