http://tencartrain.com/?p=115

I suggest we create a code. If the listing specifies that no age discrimination is to be practiced, we will assume that no one over 40 will be hired. I was told, years ago, that when the ads said “women and minorities are encouraged” or “minorities and women are encouraged” the first-listed group was the one being sought for the job.

This seeems a more rational way to handle the situation. If it’s not completely honest, at least it permits everyone to know what is expected.

A few years ago, my hubby was making 6 figures doing IT work for a nice lil company here in Arizona. Then the recession hit us hard. Hubby tried to hold onto an IT job in California with dismal results, so he came home.

He continued to look for work almost daily, on the internet, cold calling, etc. Several times, he wasn’t considered for positions because he didn’t have any degrees. He still doesn’t have any degrees. At that time, I was a home maker, homeschooling our young son.

We took stock of our situation. We had debt, a child, and we needed money. To get the money, we had to be flexible. Our attitude was to do anything legal to get the money.

So, we went to work. I did clerical work, then bill collecting, then research interviewing. Hubby became a security guard, then entry level IT work, finally coming back to his career in IT.

In the meantime, we lowered our debt as much as possible and now, our son is in college.

We’ll never see 6 figure income again, unless we’re lucky. However, we’re comfortable and we’re getting by. No doubt, we’ll fall upon financial hard times again someday. Hopefully, we’ll be ready and make it through.

So there’s my suggestion. Be flexible and do whatever it takes. Avoid debt and credit as much as possible. If you’re comfortable and avoiding poverty, count your blessings.

Umm… well, yes. That’s a very good basis for all of life’s decisions. Frankly, given your age and experience, I’m astonished that it took you a $25,000 degree program to know that.

Sorry you didn’t get a job with your degree. But you know, a lot of recent graduates who are much younger than you also don’t have degrees. Universities are not job-training programs. Education is a supplement, not the basis of a career.

Those of us in the middle class, being squeezed out are constanly told education is the only answer. But what we end up with is a low-paying job, AND a student loan to pay off.

The press, which is largely owned by the people who laid us off, tell us that Americans are not educated enough, there is a shortage of skilled help. They then get the help from places where there are fewer colleges and demand far less education for our replacements.

Here in Springfield Massachusetts we have 3 four year colleges and 1 Community College. In the metropolitan area we have at lest 4 additional 4 year colleges, as well as community colleges and junior colleges. Not enough colleges?

When I started taking programming courses, over 20 years ago, there were very few computer languages. The government decreed that it would only buy computers that used about 4 languages. There was a good reason for this. It was to ensure that people did not waste time learning to do the same thing in a different companies language.

Now the field is a Tower of Babel with about 50 languages that do essentially the same thing. Nor having experience at any one of them can be cause to be deemed “unqualified.” The expense of learning the language has been shifted from the owner of the computer to the person who wants the job. So Why not change languages every year? Some in India will be willing to learn it, possibly at his government’s expense. And in some cases the government that is paying to educate the person in it is receiving foreign aid from the United States.

In some cases the Americans coming out of school are idiot savants who think that the utilities they have gone in debt to learn will last forever like Hitler and his 1000 year Reich. I told one,” this spiffy new software and the machine that uses it will be obsolete junk within two years.” He was very angry with me.

The press just parrots the party line. The academics hope to get students. If they do not they will have to get jobs which do not exist in the private sector.

I myself am taking additional training in IT, seeing I have a very open schedule in which to take classes. There are no jobs anyway. But even the Great Depression ended eventually, so I figure the additional skills will be useful.

But the Great Depression did not end by sending everyone to school. It ended by government reorganization of the economy and job creation.

We will not get jobs just by focusing on our work, but by focusing on politics. That is how the problem started, and that is how it must be solved.

And if you have your mind focused on which major party hack is going to get to be president, you should get yourself a cup of pencils to sell on a street corner in the “global economy” because they helped put us in the street.

Since we are in the street anyway we might as well run of office and complain where it might do some good.

When they see we have X years of experience, and the degree is new, we are immediately recognized as being older. We should stop putting dates on the degrees listed on resumes.

Something else we should do is networking only with those our age. We will not, as others have written, receiveany respect from those younger than we.