Introduction
Very often people retire early under VRS or opt for early retirement
arising out of frustration: "Enough is enough" feeling overpowering
them temporarily. Very soon such people get bored with retired life
which is boring caused by empty, "nothing worthwhile to do"
realization. They wish to be re-employed and get back to active work
culture. Personal finances could be another major reason for looking
for jobs again. They are still young, healthy and bubbling with energy
to go on for another decade easily. Many seniors might have retired
at the 'normal' age to retire as dictated by the employer's rules.
They too may be seeking jobs again. What are the resources available
at our disposal for these specific needs? Let us briefly review a few
of these.
Review of Jobsites for Seniors
1. Society for Serving Seniors based in Secunderabad runs a blog site
called: APSCCON Second Careers Blog. The URL is:
http://apsccon-second-careers.blogspot.com/
Here a list of vacancies, primarily suitable for senior citizens, is
uploaded every week. The list is culled from popular websites like
Naukri, Jobahead, Monster India, Clickjobs, Careerjet and others.
Twitter feeds for similar vacancies are also regularly added. The
latter has the advantage of being highly current and nascent. A
reader can go to the concerned jobsite for more details.
It is primarily meant for members of APSCCON (Andhra Pradesh Senior
Citizens Confederation).
However anyone can benefit by it. The usage is strangely minimal.
2. Run by Ms Shivani Mehta of MS University of Baroda, jobsforelders
is a website started in September 2007 as a part of academic project
work. (http://www.jobsforelderly.in)
There is a decent list of employers in Gujarat who prefer to take up
senior citizens. The site is not up dated regularly and as a job site
may not be of great use. "Profiles", intended to be job listings under
various categories, is not clickable – perhaps it is out of date and
hence the links are dummied.
3. One of the recent entrants in this field is
http://jobsfor60plus.com/. As of now only very few jobs are listed but
they promise to expand very fast. This site is hosted by an NGO based
in Chandigarh.
4. Another slightly older jobsite exclusively designed for senior
citizens is: http://www.talent58.com/ This site can not be used
effectively unless the job seeker registers. You can not see jobs
available just by searching or by categories or city etc, unless you
are already approved as a job seeker. However if you are an employer,
even without any registration you can get list of candidates seeking
re-employment by searching categories. When you see the list you can
not find out if the candidate is still available (may have registered
a decade ago and may not be interested now) or the date of
registration etc. Some links do not open (broken links).
5. http://www.anubhuti.biz/ is yet another site taking care of senior
citizens, disabled persons, and women wo would like to take up jobs
after a gap. The last category is called the 'come back' group. Job
postings are occasional. Some years ago this site was vibrant and
active but now it is dormant with no updates.
6. Dignity Foundation in collaboration with ICICI Prudential has
started a website called http://dignitysecondcareers.org/ This site
also has provision for registration as an employee, employer,
volunteer, volunteer seeking NGO, etc. Unless you register no
information is available for the casual visitor for assessment. No
search is possible.
You need to pay Rs 1200 as a lifetime fee to enroll yourself as a
volunteer which includes a free subscription to Dignity Dialogue – a
monthly newsletter.
If the senior citizen is net savvy another very useful source one
should not miss out is the Twitter database. I find searching tweets
for second career vacancies highly rewarding.
Apart from the above specialized job sites, regular job portals like:
Naukri, Jobsahead, Monster India, Clickjobs, Careerjet have regular
job posts feeds. Searching such sites is easy, useful and very user
friendly. While registration helps maximise the usage, it is not
mandatory. The problem with a 'pucca' registration as an employee
seeking job info is that the process involves tedious data entry
running to several pages. You need to wait to be admitted. Finally the
site will turn out to be disappointing with no updates or suitable
jobs. I find this Registration Requirement very irksome and a great
hindrance. Though I am job seeker, in how many sites should I
register, wasting my time?
Alternatives
Why does one seek a second career or re-employment? Is it not for
augmenting financial resources? In that case, I would like to suggest
two slightly out of the way alternatives. As a substitute for
re-employment, some single seniors look out for second or re-marriage
opportunities. Here the consideration is that the other party will be
financially sound and be willing to share the burden of household
expenses. Availing Reverse Mortgage Loans by pledging one's property
for generating a steady stream of income is an alternate way tackling
money worries, if a person does not succeed in getting a job suitable
to his requirements or expectations.
Summary
From the foregoing, we can see that, although many job sites are
coming up for the older people, none is maintained well or updated.
This is a great disappointment. Any job site for elders should: be
easy to use, not insist on elaborate registration procedures, be kept
updated with current listings, and delete vacancies that are filled
up. I am not in a position to comment on second career counseling
centers run by Dignity Foundation, Harmony, Heritage etc as I have no
personal knowledge of their current functioning.
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