View of the Town

by Brigit K. O’Leary

The Job Club at the Salvation Army under the able direction of Neil Jones and Major Scott Hewlett is having great response from the community. Jody Patterson of the TC wrote an excellent

Article about the program. Ultimately, we are all benefiting from this support. Neil is assisting unemployed persons giving counselling, job finding help and general support, particularly those dealing with unique barriers: family complications or disabilities and being new to Victoria,. Wonderful to have the “Sally Ann’s” focus in this area!

The JobStores, have a Career Renewal/Change in mid-life program Scheduled for May 1 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. This is for the over 45 age group and sets off with asking the important questions: What excites you? What do you have to offer? What has meaning for you? Create personal profile, then use to brainstorm for job ideas. The second workshop is on the 22 of May, from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Navigating Roadblocks in Mid-Life again four hours for the over 45 age group and this program focuses on tips and tools to access information jobs and the workplace, roadblocks to midlife change and how to overcome them. Discussion and strategies to deal with roadblocks for making change is a bonus here too. Pre-registration is at The JobStores, The new BAY Centre, formerly the old Eaton’s Centre. The cost is $75.00 for each workshop and to register over the phone, call # (250) 386 9901.

Maturity Works Society is participating with The Community Social Planning Council in the Quality of Life Challenge Strategy Session. This process is set up to develop concrete solutions to move people in BC’s Capital Region out of poverty and through paid work. Key to this session is the just published Poverty Matrix Project Interim Report (April 2003). MWS are pleased to be included and presenting the views and concerns of mature Victorians.

Join the members and friends of Maturity Works at the Campus Coffee Company café located by Safeway at the University Heights Mall every 3rd Wednesday of the month. Now the next upcoming evening out is May 22^th^. We will have our poster up by the end couch, join us for a discount coffee, meet others and enjoy swapping stories.

Hatha Yoga, Fri. @ 5 pm, excellent way to unwind at the end of the week, other classes available during the day, half price special on now. Pacific Yoga System for strength, stamina and balance, phone 475 2885, located @ 1551Cedarhill X Rd, near Shelbourne.

Take time to go for a walk, feed the ducks, meditate and be kind to your-self. Life is meaning, and you’re it!

10 tips for staying employable Jayne MacAulay

May it never happen to you - being downsized, laid off, out of work. But if it does, and you're 50 plus, is your age an extra liability?

The "silver ceiling" is a fact of life in the job market, according to a study on older workers done for Human Resources Development Canada. "One of the realities of our society is that there's discrimination - subtle and sometimes not so subtle - around age, colour, gender, etc.," acknowledges Robert Watson, manager of The Danforth Human Resource Centre, one of the employment resource centres operated by HRDC in Toronto.

"One of our goals is to try and combat that ageism through targeted programs."

To dust off an old cliché, the best defense is a good offense. For every myth about older workers, there's a counter point of view that builds on the positive aspects of maturity and experience.

The myth:	The reality:
Inflexible	Equally adaptable
More health problems	Lower rate of absenteeism
Overqualified	Know the history, what works
Less productive	Good at multi-tasking, stress management
Too expensive	Equity, fairness preferable to money
Unwilling to work for younger boss	Mentors for younger people

Here are 10 practical tips for staying employable:

Be persistent. Watson's experience tells him mature workers can and do land good jobs. "It's a matter of keeping skill sets up to date and attitudes positive," he says. "I think that anyone who is persistent and pursues the programs that are available has a good chance of getting work." He advises to be vigilant and ask your contacts for advice and information.

Keep your skills polished. Take regular training or professional development seminars. Computers are everywhere in the workplace. Learn the most frequently used programs, how to send e-mail and how to use the Internet.

Keep your resumé updated. You'll be able to start the job search sooner. Knowing what you can offer an employer will boost your confidence level.

Track trends in your industry. You can do this through newspapers, journals and magazines and by talking with colleagues.

Develop networking skills. Most jobs-about 80 per cent-are found in the hidden job market. Family, acquaintances and business associates can be a valuable source of information about job possibilities and the decision-makers to contact.

Stay informed. Christine Thomas, a partner in the international executive search firm, Ray and Berndtson, suggests reading between the lines of newspaper business pages and trade publications. Look at who is hiring and promoting. What qualifications would they require? Are they likely to value experienced workers? Check out their websites. Go to their annual general meetings.

Look after yourself. Work on effective ways of handling stress. Don't neglect your health.

Look current. Image consultant Catherine Graham Bell of Prime Impressions in Kingston, Ontario, says 50-plus people often forget to update eyeglasses. How old is your hairstyle? Does your natural hair colour make you look tired? Properly proportioned clothing can make you look good, feel confident. Thinning hair combed across the forehead can be distracting.

