Edna Fabry of Maple Heights wants to find a job in customer service, but she's hit the wall.
Edna: "I'm rather depressed at the moment because I'm going out on many interviews and they decide that they want someone younger."
Marcie, a teacher from Mentor, says her experience and higher than average education actually work against her.
Marcie: "I have my master's and I have 13 years of teaching experience. So getting a public school to hire me is really hard because I've been told that administrators are told you need to hire somebody with no experience because that's what we can afford."
And Bill Marshall of Hudson can identify with those feelings. He worked in the steel industry and has been out of a job since 2007.
Bill: "There are good days and there are bad days....weeks that you look forward to, like I've got an interview on Monday that I'm looking forward to. There are days when you just try to stick as many pokers in the fire trying to keep them hot ...Renew them as they got out, keep the fires burning. Get connected with as many opportunities as you have and network as much as possible."
Whether it's age discrimination or just lack of practice looking for a job, older workers are struggling. Chagrin Valley Job Seekers co-founder Jim Grant, tries to help. He says older workers have to be pro-active to combat gray hair phobia.
Jim Grant: "What you need to do is convey to them that despite what your age might be, that you're young an energetic , you're out there, you intend to work for many more years."
Grant, who's also an author on job-hunting, advises the unemployed to try and do an end-run around human resources departments, which he says are typically swamped with resumes these days. bring yourself directly to the attention of the manager doing the hiring...if you can find him...or her. One way to find them, grant says, is in such reference works as the Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Data Base which can be found at the library.
Job fairs routinely draw thousands of people with resumes in hand. One job fair in Independence two months ago created monster traffic jams. But those with long experience in looking for work say job fairs are little help. Here's what Sound of Ideas callers Edna and Bill said.
Edna: "You can go there and you know what, there's so many people they only have a few minutes with each person so they can can't get a complete idea on who you are and what your capabilities are."
Bill: "Sometimes you don't want to drive 50 miles to a job fair around your community, but you do. And you see the same faces, you see the same discouragement in the eyes and you see people leaving and they don't have a smile on their face."
While she searches and waits for that crucial phone call, Edna Fabry says she keeps her spirits up.
Edna: "I can say by faith and praying and also talking to my husband because it keeps me going, you know, family is a big thing to me."
A link to various job search tools, plus a list of job seekers' clubs in Northeast Ohio can be found on our website.