25. Being 'So-Called' Unemployable

Hello Friends,

This article below (follow the link) does not, from the viewpoint of the average reader, present a very positive outlook. However, those of us who have reached our full maturity have accumulated the ability to look beyond mere appearances. Do not kid yourself. YES you can!

Click here: Workers Over 50 Are The New 'Unemployables' - Careers Articles

What this tells me is that the j-o-b-s are for the young to provide them with experience.

We have that experience.

Does that mean we all must compete for Walmart greeter jobs or grocery baggers? No. Those positions are right for some people. They are stop-gap measures for others.

Being in this bracket that the article addresses is a subtle call to a new kind of action.

What are the skills and talents you have acquired over the years? Inventory all the things you have done and with an eye to adaptability; assess them as to their usefulness in other walks of life.

Do you have skills in nursing? Can you teach phlebotomy to students at a career institute?

Do you have experience in the construction industry? Can you use those skills to work as a furniture or home repair contractor or as a maintenance person at a condo complex?

Becoming a private contractor in a field of your experience and interest or starting up a small business in a related or supportive industry is an option that has great appeal. With Web Sites such as Angies List,  your business can zoom.

I mentioned teaching. There are numerous ways to teach. You need not be hired by a school district. There are many county adult ed programs where you can put VPK all the way through the GED that gives a young person their diploma, children are being taught outside of the usual school system.

Offer your skills to parents in special areas of interest. Put together learning packets to supplement the home school texts. Not every parent is equipped to offer their child knowledge and expertise in every subject area. Do you like history? Well, Susie's mom and dad do not.  Are you good at math? There is a field that really needs help in the private teaching arena.

Take a look at the home school formats and find an area of interest that you can supplement or add something to make the program more well-rounded and more useful for a child's future.

Look at Craigs list in the 'wanted' columns and find a way to meet those needs and desires.

I have a friend who spends Saturdays attending numerous garage sales and Sundays re-selling the goodies he finds at the local flea market and he makes quite a decent profit.

You can always go back to school yourself to learn a new field or update yourself in one of your existing areas of knowledge. Besides teaching Adult Ed, you can attend. Also, Vocational Rehabilitation is available in many areas. I recommend finding a place where you can update your knowledge of new and emerging software programs and other technological devices.

Remember, grants are often available if you go to the trouble of applying.

Your future begins now. Water the ground whereon you stand and it will blossom with possibility.

Many Blessings
Victoria

24. Wow, A Lot Has Happened

Since my last post of January 9, so much has happened that I'm not sure where to begin.
I guess the good news for you all is that there is one less person actively competing in the job market.
What with the neurological problems and all, I've been deemed unfit for employment in the types of work I've been doing for the past 15 years and so have been placed on disability. Yippee. That certainly doesn't amount to much at all and for me caps out at just over 10,000 per annum, which is basically the same as early retirement on the social security thing which it replaces until I'm 62 then converts into that.
What I don't understand is how am I going to pay for a place to live, utilities, food and other necessities? Minimum rents here start at about 700 to 750 if you don't mind ghetto living.
Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for it. I'm grateful for every penny. But what a lot of people do not realize is this is not a hand out. I, like most of you, have been paying into these programs for all of our working lives. It is OUR money. Look at it like this: It's a 'set-aside' for our non-working years, and maybe with things the way they are going in this political arena, we would have been better off if we had just saved and invested that money ourselves instead of giving it to the government. they have mis-handled everything since after the Constitution was signed. If I were of an ethnic group or had children out of wedlock I'd get a darn site more.

I have a rant. I usually like to keep my postings on a more upbeat note, but I want to get this rant off my chest.
I do not like automated telephone answering systems and circuitous menues that take you from one choice to another and back to the starting point and then say, "please hold, someone will be with you in just a moment," then blast loud raucous music in your ear for a time, then repeat, "someone will be with you in a moment." Click. Dial tone.

Ice tea. Tea seems like an absolute to me. Tea is tea. there are varieties of course, such as oolong and Earl Grey, etc. But TEA is a basic, a staple in the same way that coffee is a staple.
So tell me why I have to stipulate UNsweet when I order iced tea if I do not want to gag on the cloying sugary adulteration of my tea on the first sip. If I wanted it sweet I would stir in some sugar, much as I did when I was a child, something I outgrew in my early teens. If someone wants 'sweet tea' let them order it. If those of us who are purists want our tea natural, let us safely order 'tea' and get what we expect. Having to stipulate UNsweet tea, to me is every bit as annoying as having to 'press 1 for English.'

Okay, thanks for your patience. I'm done ranting now. :>)
So anyway, I am hoping and praying that my blogs will expand their audience in order to help me survive. If you have ever liked what you read in any of my various blogs and blogs posts, please share the links with your friends and also, write and tell me if the ads are appropriate and of any interest and anything else you would be interested in seeing advertised in them. Do any of you understand SEO (search engine optimization)? I need to figure it out so that I am more searchable. The whole thing is Greek to me.
Thank you for following.
Blessed Be
Victoria

23. More Developments

Sorry: yes, its been a few weeks again and I have been busy. I accepted a position for four days a week, four hours a day. Yup! Sixteen whole hours at a mere eight bucks an hour. What a joke. The job lasted all of nine days before the old codger had the opportunity to close on a deal, purchase a South American company that repairs old airplanes and took on the staff that went with it, thus shoving aside any need for an office worker with perfect English but no other language skills.
Yes this is Florida, a multi-language state and I should expect that. Still, it was abrupt and rude.
They promote the factory products (marine and cargo rope things as 'Made in America' but I do not think there is a single person born and bred in America who works in the factory. An administrator and a sales person are true Americans but their dissatisfaction is evident and I doubt they will stay much longer either. From our conversations, they are not thrilled with the whole thing.
I continue to edit a wonderful book by a fascinating man. It is a memoir of a particular traumatic sequence of events and I will provide a review when it is complete. I will let you know so you can look for it on Victoria's Book Reviews page and purchase it on Amazon.
My computer has been giving me assorted serious problems. Word repeatedly crashes. so I downloaded and installed KingSoft Office and the word processor on that crashed four times today.
I bought a brand new battery that will not charge more than 42% and will not hold it so I can go wireless for even a moment. My newish Bluetooth mouse has ceased to function even with brand new Duracell battery installed. I cannot open certain web pages and I am quite concerned since it appears that this laptop will possibly be my main source of income through writing and editing work.
I continue to get periodic dog sitting jobs with St. Bernard Rescue and I hope to get a few more house and or pet sitting jobs in the future. this does not yet add up to more than the barest of survival. I cannot save anything toward moving or getting a place to move to, let alone travel money to return to Nashville to get my stuff my dear friends are storing for me. How nice it would be to get all my essentials together under one roof with a kitchen I can actually use. I should say how nice it WILL be when I can do that.
I am working on positive affirmations when I remember to do so. I highly recommend that. If nothing seems to come of it, its still better than dwelling on awful stuff.