Assess your skills and accomplishments.
Think like an entrepreneur - what can you offer that an employer values?

Have a positive attitude. The more comfortable you are with yourself and your abilities, the better you'll be able to cope with interviewers who may be wary of older workers.

("This article reprinted with permission from CARPNews 50Plus magazine”)

Americans Working Longer

AARP's National Council on the
Aging - By Kent Burtner

As Americans age, they are working longer than ever before, according to
reports from AARP and the National Council on the Aging.

In its 2002 study, "American Perceptions of Aging in the 21st Century," NCOA
reported that 42 percent of people over 65 are either working full time (19
percent) or are working and retired at the same time (23 percent). Why this trend? One reason is that research is showing that the pool of younger workers is getting smaller. As baby boomers retire, there are fewer younger people to take
their places. Many companies realize that older workers have skills that took year to hone and a desirable work ethic. Even if they can find them, employers often find that the costs of training younger workers do not justify letting boomers go.

Workers stay on the job for another reason: money. Baby boomers have not
saved for their retirement as well as their seniors.

Already, 17 percent of people who report incomes at 125 percent or less than the poverty level are seniors. In the NCOA survey, 40 percent of people 65
years of age or older reported "money problems" as their most significant
concern.

If the recent round of service cuts to seniors are any kind of precursor,
boomers will need to depend more on their own resources than the generation
ahead of them.

A recent survey indicated that the majority of boomers still think that when
they are elderly, the state will "take over" their care. But they may be sorely mistaken, given their numbers and the predicted inadequacy of Social
Security and Medicare funds, and the present shortage of Medicaid funding.
One's "meaning in life" still figures strongly for senior citizens. When
looking ahead, 41 percent of NCOA survey respondents indicated that they
were worried about "not being productive" when they reach age 75 or beyond.

Psychotherapist Viktor Frankel noted that Nazi concentration camp inmates
who felt their lives had "meaning" survived in greater numbers than others;
similarly, the NCOA study suggests those who believe that their lives matter
generally perceive life to be better than those who don't.

Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Board chairman, recently told the American Congress that he expects the "fit elderly population" to increase its representation in the workforce.
"Americans not only are living longer, but they are generally living
healthier," he said. "In addition, work is becoming less physically strenuous but more demanding intellectually, continuing a century-long trend toward a more conceptual and a less physical economic output."

Participation in the workforce by women is also on the rise. The U.S.
Department of Labor predicts that between 1998 and 2008, the number of jobs held by women will increase by 15 percent, compared with 10 percent for men.

The department's Women's Bureau expects this trend to continue as boomers continue to age. All these trends suggest that reaching the age of 65 and then just stopping work is not likely to be the normal course for the boomer generation.

As stereotypes of the elderly change, the term "retirement age" will mean
something other than 65.

Kent Burtner is public information officer for the Washington County Department of Aging and Veterans Services.

Finding Work: Doing it on your Own

Plenty of job seekers wish to do it on their own. The local library is a good starting point for information on job searches, interviewing techniques and resume writing.

For the computer savvy, the Internet is a great resource for everything from job listings to how-to advice such as for writing a resume or excelling at interviews. Check out the Maturity Works web-site for many free sites on the above. You could try typing such career-oriented works as “Resume Interviewing” on a search engine and seeing what pops up.

Bush up on your interviewing skills, this formats change with the times too. You will notice this especially if you haven’t looked for work in recent years. The job market is competitive. Many in it have an edge with interview coaching. However, you can ask a friend to role-play as an employer.

Some might decide the best way to get a job is to create their own. Yet, not everyone is suited for self-employment. Among those are people who never had a single entrepreneurial thought until losing their job came about. What will make you succeed is the choice of business, which should mesh with the individual’s work personality. It should be something you’re qualified to do and enjoy doing. There also should be a market for it and lots of preparation.

You can tap in the resources of Business Victoria {384-2432} for ideas on starting new businesses.

But the big job source turns out to be networking – simply knowing the right people. Eight out of 10 jobs are found through networking. The first thing is to tell everyone you know you’re looking for work, and them what you’re looking for. This includes continuing to go to your club and work-related associations as well as volunteer work.

The second circle of networking takes the job seeker beyond those they know to people their friends know.

The third level sounds like cold calling –knocking on stranger’s doors seeking “informational interviews” on what might be available in the future.

After the job seeker has widened his networking, made use of all the available resources and dressed the part, get ready for a job offer. It will probably happen.

This article taken from an article by Walter Donald, veteran career consultant By permission from Editorial Staff at Times Colonist for use in Non-profits newsletter.

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“I would certainly be a proponent of the value of older workers. It is just a highly successful business plan.”

