Career Plan for the Over 50

Career planning after 50 should not be a one time transaction, but rather career planning at any age, should be a lifelong process.
If you need to jumpstart you after 50 career planning, now is the time to start on spring cleaning out your career closet. Spend you time and effort now in building your career future-it will be time well spent.
Here are some actions you can start right now-get a head start on your spring cleaning:
1. Update your network. Make contact with everyone you haven't talked to in a while. If they have some career or job hunting issues offer to help.
2. Build an "atta-boy," file. Go back over the past year or more and start a file on performance reviews, thank-you letters, seminars and workshops attended, samples of work, projects managed, accomplishments and memo's outlining results. For the future keep the file up to date.
3. Draft a personal training and educational plan. What are your training needs? Books you need to read? Plan on reading at least two books a month-one about your career and another to stretch your knowledge. Other gaps in you skills that need to be filled?
4. Discover 10 or more people working in your career, or working in a proposed new career. Make arrangements to meet with them and share ideas. Add them to your career network and keep in touch.
5. Find 6 or more blogs or forums related to your career and industry. Visit them on a regular basis to stay up to date. Share the list with others in your career and ask for their favorites.
6. Review your overall systems and computer competencies with someone knowledgeable in IT. Make arrangements to add to your learning in this area. Get one related problem solved that has been vexing you.
7. Become more active in you local professional association. Add contacts to your network.
8. Volunteer you time in a cause or organization you admire. You'll realize a variety of rewards along with the chance to meet new people. Add contacts to your network.
9. Search for additional ways to add value to your job and department. Find ways to become more efficient and more responsive to both your internal and external customers.
10. Carefully analyze you own performance. Did you meet the goals you set for yourself last year? What went right and what went wrong? Plan to do better in the coming year.
11. Whenever possible look for opportunities to use a skill or interest working temporarily in another function or in a task that will give you the opportunity to work with another department or different group of people.
12. It's spring so give your wardrobe an updating. Look for sales and donate everything you haven't worn for-awhile.
13. Schedule a physical check-up. Get approval to start an exercise and diet program. Set your goals in short chunks and celebrate achieving each goal.
14. Build your coaching skills. Help a subordinate or co-worker advance their skills.
15. Draft your resume in a functional, chronological and targeted format. The exercise will help you respond to possible opportunities.
Now after your spring cleaning you've got your career planning after 50 back on track. With any plan it should not be ignored and put back in the closet. Put each action item in writing and work on your career plan every day.

You'll now be prepared for any and all after 50 career opportunities.

Finance/Your Job Interview

We have already talked out cover letters and CV`s but now comes the tricky part. The Interview. I hope that the information supplied helps you get your feet on the "Employment Ladder".

I'm always amazed at how few candidates arrive at the interview having done any professional research on the company they're applying to join! I suggest there are 2 levels of research:

1. Basic research: This requires you to know the basic information about the company such as:

a) What its main products/services are
b) Some history about the company
c)  Where it operates
d) The company's general "reputation"

Most of these points are easily found on the company's website or through a simple search on your favourite search engine. This should not take more than 15 - 30 minutes of your time.

2. Detailed research:

If you're really serious about standing out from the competition, then I recommend investing another 30 - 60 minutes of your time in some more detailed research. This is what you should do:

a) Search the web for press releases and news about the company in order to spot major launches, events, market response to services/products and investor reaction to results etc. By doing this, you will quickly be able to identify how the company is doing, its reputation and whether it is viewed as being well managed or not.
b) If its a quoted company, go to the investor section on the website and download the pdf of the latest annual results. There are 2 important things you'll find here - there's also a lot of boring stuff to avoid!. Firstly, you can find the CEO's statement. This will give you plenty of information on where the company is going, major initiatives etc. The second is the profit and loss or income statement. I'm not suggesting you all turn into accountants overnight, however a simple calculator and 10 minutes of your time will give you some information on how fast the company is growing and whether its profitable.

You now have about as much information as you need to move to our final step. 

Often, you'll be asked a question "what do you know about us"? Well, you now have the information to answer that one better than most. Towards the end of an interview, it's likely that you'll be asked the following "is there anything you'd like to ask us"?  This is a real opportunity to stand out as you will have developed 3 or 4 possible questions from your research that you can now ask. The video will give you some examples of how we suggest you develop your questions.

