A Roundup of Business Startup Programs for People 50+

These offerings teach entrepreneurship basics for first-timers

by Kerry Hannon at nextavenue.org

Starting a business on a wing and a prayer is a fool's game. That's why older Americans eyeing entrepreneurship, perhaps in response to a layoff or an early retirement package, are seeking courses and programs to learn business skills and explore the possibility of being their own boss.

    The educational options, I'm sad to say are limited. I did some digging, and there are simply not many courses solely for people in their 50s and 60s. But there are a few I'd like to tell you about.
 

If you’re one of the millions of Americans currently looking for work, one of your concerns may be how to explain the length of time you’ve been out of a job. Employers sometimes see a gap between positions as an issue.

    At the moment, though, given the pandemic, hiring managers are more understanding…

    If you happen to have gaps on your resume from this or previous years, here are a few tips on how to address them.

Volunteering during and even after your job search has many professional and personal benefits. Even better, no matter what kind of job seeker you are or the positions you’re looking for, volunteering can help enhance your resume…

    Here are some ways volunteering has professional benefits for you, too.
 

I’m sure there’s a lot of people who can’t wait for 2020 to end.

    As a result of COVID-19, some people lost their jobs, while others had them completely disrupted and changed. Even those who are ending the year with their jobs unscathed, have had to deal with new everyday stresses brought along by the pandemic.

    While it may be tempting to write off the rest of the year and look towards better things in 2021, it’s important to avoid ending the year on a slump. 
 

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Holiday Notice

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Nifty50s will not publish this Friday, November 27, 2020.  We will return on Monday, November 30, 2020.

    We hope that you experience the warmth and comfort of family and friends during this holiday.

There are a lot of daunting statistics facing today’s job seekers. And these stats are especially troubling for older job seekers.

    According to zety.com, “on average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job.”

    Statistics like this make job seeking like an insurmountable task. Yet, people do get jobs. Everyday someone, somewhere is being offered a job and accepting it.

    Most data shows that it takes substantially longer for older job seekers to find suitable employment compared with their younger counterparts. Is ageism to blame? No doubt that it’s out there and rearing its ugly much too often.

    But, in this day and age, in large part (but not completely as this has been coming on for sometime now,) due to the pandemic, companies are looking at candidates much differently.

    There was a time when a job seeker could almost guess how many people were in competition for a particular post. Not so anymore. Depending on the job and the industry, you may be competing with candidates who live as far as hundreds of miles away.

    And it’s not all just remote work. Some companies hire individuals to work on site 2-3 days a week and from home the remainder of the time. This allows companies to consider candidates miles, if not states, away. If you live in Chicago, you realistically you could be competing with other job seekers in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc.

    This is one instance where “the more the merrier” does not apply.

    But there is good news. And that is that the reverse is true as well. If you circumstances allow for it, if you live in Chicago, you can confidently apply for jobs in all those cities mentioned above and, depending on the company, be considered a viable candidate even if relocation is not in the cards.