Frederick Hartman, President, Vita Needle Co. USA

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Tips for Preparing Your Resume

From the BC Government

Before you begin preparing your resume, read through job description materials. These will help you identify the kinds of skills/abilities They are searching for. It will also help you extract your corporate communications skills, abilities and experience in order to highlight them in your resume. A common question how long? The ideal length is a maximum of three pages.

Here are some tips on completing your resume online. Place your information in the following order:

Communications Career objective
Include a one-sentence overview of what you are striving for.

Communications skills/abilities Include 5-7 bullets highlighting your communications-related skills/abilities.

Education List the post-secondary education you have completed and/or is underway. It is important to indicate if the education you are taking is not yet complete. Also, for example, if you have an MBA, include its major.

Work Experience This is the heart of your resume. Beginning with the most recent work experience, list the title of your position, your employer, and the term of your employment (including the month and year of the start and finish.) Note: This means repeating the information you just documented under "Chronological Employment History" in the application form.

Underneath this information, include four to six bullets summarizing your accomplishments, key skills or major responsibilities in this position. (Note: It is very important to include this information because it links your skills/abilities to a particular job held. Without this detail, your application will not be considered further.)

Volunteer Work/organizations (if applicable) List the volunteer work you may have done. Indicate where you worked and include bullets that summarize the primary responsibilitities/accomplishments your job entailed

Professional training/workshops
Include the title of the workshop/seminar and the year you attended. You may wish to include the facilitator, but it is not critical.

Awards (if applicable) Include if applicable any communications-related awards you have received.

Hobbies/other interests This is optional. While not critical to a resume, it gives us a sense of what you enjoy doing outside work.

References "References available upon request" is sufficient. You may find that your references change between the time you complete your online resume and the time you are called for an interview. You should be prepared to provide current references following an interview.

Outside the Box Considerations By Brigit K. O’Leary

….. Want to start a business but not work alone? For people who want to be neither private business owners nor traditionally employed, but do want to co-run and co-own a business contact Co-operative Enterprise Centre at 100 3795 Bay Street, Victoria Ph. #595-6451 or check it out on www.co-opinfo.com Email: victoria@co-opinfo.com

……Probing farther a field from the norm in your job search? Why not investigate the following: “How you can travel the world on a luxury cruise ship and get paid for it?” Contact (813) 822 1515 or ticket2adv@aol.com see CruiseShip Centers Ltd or call # (250) 381 7447 …… Interested in teaching English aboard? Various ESL training classes are available with information seminars frequently held in Victoria. Check out www.globaltesol.com

……Over 50 and at a loss as to where to go now? Checkout options offered with www.seniorsforjobs.com and call Mike: #(250) 477-2205

……Volunteer Victoria is always looking for volunteers. If you are considering a career change, why not try a new area out with minimal obligation, only 4 hours a week, for six months is required. Test out a “passion” call:. #386-2269

……Interested in newspaper work, layout, or research? MWS has a new newspaper on the drawing board and welcomes volunteers. Bring energy contributions, time and /or skills. Call #(250) 383 5144, ext. # 1548. ……Shannon Renault, employment coordinator at Destinations tells me there is a new program: Hardhats, an innovative new job training & placement program for the residential construction industry For more information go to: www.hardhats.ca or call #388-0858

Task Force facing off Poverty Matrix!

April 16^th was the scene of a dynamic working session by various community service groups, local businesses and several non profit organizations at Uvic, hosted by Quality of Life Challenge and Community Council. A serious anti poverty initiative, with concerned business and community leaders involved. “Even the most jaded contemporary observer would have been impressed with this crowd” More than 50 people attended and are bent on making a difference. Joining the likes of CEDCO, the YWCA and other great local organizations, the MWS group took part focus groups and are actively working ina task force to design and develop means to deal with getting something going as soon as possible to deal with issues. To provide an unemployed person with a support session and follow up in job acquisition. Priority concerns are transportation, good clothes, fresh hairdo, as well as a good dose of positive mentoring and moral support are vital components to a fresh start. Julia Kruz, employment liaison for the Victoria Immigrant & Refugee Centre tells a recent tale of she and her co workers helped a woman. They pooled their personal resources, clothes, money for nylons and borrowed shoes for a young woman to go for an interview. She got the job! She had nothing materially, yet she had will and skills, so she was outfitted with community care & concern. Word is she has returned the favour and the support for another! This is what we need more action, less words.

….Thank you CEDCO for the office support and mentoring of MWS staff in their new development efforts! More reporting on these initiatives in the coming weeks!

Maturity Volume 1 Number 9

View of the Town

by Brigit K. O’Leary

Outside the Box Considerations By Brigit K. O’Leary

Task Force facing off Poverty Matrix!