Told I am too old to find a new job

It can take a while to find new jobs, especially in some areas. Keep trying and perhaps widen your choice. If you're in the position of being able to manage on a part- time salary, then look around and see what else available outside of HR that might actually be more fun.

In some ways, I feel like saying "welcome to my world!" I'm in a similar situation.

When you say "cannot retire for another 4 years" do you actually mean that you won't get a pension until then? There is a difference.

Going to bed now, so please excuse if I sort of leave this hanging.

I think more & more people will be finding themselves in a similar position since they changed the age at which you can get your pension.

I myself have recently been job hunting after years of being a carer. Something I find myself ill prepared for & quite scary.

In my opinion the Government should have put more thought & practical help in place to support us.

I hope you find something suitable soon Dingbat

I was made redundant in my early 50s. I spent a year job hunting and found I was unemployable because of my age.

This was sometime ago and my employer was shedding over 30,000 jobs so I was offered a generous early retirement package, including an immediate pension, but I felt too young to retire and wanted to work. In the end I decided to do voluntary work instead.

I must have been lucky, I've recently started a new job at 61. I took a significant pay cut, am working part time in the voluntary sector. I would encourage anyone job seeking to look for paid work with a charity, the pay is usually as good as in any other job.

It's nothing like my last job, a steep learning curve but I'm loving it, like a breath of fresh air

Dingbat keep at it there is a job out there for you- don't let people tell you things like that- you have lots of skill and experience to offer. We know in our sixties that our fast track career days are over but as others here have said the voluntary sector has paid and unpaid jobs which are often much more inspiring. Good Luck with it.

I got my job at 62. I know it isn't glamorous, and the hours are awful, but it is work, and supplements my pension. We would struggle without it. A friend of mine just got a job at Pets at Home, and she used to do secretarial work. The jobs are there if you can leave your lifetime career behind and branch out into something different.

I did a complete career change from selling new homes for many years when my children where at home to running a restaurant/bar abroad for nearly 10yrs then running my own catering business back here in UK so we all have hidden talents,I have now scaled down my catering and only pick and choose what I want to do which at present is very little indeed but the requests are still coming in for reservations so I must have done something right when I changed direction.

I was job hunting at 41, long before any age discrimination legislation was in place. I enquired at the Job Centre about a position for a receptionist - the advert asked for a 'mature candidate'. Perfect I thought! Wrong. When the girl at the JC phoned them all went well until she was asked my age. They weren't interested because, they said, by 'mature' they meant about 27. .
The government can change the rules, but they can't change attitudes unfortunately.

Mature at 27 - blimey, what does that make me!?

I feel very sorry for those who are caught in this trap of having their pension age moved forward. I retired and drew my state pension at 60 - so I am one of the lucky ones. To be honest, because of health problems for me and my OH, I would have been very hard pushed to have continued at work.

It does seem to be nonsense to move the pension age without thinking about all those people in their late 50s and early 60s who will be shunned by the job market and need to draw on Job Seekers (and other benefits) instead, which could be just as expensive to the state as paying their pensions.

I wish you lots of luck with your job-seeking Dingbat and hope that the right job comes along. Is the income vital to you, or could you do some voluntary work?

I was made redundant from my college job at 58. I asked them to pay for training in ESOL teaching as part of the package and to my astonishment they agreed. So for a couple of years I was able to make use of this qualification on a part-time basis. After a while I began to fall apart physically and didn't carry on working but I do regret losing touch with my professional colleagues. Is there any further training you can take advantage of, Dingbat? Even something quite separate from your professional expertise? To take an example, I've been on a lot of Ramblers' holidays with leaders who have retired from various jobs but love walking in glorious scenery and relate well to their clientele.

59 here soon to be 60 jobcentre looming nearer n nearer.....let's wait and see, I'm sure I will have tales to tell!

The reason i must find a job is because my pension will not be paid until I am 65 it was because of the new ruling.

I was working for a charity when i got made redundant so the payout was not a great amount of money.

I have tried applying for job in different area not just HR and i am still not having any luck.

Thank you all for your replies I will keep trying.

I aM another one who won't get a pension until I'm 65 Dingbat, having been made redundant from my previous job, again with little compensation.

I do hope you have better luck very soon.

Made to take redundancy just over a year ago. Cant get another job at 67.5

Hi,
Just joined Gransnet so this is my first post.

Am 58 with 20 years NHS experience an MBA and was made redundant in 2013 have had one post since then but no other luck. I still want to work and am too young for retirement. Does any one know of an recruitment agencies that specifically target the 'older' age bracket or do I just have to resign my self to the scrap heap of life?

I wish I did, appleby! I'm 56 and still hoping....

Maybe we could start a campaign?

My SisIL is having the same experience as the above posters. At 59 with a vast amount of professional experience, she cannot get a job.

She spends hours filling in application forms and refining her CV. She does get interviews, researches the jobs and companies, only to be rejected post interview. Feedback is wish you washy and not much help.

She is now of the opinion that she gets interviews on the equal op. tick box, as her qualifications meet the essential requirements, but does not get the jobs due to ageism.

j52 I believe that to be the case too. I think younger recruiters have a strange idea of what an "older" person is. I think there's a suspicion too of people with a lot of experience. I think it can be seen as a threat.

Appleby you obviously have fantastic experience, have you thought about maybe starting your own recruitment agency? you have identified a huge gap in the market, there is so much talent and expertise out there.

Dingbat I own a business and employ people, I have learnt the hard way about managing HR, in the early days, I would have really appreciated being able to speak to someone like you on a consultancy basis, is this an option for you? There are loads of people out there running small businesses and making costly mistakes like I did.

Good luck to all

I think to some extent you've identified one major problem gettingonabit. There is a fear of an older person coming in and 'knowing more' than those they will be working with.

Thought this might be an ideal place to mention the WASPI campaign - I know from other posts that many are very aware of the campaign and the continued fight to try to get some sort of transitional scheme for the women who find themselves having to wait until up to 66 for state pension with little notice having been given to allow people to plan effectively - I recently found an article in our local paper, which then lead me to to the South Yorkshire WASPI group, they have had a local meeting in Sheffield and Rotherham and now Barnsley numbers are growing and I attended the first Barnsley meeting last week, the next will be in August, but yesterday many WASPI women did a mass posting of a letter to DWP and our local MP's putting in a Formal Complaint regarding the lack of adequate notice and requesting transitional payments and possibly compensation, the DWP in theory should respond to our letters within 14 days, but they will have been inundated with post!, we shall see what comes of it, but women of a certain age are certainly not going to let this go without a fight. The local groups are on facebook, but pm me if you want any basic info.

The job I have is 15 hrs a week, (3 hrs per morning) with a cleaning agency. We are a team of four, and we clean the local Waitrose store. I do the offices, dining room and toilets. It's an easy job but starts at 04:00 which might be a bit early for some. It doesn't bother me as I worked permanent night shift before retiring from nursing. If I were looking for a job now, I would look at agencies. There are loads to choose from.

My new job lasted 12 months and the Health/Social Care funding wasn't renewed (thanks to the incompetent reporting by the fundholder ?) but sod all I could do about it.
I'm now retired and hoping to eke out my small NHS pension. I have to say I'm loving it so far ?
I'm certainly bearing hildajenniJ's words in mind, just in case. Thank you!