Looking for a new job at 50

Just when you think you got it made in your cushy job, you suddenly find yourself on the unemployment heap and start looking for a job. You are almost 50, and start grappling with your real middle-age crisis.

Changing jobs at 50 may be perfectly acceptable in this day and age of volatile economies and labour markets that have long expanded, and which are themselves undergoing major structural changes because of new jobs coming up and older ones dying out because they are no longer needed.

At 50 you might find yourself in the extraordinary position of having to adapt and change. There are many challenges, great opportunities, alternatives and expansion for the work cycle.

It is certainly not easy to find yourself out of a job at that age, but with little else, apart from counting one's misfortunes and possible miseries, it is essential to continue to look on the bright side of things. Yes, you are 50, out-of-job, and probably wondering about the next wage or salary, but also, you have years and years of experience.

Not many people realize is that such experience equips you with what’s is called innovation and creativity. Often and many don’t realize as well, is these are innate, and only come out when they are needed.

That should put you in good stead with many employers. Indeed, today it’s a tough labour market and with intense competition with people with more professional degrees and certificates but you need to keep looking on the bright side. You have to think of yourself as providing added value as against the other young employees and upstarts.

So no gloom or doom, you learn to adapt, and the best emotionally-equipped person, is the one who takes the bull by the horn, and looks at what is out there, what is needed. Of course, at 50 you might be wanting to look to continue with your career path in another company, one you've been doing for years, sort of changing jobs from one employer to another.

This may no longer be the case available and you may suddenly have to start looking for alternatives but the important thing is to keep your options open. You must say to yourself "I've been doing this job for a long-time, but I can still change, do not one thing but a myriad of things if I put my mind to it.

Because don't forget, you probably would be looking for jobs that are similarly, or even remotely connected to what you have been doing.

If not, well you'll just have to make a 180-degree turn and take the plunge. I always remember the person who digitally stored my doctorate thesis. It was in the mid-1980s and universities were beginning to demand that students submit their work through what was then on a computer floppy disc, now of course long gone out of existence

We got to talking and it turned out my new 'helper' worked for 15 years as warehouse keeper, completely remote to what he turned to doing. One day he decided to adopt to the new computer technologies, started advertising his services, and Bob's your uncle, found there was much demand. He said it was easy stuff for him, you just handed him your material, typed or hand-written, and he just laid it out on the computer.

He adapted and made money, moving on with new technologies. I dare say, his services now might no longer be needed because more and more people use computers and online as part of their living.

For the 50-year-old, this is another great possibility as more and more people are today working from home because of the beauty of the internet. This vast electronic network has opened up vast opportunities revolving around e-commerce with billions and billions of dollars being made annually.

At this age, and with a bit of innovation, clicking the mouse and tapping the keyboard and some posting, you can probably have a small sum from that very large pie and very comfortably continue to make ends meet.

So in a way, life can begin at 50 with you doing things you never thought you can do. You lost your job but you found something much more exciting and productive.

Of course, people having the right attitude. There are many with attitude problem, they are grumpy, stuffy, difficult and unable to change. Now, that will get you nowhere, so change!