Importantly, when its your turn to ask questions of the recruiter, I suggest you preface your questions with the following ..."When I was doing my research in preparation for this interview, I came across ...". This will make it obvious to the recruiter that you've done your homework.

Congratulations!! by following a few simple steps, you are now professionally prepared for your interview - much more so than the majority of the other candidates. Good luck!

Finance/Money Management

"I am trying something new in the art of money management, that I thought I would share.
When it comes to money, I am completely lost.  I have spoken with professionals, read books, tried software, etc...
What it comes down to, is that numbers on a spreadsheet or bank statement, simply have no meaning to me.  I cannot visualize what the numbers mean.
I am the same in my professional life.  Since I was 10 years old, ,I have always been able to repair hardware or mechanical issues, without any thorough understanding of the thing that I was working on.  I could just see the problem, when others could not.
 However, despite several years of computer networking schools, software issues have always alluded me.  I cannot pick up a piece of software, turn it in my hands, and see the problem.  Therefor I am lost.

Also, I am self employed, so I like to use my debit card for all of my purchases. This allows me to have a record for my accountant, but again, bank statements don't help me very much.

Since budgets are deemed absolutely essential to money management.  And since writing down a budget does not help me in any way. I decided to try a new approach".

The above user copied pretend money and divied it up into sections (still totalling the amount their paycheck would normally come to) Fun, Bills, Expences, Kids, groceries, savings.

"Now that I have my fake money, I can take my paycheck or bank statement and represent it in a tangible way.

I Label envelopes with my various categories of expenses.

I then divvy up the money into whatever category I want to budget for.

Some of the books that I have read, suggest that when budgeting, All of your money should be accounted for and placed into a category, with none left over.

Every pound has a job, so put every pound to work.

That is the approach that I am trying.

I keep the envelopes in my car.  Whenever I have to buy groceries or a tool,  I simply remove that amount from the correct envelope and place it into the spent pile along with my receipts.  When the envelope is empty, I don't have any money left to spend in that category.

This has allowed me to divvy up my money while keeping it in one bank account.  Meanwhile I can continue using a debit card or checkbook for all of my purchases.  It also makes it easier for me to reconcile my bank statement at the end of the month, by just counting cash in my envelopes. 

Finance/Employment for Graduates.

This may be obvious, but you need to write a great resume and cover letter.  This needs to be a long process, and in some cases it may even be a little painful.  Like any important document, both of these need to be proofread by your most trusted advisers.  For me, each version of my resume initially took two to three weeks of proof-reading before I finally had a framework that I was ready to use and easily modify. 

I also like to write these types of things in waves.  I'd write the first version, and the next day review it myself.  With the second version I'd review it myself and then send it out to my first group of reviewers.  At this stage, it's important to keep in mind your reviewers backgrounds.  Some of them may be great at grammar but know nothing about your field.  In my case, most of my friends that were reviewing had degrees in journalism and screen writing, but often misunderstood the technical parts of my resume.  It's important to make sure you understand where their advice is coming from and in some cases know which parts to heed and which to ignore. 

The next round of reviews came from professional relationships.  Site's like LinkedIn help a lot for this kind of stuff.  There were a handful of family friends and former colleagues who I knew had an industry perspective to bring to the documents.  This is the part that can sometimes be painful.  There may be things that you include that they think are completely irrelevant.  It may seem odd, but at this point these documents start to feel very personal.  For example, I had a few people suggest I take my Associate Degree off of my resume.  It took some time, but I eventually understood exactly where they were coming from.  In the end, I chose to keep this section.  However, the criticism offered by my reviewers showed me how employers would read my resume and taught me how I wanted to sell myself to them.  This sections inclusion was thought out and I knew exactly how I wanted to present the information in an interview situation.  As always take this criticism for what it's intended, friendly advise that you sought out .

The first place to start is most definitely your careers service or job boards- or equivalent - at your school.  .

Especially in this economy these job fairs are incredibly busy and crowded with people with much more experienced than a recent graduate. 

