Over-50 Career Problems
You’ve heard about “Career Transition After 50”, “Second Act Career”, “Executive Career Pivot” – fancy words. Truth is that over 50, it gets hard at exec level. Your career. Finding a job. Transitioning. You have changing needs too. It can be a struggle. Infurirating. Confusing. Demoralising.
You may start to doubt yourself. And you’re not used to that.
So, what are the problems? How do you solve them? We’ll discuss that here.
After all… you want to continue working. You have all that experience. A mountain of value. A lifetime of solving problems. You’ve navigated economic meltdowns. Y2K (remember that!?) The IT bubble burst. China’s rise. 9/11. Covid. Cold war. Hot war. Political chaos. Emerging markets. Power shifts. Tariffs. Trump. Iran. You took the hits. Learned lessons. Adapted. Fought and slayed dragons!
Now you feel like you’re floundering a little. First time in your life.
(And If you’re an exec. A senior professional. You’re not immune. Maybe it’s worse for you?!)
Here are the problems you face (don’t worry, solutions below!):
Over-50 Exec Problems in the Job Market
PERSONAL NOTE FROM ME, GERARD: some of these we can rage against. Yep, let’s get it all out. But, come on! You’re old school! Work ethic and accountability! Blaming others is not your style. Personal responsibility is. There’s something we can do about all of this. Read on.
Or let’s just skip straight to a personal call. Whatsapp me: +27 83 744 5454
Over 50 Job Market Related Problems
Ageism. Just a fact. In 2025, in the first quarter, there was a 133% rise in ageism complaints by job hunters on Glassdoor. No-one tells you: “you’re too old”. You don’t hear back. “We’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.” No reason given.
Technology. You’re good at tech. But the job platforms… that’s something else. From LinkedIn to the ridiculous uploads, filling in data, “easy apply”. “Does anyone actually find a job this way?” Every new platform claims to be “the one”. There are scams. And black holes of silence.
Scams and false job adverts. You’ll face scams. False job adverts (e.g. a company will advertise a bunch of jobs to signal growth to the market. It’s a PR stunt. Those job don’t exist.) And be ready for a constant stream of online job opportunities with ‘too good to be true’ promises.
Over 50 You Related Problems
Your 30+ years’ experience. Hard to squeeze the essence from it all. How do you sum it up? How do you present that value to employers? What’s your central message? How the heck to you pack it into 1 or 2 pages?? In your CV. On LinkedIn.
Selling yourself. You’ve always hated self promotion. ‘Tooting your own horn’. It’s cringy. Talking about yourself. “I want my reputation to speak for itself”, you say. You sit down to ‘spruce up’ your resume, to sell yourself. It makes you sick.
Personal marketing. Thing is, we’re a business. But our marketing department is still running on fax. Using LinkedIn. Having a personal value propostion. An elevator pitch. Networking. Presenting oneself as a solution. We’re not in our comfort zone with this stuff.
Personal image. Let’s talk straight. We can let things go. How we look, dress, groom. Sometimes we’ve put on weight. Stopped going to gym (“too noisy”). As a result, we dont’ look like we fit in. Like we’ve kept up. Energy flags. Muscles sag. It hurts our appeal and our confidence.
Your needs are changing. You want more time for passion projects. For travel. You’d like to be there for your grandchildren. You want more flexibility. Time! After 30 years of 12 hour days. Not everyone can accomodate you. They want you full time.
Are you facing these issues?
Common things I hear from my over-50 clients are:
- “It’s like I’m invisible.”
- “My 30 years’ experience seems worthless, all for nothing. Like I’m worth nothing now.”
- “I’m feeling unappreciated, ignored. Recruiters are just ghosting me.”
- “It’s blatant ageism. I have exactly the experience they need. But I don’t even get a look in.”
- “I apply for jobs. 538 in 6 months. 6 interviews. That’s all. And no offers. I’m losing hope.”
These problems are solvable. And we tackle it here.
Let’s just skip straight to a personal call? Whatsapp me: +27 83 744 5454