Finding Senior Work Might Include Interview Nightmares

By Jessie Penn

Why would or should seniors be looking for employment once you're obviously over the hill? You've got to be kidding!

Unfortunately, this is not a joke to the many senior citizens that do not have enough income to survive. Employment is not necessarily a choice. For many, senior citizen job seeking and interviews turn into a lonely, disappointing, and stressful journey.

Although, a lot of seniors come to the interview table with much experience and many skills to offer, the young, energetic, and perky applicants vying for employment opportunities usually win. Unfair? Yes!

Many senior citizens find themselves forced to seek a job because the bread-winner might have incurred a physical disability, or because of family illness or financial loss. Divorce is not out of the question. Marriages fail no matter how long the union existed. Or, perhaps you find yourself responsible to raise grandchildren. Maybe your spouse has died and left no savings, property, or retirement income. Whatever the reason, the needs are real and pose exhausting physical and mental demands.

“ you look around and notice the employees are wearing jeans, sneakers, low-cut tee-shirts, and sandals ... everyone has a cell phone attached to their body. Maybe you're at the wrong address! Nope, ... you're just in the wrong generation! ”

However, many older people seeking jobs may not possess skills, and are forced to settle for minimum wage (or below minimum wage) jobs, unsafe environments, and undesirable work schedules. Often times senior work can require more physical labor than they are able to endure. Sometimes, seniors have no choice but to accept and endure low paying janitorial, kitchen, maid jobs that can be subservient and physically demanding, or difficult, and embarrassing.

Imagine for a moment, that you are an intelligent and educated person that enjoyed continuous employment and career growth throughout most of your adult life. Then, suddenly, you find yourself divorced, laid-off and out of work. And, you are 60 years old! Or, perhaps, you worked most of your adult life, but did not have smooth sailing. Maybe you had several divorces, didn't get a fair or any settlement, or was left waist-deep in debt. Suddenly, you were forced to survive living paycheck to paycheck. Living expenses, like mortgages, transportation, food, family responsibilities, or medical problems ate up what savings and reserves you tried to build.

So, now when you should be reaping the benefits of serving others you entire life, you find yourself spending your days in a restroom cleaning toilets, emptying trash, wiping sinks, moping floors, and accepting tips from restroom users to survive? This may not be typical, but it is real, and many elderly people are faced with this scenario day after day.

In today's society, no matter what careers or positions you have, at any moment, for millions of reasons, you could suddenly be faced with no income, inadequate health insurance, depleted retirement funds, and no job!

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