58 and Still Unemployed: Building a Plan

by Doug Berube

             I’ve now been unemployed for eight months; my email in-box is filled with daily job alerts, LinkedIn group notifications, headhunter inquiries, and the occasional job scam with no leads in sight.  I’m networking on LinkedIn, even read the book “The Start-Up of You” by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha, and I will continue to network because it is a learning experience. Currently, I have submitted over 90 resumes and still counting. I have gone to job fairs, interviewed with a few headhunters, even had one in person interview (nothing), taken on-line resume building with interview skill training; I’m a while trained job hunter.

            I have been researching the reality of the 50 to 61 age group current history of reentering the job market. Reuters reported an Urban Institute report that employees over the age of 55 are less likely to lose their job during this economy, but if they do, they are 33 percent less likely to find new work than their counterpart's age 25 to 34. The AARP reports that the 55 plus age group is the only one showing an increase of the unemployed; all the other age groups have been decreasing. This age group, as reported by the AARP is not being re-employed because of age discrimination. The reports are not encouraging as a 58-year-old  human trying to get back into the workforce. My research also uncovered that there are some older American finding jobs, and now I know that I’m directed to find out about their success.

            Mark Miller, January 14, 2011, report in Reuters three key employment recommendations; “Keep skills current, Expand horizons, and Don’t over –play deep experience.” I’ve already known about these tips, and I’m back in school to complete my bachelor degree in business management and going to school is part of my plan to expand my horizons. School is the environment I need to be exposed to new ideas. The curriculum is constructed to cultivate the ideas and work them out to fruition. Caution is always good advice about over-playing experience because arrogance is offensive.

            Discovering the actual situation about the current economic conditions about re-employment is only part of my awareness. I need to become aware of my potential and how to use it to my advantage. I’m going to do a SWOT analysis to determine my strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. I’ll take that analysis and construct a few mind maps to plot out several paths and see where they take me. One of the maps will be plotted to determine some entrepreneurial possibilities. Becoming an entrepreneur just might be the alternative to the age challenge of the current job market.     

Will Someone Else’s Shoes Fit?

by Doug Berube

            The old saying goes, “you should walk a mile in their shoes first” before you judge them. This is a saying I’ve heard all my life, as I would imagine most have been told the same parable. The lesson to be learned was not to judge someone until you first understand what other went through. We are also taught from the “Good Book” to treat ours are you would have them treat you. Both statements are proclaimed from generation to generation, and I wonder if the true meaning is known. The social media are filled with hatred, prejudice, and apathy, which doesn’t support any moral connection to those words of wisdom. Does society comprehend the words to the meaning of empathy?

            What does empathy mean? Merriam-Webster defines it as “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” That is a very general definition because humans are highly complicated beings. The capability to imagine yourself as someone else is a very complex imaginative process. Each of us has basic recognized emotions that are innate and could probably be achieved unconsciously. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object.” Humans are social beings, and our morality is inherent to our cultural development.
            As social beings, we need to ask a moral/empathy question to determine our attitude.  Would you make the decisions you make about people you don’t know if they where your neighbors, and you had to look into their eyes every day? I know someone will say that if they were your neighbor, they wouldn’t be a stranger. I think the point of the question is that everyone should treat as your neighbor. We have to go back to treating others as you would have them treat you. Theorist William Icker's states empathy as, “A complex form of psychological inference in which observation, memory, knowledge, and reasoning are combined to yield insights into thoughts and feelings of others.
            There is an “Empathy Experiment” by Capital University in Columbus, Ohio using volunteer students to explore whether empathy can be taught, and if so, what are the effects? Nichole Johnson post this is the second year and the topic of is, “Nutrition in America," to answer a specific question: Can we empathize with someone who makes choices we disagree with? Capital University President Danvy A. Bowman said, But now I want to explore the notion of teaching empathy through an issue that many perceive to be a matter of choice – the food we eat – as opposed to circumstance – being a member of the working poor community.” This experiment is to will test the University of Michigan's report that there is a decline in empathy among college students today compared with similar students two to three decades ago. The students from Capital University will be reporting on their experiment this month, and it will be interesting to see the outcome.
            Neuroscience has been conducting experiments using fMRI to determine how the neural system subserving emotion regulation modulates the other components that are involved in empathy. The one question worth exploring are the external influences that affect how we choose to see other people, nations, and religions. Social Media are prolific with pundits preaching their consequences for not following what they are pushing. Empathy is in the brain, and this is in support of Jefferson’s observations. We are by nature social, and our morality comes from our being. There are disorders that affect our social ability for empathy or other individual interactions. All of humanity should practice empathy, because currently, as throughout history human have not. Humans are not freed from tribalism and monoculturalism which mean treating others as you would want them to treat you has its hindrances. The “Empathy Experiment” should help with our understanding of empathy, and if it can be taught, our society can be improved as a benefit to all.