Finding Your Bliss in Job Search or Career Change

One of the most frustrating challenges jobseekers over 50 face is finding a way to redefine who they are for the current job market. Without that redefinition, simply put...they can't find a job. This past week, Amy Z (A-Z International) invited me to take part in a phone conference on career change issues. One woman's dilemma particularly stood out and we had an interesting exchange that I'd like to share.

Emma (not her real name), from Georgia, was currently working as a sales associate and was very unhappy in her job. She didn't have a college degree to back up her resume and was considering going back to school in order to have additional qualifications to find a job. I didn't think she sounded too excited about that prospect (and going back to school certainly doesn't guarantee a job at the end of the day), so we chatted for awhile. I started digging in to what she loved and it turned out that she was a craft whiz -- she loved making cards, friends asked her for her creations -- and most importantly, when she started talking about this love, her passion, her voice became animated, you could hear her smiling and her vibrancy was palpable over the phone. Other experts on the call also remarked on this.

Our conversation focused, for a time, on how she could start a business, but I could sense that was overwhelming as a concept and not on track with her desires, so I suggested that if she had skill in sales, that she could look for a job in a craft store and start to build up a reputation and connections in an industry that she loved.

With a smile in her voice, she said that she had, in fact, just applied for a sales job in a craft store. But now, she felt proud of that decision and that if she could get a job in a craft store, it would act as a stepping or positioning stone for the next stage of her career.

Granted, we don't all have the luxury of spending an hour on the phone with several experts giving free advice, but there is incredible value in giving voice to your innermost desires. You need to write them down, talk about them, shout them to the world, and you might be very pleasantly surprised to see what ideas can really spark!