This illustrates the value of your schools, college, university local job fair.  The companies in attendance are looking for college/university graduates, and the only people you have to compete with are the same classmates you've been competing with all along.  It's a more comfortable experience, and probably more rewarding.

A great piece of advice, for any profession, is to make a professional website.  With employers using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to help them wade through resumes it's important to actively manage your online presence.  I handled this, by partitioning my social networks appropriately.

• Facebook is used solely for socializing, and it's privacy settings are set to reflect this; 
• Twitter, is an informal way to keep up with other young professionals, follow technologist, and post statuses about technology projects I'm working on.  I like to think of twitter as a casual professional area, and that's partially because of the culture of the site; 
• LinkedIn is used solely for professional connections;
• My website is a place to post more in-depth thoughts and write ups about projects that I'm working on; 
• And all of these accounts are tied to each other, giving potential employers a deeper look at who I am, in a way that I can manage appropriately. 

Especially as a technologist, my website has worked to my advantage in many ways.  Some people may not believe it, but I've had recruiters question me about projects I've posted on the site that I hadn't even mentioned in the interview.  My "Alcohol Project"seemed to be a favorite among the local recruiters, and was a great way to talk about a technical project to non-technical interviewers.

The single biggest advantage of creating your own site is that it gives you some control over what employers find when they google your name.  Do you really want them to find a comment on a blog you wrote in early college about the advantages of mixing certain alcohol?  Centralizing your online identity into a site you control is one way of minimizing this.  That, and set your privacy settings appropriately on the sites you use.

There are two sites I used aggressively, Dice.com and Monster.com, and one I used later on that proved to be a valuable resource, Craigslist.  Dice is geared specifically toward Technical Positions, however it was my experience that they were higher level positions and weren't looking for recent graduates.  Every once in a while I would get a response to a submission I'd make, but I never received a cold call from recruiters scouring Dice.  With Monster, however, I received many cold calls from recruiters, and overall the jobs tended to be a better fit for where I was in my career.

Later on in my search someone suggested I use Craigslist.  I was suspicious of this at first, but I actually had some very good opportunities arise from it.  I uploaded a resume to each city I thought I'd like to live in, removed all sensitive information, and within a few days I was receiving emails from potential employers.  Some were worthwhile, and some not so much, but regardless I think it's a powerful tool I could have made more use of.

MONSTER, REED, TOTAL JOBS are other websites that I and others have found useful too.

All of the previous steps mean nothing without persistence.  "Luck is the residue of design" - John Milton

These were just some of my experiences, but they may be useful for others in the future.  I hope they are to you, and best of luck in your job hunting.

Finance/Cover Letter

The most fundamental piece of work you will need to complete when sending off your CV is a "Covering Letter".

If you do not write the covering letter well (as it`s the first thing they will see) then you can pretty much kiss your new job good-bye!

• Address your cover letter to a specific person.
• Use appropriate titles, such as Dr., Ms., Mr., for the chair of the search committee, even though you know that several people will read your letter. If the advertisement stipulates that the letter should be sent to the "Search Committee," use "Dear Committee Members" as the salutation.
• Use standard letter format. See the Sample Cover Letter as a reference or consult a good sourcebook on letter writing.
• Be specific about the position for which you are applying. Use the same language that was used in the advertisement.
• Be organized. Think of how you will present your information.
• Demonstrate enthusiasm.
• Research. Know something about the schools where you are applying. Visit web sites to gain specific information that might be pertinent to the positions, particularly if it will allow you to mention courses that you would be qualified to teach or in which you have an interest.
• Vary your letter from school to school although the variation might be minimal. Remember that each school/job is unique.
• Ask your advisor to read a solid draft of your letter and give you feedback. He/she has probably served on search committees before and give you some advice on whether your letter would make the short list.
• Ask someone whom you trust to read the final draft before it goes out.
• EDIT. EDIT. EDIT. AND PROOF. Your letter must be perfect.
• Keep a copy of each cover letter for your records.

DON'T

• Apply for jobs for which you are obviously not qualified.
• Begin your letter with "My name is..."
• Ask rhetorical questions, such as "Do you know why I would be a strong asset to your department?"
• Use exclamation points in your letter.
• Use odd fonts, flashy colored paper, or an unusual format.
• Repeat your entire vita.
• Exaggerate your qualifications or be dishonest.

