Editors Note: Have you wondered whether you are the only one out there trying to start a new career at over 40,50 or for that matter 60 years old? Perhaps having to learn new skills and resetting your salary expectations. Mary Kearl, at Forbes.com, in "Lessons From a 60-Year-Old Intern" really puts a human spin on it. BTW Interns Over 40 is featured in this article:) Enjoy. Lessons From A 60-Year-Old Intern
"In February 2009 Julie Allstrom, 60, an executive assistant with four decades' worth of office experience, lost her full-time job with a professional sports team in Virginia where she earned $60,000 a year.With one month's pay and six months' insurance coverage included in her severance package, her husband and their five grown daughters encouraged her to finally finish her college degree that was tabled when she got married. By fall 2009 she was enrolled at George Mason University, studying a mix of workplace and organizational communications, human resources and women's studies. During her second semester, she found her next job: an unpaid internship at a national non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.
How to start a new career mid-life with an internship:Bob Edelman, founder of and director of Interns Over 40, a job-listings and employment-search-tips site that launched in July 2009 that now reaches 40,000 monthly visitors ages 45 to 55, paints a broader picture: "With unemployment at near 10% ... the over-40 category [has seen] so many well-established industries demolished, resulting in long-term structural unemployment." Affected workers are literally forced to seek new careers.
Though she had never planned on interning, Allstrom, whose past careers include state government manager, social worker, instructor, call center manager and small-business owner, says, "I needed current experience on my résumé, and I needed to build a network of new contacts. This internship has met those objectives."Reset Salary Expectations:
"Salary deflation exists," says Edelman. If you made $80,000 at your previous job, your salary may only be $50,000 at the next one. "Value doesn't transfer--not in this economy."
Be sure to give us your comments on how you might be or have handled a similar situation as an older unemployed skilled worker?
Read complete article at:In Pictures: How To Intern Your Way To A New Career
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