Hands on expert over forty is looking for a job

If you have the bad luck not to belong to the industrious working population anymore because you are very old, say over 40, you should not miss this diary-like text!

To give you an impression of all the things I am doing to get a job (and I'm not exaggerating):

Action

I've already approached every paper and regional and local publication in my neighbourhood. I've scoured all employment zones on foot in the area of Breda and reported myself at every firm, left flyers, sent e-mails and called afterwards. I've approached every company from my old employee's network by e-mail and/or letter. I've already written to all schools and their umbrella organizations, with or without flyer.

Social Media

I'm present at Linkedin, on Twitter and on 'Hallo!' from the Dutch Chamber of Commerce - among other things, to generate traffic to my site- and on VillaMedia (Dutch site with news and vacancies). I have a website and two weblogs that refer and link to each other. And no, for the time being I will not become a member of SME-clubs for €500 a year. Nor will I sponsor Kiwanis or the Rotary. The money has run out. It's as simple as that.

Keeping up-to-date

I'm familiar with and acquiring further skills in: Windows 7, Adobe CS 3 package, Publisher, SEO and SEA marketing and the new Paint and Vista through home study. Many employers don't know anything about this software at all and still work with Word 1997, for instance. Many of them haven't even heard of Linkedin yet, as was recently shown during a meeting of this group of top entrepreneurs. H'm.

I visit the Open Coffees in Breda and Oosterhout, SME meetings and network evenings. I also see surprising little bigshots over there. They are probably polishing their Mercedes.

Acquisition and networking

I acquire through VillaMedia, Freelance.nl, Todio.nl, Offerti.nl and Multiofferte.nl.

I visit Paranormal fairs (where I can probably also obtain some business for my for my text agency) and Business Meeting Brabant. I organise free admission orientation meetings in the spiritual field (25-50 visitors a time) and there I spread flyers and cards about my services. I provide for PR in the regional newspaper and on the local radio.

I’m a volunteer editor at the Oosterhout Carnival glossy Kiekerekie with a circulation of 25,000 copies, which are distributed free of charge. Of course there’s also a network attached to this.

Experience

Municipalities often employ public tenders via Aanbestedingskalender.nl  (can be compared to Tenders.co.uk). But if you want to get through you often have to prove that A) your business exist for three years or longer and B) have realised a specified turnover average. If not, too bad. Newspapers and the like ask for journalistic trainings despite the fact that many of their highly educated editors continually make language-, spelling-, and style errors. I’ve approached all these target groups and I do it every time an opportunity arises.

Euros

By now the market price for 5 A4 sheets has risen to € 17.50 gross!  When I give a quote and call a quarter of an hour afterwards I'm often the thirtieth or worse. Some prospects get 150 responses to their quote request after which at least 60% of the quoters call afterwards. I'm one of those. These applicants don't know what's happening to them and close off their site and -email address due to the deluge of responses. Then they choose someone living nearby. Very nice if you don't live in Amsterdam or Rotterdam.

In the meantime I apply out of necessity as well as obligation and I'm only selected for flexi labour for € 8.70 gross per hour including evening- and weekend surcharge for a maximum of 16 hours a week! On top of this, these slave drivers dare to ask for a Higher Professional Education-level.  That I would lose my entitlement to benefits if I would accept flexi labour doesn't interest these employers over 50 one bit. And no, gentlemen, with this slave pittance, I won't make it in this society, in spite of your so-called generous offers from your callcenter. (I think I'm going to puke). And for those sleepy heads and dreamers among those reading this text: in Germany, Belgium, France and Spain it's at least just as bad. Not to mention Great Britain, Greece and Portugal.

Day and night

What else can I do? A day has only 24 hours and I'm not thirty anymore, or forty or even fifty. At Monday evening I was still making a quotation at 11:00 o'clock PM. As with many applications (from week 14 on 49 times already) even then I don't get any response.

A good scolding

I will lay it on thick here, so don't hold it against me.  But in my opinion I, a 56 year old virile, active, intelligent (IQ of 124, recently measured during an assessment) healthy, ambitious, self-operating job seeking Product Manager willing to work, have no chance at all to find a job. In the meantime I've erected a Text & Advice agency and this is fun, because gaming all day is terribly boring. And the costly rubbish idea of the Employee Insurance Agency to let my category apply through Linkedin is not going to work at all, I guarantee you that.

I have restrained myself for a long time but that doesn't work either, so I just have to say it: I would have more chance to find a job if I was a motor disabled, moronic foreign autistic schizophrenic, pyrophile (someone who sets children on fire) with pimples and greasy hair and 13 years old, or a murderer like Joran van der Sloot. At least he gets responses.

 As I said, having things going for me would also be nice once in a while.    

Sources: www.todio.nl