• Make your letter more than one page.

Please refer to the example of a covering letter for help and advice. Good Luck and please do let me know how you get on!!

Cleaning/Oven cleaner the Green way

First things first
Remove the racks. Using a spatula, scrape up as much of the debris as you can, and throw it away. Most of the big stuff should come up pretty easy. Tip: move the trash can closer to the oven....

THEN
Ingredients;

• Baking Soda
• White Vinegar
• A bowl or spray
• Spatula
• A minging oven (dirty oven)

Using about a cup of baking soda, more or less depending on the size of your oven, sprinkle it all over the floor of your oven.

THEN

This is where a squirt bottle comes in handy. Spray vinegar all over the baking soda. Use your fingers or a rubber spatula to spread the baking soda around so that it comes into contact with the vinegar and every dirty part of your oven floor. Let sit for 10-20 minutes.


(alternative: Mix vinegar and baking soda in a bowl to form a paste, and then spread that over your oven floor. Make sure to pour the vinegar slowly because it fizzes up pretty high.)

 

All you have to do next is scrub, wipe clean and thoroughly rinse off.

Cleaning/Totally Green Clean

Wood Polish
4 oz. olive oil or wood nut oil (less sticky)
30 drops lemon juice

Spray on wood wipe in the direction of the grain.

Floor Cleaner
1/4 cup liquid soap
up tp 1/2 cup of vinegar or lemon juice
2 gallons of warm water

Mop it

Toilet Spray
1/4 cup vinegar
2 cup water

spray on toilet wait 15 min then wipe.

All purpose
2 tsp boraz
1/4 cup vinegar
3-4 cups hot water

For extra power add 1/4 tsp liquid soap

Enjoy your clean house.

Cleaning/Extra Tips

Try to use cloth towels for nearly everything. If you can't afford towels, a good way to save money is to cut up old tshirts into rags. My mother and grandmother did this when I was growing up, and I think it's such a good idea! Just clean with them, rinse in hot water, and hang to dry. I tend to hang mine on the sides of my recycling bin.

Once you've used them a few times (or for a really gross mess) they're easily thrown in the washer. :)

Also, here are some other uses for the ingredients used to make the cleaners in this instructable:

• use water and baking soda to make a paste to clean especially nasty messes - a greasy stove top, a spill in the oven, your toilet bowl.
• vinegar and baking soda can be left overnight in the toilet bowl and then scrubbed in the morning - gets rid of stains and odors.
• baking soda sprinkled in littler boxes and mixed in helps control all those urine odors... I've been doing this for years with both plant based and clay litter.
• straight vinegar is awesome at getting rid of hard water stains in showers... simply put it in a spray bottle, spray down the walls and let them soak for a few minutes, and then grab a brush and get scrubbing! I cleaned my mom's shower this way - it was all orange streaks before and the normal cream color after! It takes a little elbow grease, but it so worth it to avoid something like CLR.
• you can use castile soap as a cheap but effective hand wash - just fill an old soap dispenser with half water and half soap. It might not suds up as much, but rest assured - it's still doing the job.

Anyone else have great homemade cleaning products? Tell us about them in the comments!

Cleaning/Pots and Pans (ground in)

If you've burned food to a pan, or if you've made yourself a nice hardened, stuck-on food mess along with your dinner, there's an easy way to get it out. :)

Add about 1/4 cup baking soda to a couple of cups of water in your pan and bring to a boil on the stove for 5-10 minutes. While this is going, it helps to scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.

After you take it off the heat, give it a good scrub. You should have a nice clean pan! If not, rinse and repeat with a little more baking soda. This will also help remove stains for things like tomato sauces.

You can also try Coca-Cola and gently boil it (be careful though it does get very hot very quick).

Cleaning/Drain and Plug Hole cleaner

This is very simple - just baking soda and white vinegar. You can also use lemon juice if you have that on hand! This works best on drains that are running very slow, but not those with standing water. If your problem is soap scum or other build up, this will break it up and get things moving again. It also works as a good deodorizer for kitchen drains.

Shake a bit of baking soda over the drain - I'd say a 1/4 of a cup or so. Push it into and around the drain, and then pour a bit of vinegar over it until you get a good bit of bubbling and the vinegar begins to pool in the sink.

Let this drain and set for 15-20 minutes and then flush with hot water.

And as a bonus, you can also clean your sink with the little bit of mixture that'll be left at the top of the drain. :D

Cleaning/Window and Gloss Cleaner

This one is easy, though a little smelly - but don't worry, the smell goes away pretty quickly and you'll have nice clean windows!

What you'll need:

• small spray bottle
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vinegar
• squirt of castile soap (this is optional, but helps reduce streaks)

Pour the water and vinegar in the bottle, and add a tiny squirt of the castile soap. Shake it up and you're ready to clean!

Many people recommend using newspaper to clean your windows, but as I don't get it delivered, I use flour sack towels or old cut up tshirts. This solution takes a little longer to dry than your typical glass cleaner, but don't worry! It'll look very nice when totally dry.

You can also use this solution to clean appliances and countertops. :)

Cleaning/Gel Air Freshners

Very simple to make and very, very cheap! Perfect for bathrooms or closets. Will last around a month.

The instructions for this will depend on the type of gelatin or pectin you use.

What you'll need:

• plain, unflavored gelatin or pectin
• water for preparing gelatin
• food coloring (optional, just for added flair)
• essential oils
• small glass jars or bowls  (I filled three with 2 cups of finished gelatin)
• 1 tablespoon salt (prevents mold)

To make this, place 1-2 drops of food coloring in each of your glass jars or bowls, and then prepare the gelatin according to the package directions, adding the salt during boiling. Once the gelatin has dissolved in the water and it's ready to set, add 20-30 drops of essential oil and mix. Then pour into your individual containers and mix with the food coloring.

Check the strength of the smell at this time and add more oil if necessary.

This will firm up at room temperature, but if you want it to set quicker you can place it in the fridge.

I've got two of these in my closet right now, as well as one in the bathroom.

You can cover these with thin cloth or perforated paper if you like, but I keep mine up high enough that anything that sticks to the surface is out of sight. :)

Cleaning/Your own Febreze.

This is a very easy Febreze alternative - I've seen a ton of recipes using fabric softener... but those aren't very "green".

What you'll need:

• a small spray bottle
• 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol or vodka
• essential oil
• 1 cup water

Fill the spray bottle with 1 cup water and 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol or vodka.

You'll now add the essential oils - I typically start with 30 drops and then work my way up. You can also mix oils to create custom scents. I also like using The Body Shop home fragrance oils in this mix and I've had no problems with them.

Note that you will be able to smell the alcohol, but only for a minute or so... after that things will just smell lovely. Rubbing alcohol has a stronger smell than vodka! :)

I use this on my couch, bed, curtains, dog bed, towels, etc. and the smell lingers for quite a while - for example, I sprayed my couch while cleaning yesterday and it still smells nice.

Cleaning/All purpose cleaner

What you'll need:

• a large spray bottle
• 24 oz (3 cups) water
• slightly less than 1/4 C liquid castile soap
• 1 T white vinegar
• essential oils, like lemon, lavender or tea tree

Fill your spray bottle with 3 cups of water. Add the tablespoon of vinegar and the castile soap. (Make sure you add the soap AFTER the water, or it will get very sudsy and exciting.)

Now you'll add the essential oils. I like adding 10 drops of lemon and 10 of tea tree!

I use this in my kitchen and my bathroom with great success! It's amazing at getting the stove top clean, and I love how clean it gets my counters and tabletops. Also great for cleaning the fridge.

Cleaning/Home made Green cleaning products

Clean nearly everything in your house with simple and non-toxic ingredients.

Whether you're worried about the chemicals you're using, wanting to save money, or hoping to save yourself from all those horrible added dyes and fragrances - these recipes are for you!

The recipes use very few ingredients, most of which you should have around the house!

• water
• baking soda
• rubbing alcohol or vodka
• castile soap
• white vinegar
• essential oils
• unflavored gelatin
• salt

In addition, you'll need spray bottles and glass containers, depending on the recipe. You can reuse bottles from old cleaners - just make sure to clean them thoroughly! You can also buy cheap reusable ones from most corner or pound land stores.