I am posting this on behalf of my mom. She wouldn't dream of reaching out to a public forum, but I her son on the other hand will.
Here's the situation.
My mom's a marketing project manager. She's worked for some large advertising agencies. Yes, she is probably a workaholic (pretty normal working an 80 hr work week & if they r on a big campaign 100 hrs). This is what my mom does.
Well now she doesn't have a job & I know she is soon lost.
Here's the backstory. In March 2018 her department got outsourced, so it is what it is & it's onwards & upwards. In Oct 2019 she got a new job with an agency. 3 weeks later Nov 2019 there's an announcement that they were acquired by another agency. On Dec 1 2019 she was out of a job. We r in Canada BTW.🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
So when she got the job in Oct 2019, she was in the probationary period, so when she got turfed there was no severance. Also because she didn't have enough hours she didn't qualify for employment benefits. Following that with Covid lockdown, she also didn't qualify for any Covid related benefits.
So my mom has been networking, taking online certificate courses to enhance her skill sets, taking some digital marketing & got a side hustle starting up an e-commerce store for a friend of hers. She got paid for being able to have the experience of a small start-up.
Here's the issue. Every day she's up at 7:00 a.m. on her laptop for her new job, looking for a job. She crafts those cover letters for the jobs she's really interested in. For the jobs that r okay, she just sends out her standard resume. She signed up with 2 recruiters who specialize in marketing/advertising. She applies for local & temp jobs that she can do with no problem. Nothing! She even wanted to drive for UBER, but although her car is immaculate inside & out, UBER goes by the model year of the car & hers is too old.
She does get a lot of interest & gets calls to set up interviews. 📱 Initial phone screening interviews go great. Moves on to subsequent interviews. Then she makes it to the final round & is told she is 1 of 3 final candidates. The final round is a zoom call.
I have been outside her office space eavesdropping on some interviews. Her 30-minute interviews usually go for 1 hour.
My mom's pretty passionate about the work she does & has been successful in previous roles. Anyway, meetings go well, she would be a great fit, etc., etc., etc. After the meetings, she sends a nice thank u email. 2 weeks after that she sends an email asking if there is anything else they might need from her. Radio silence / crickets. 🦗
I went in my mom's job folder & she has 270 rejection emails. Your typical "thanks for applying, but we have chosen another applicant, etc". 👏 👏👏👏 Those emails r great because u cross them off your list of potential job opportunities & move on.
But the roles that go through the interview process & then nothing is harder to deal with.
****Is it because she is older? She is 61.
My mom looks pretty with it & she is an accomplished multitasker. In her jobs, she always was ahead of the curve on trends & she also was responsible for some very cool innovations for the clients. If there's a problem that needs a solution, everyone called my mom. In her office space is a collection of the framed awards & little statue awards she has been given over the years. 🏆🥇🏅 In a previous role her CEO did a shout out to the global agency to highlight that mom was managing 60% of her department's projects & the other 3 people were managing the other 40%. 👍 I get it, there's a lot more that goes into evaluating workloads, but for the purpose of this posting this comment will have to suffice.
She needs to be employed these last 4 years so that she is at the higher end of her Canadian pension plan.
She had enough emergency savings to carry her for about 14 months (mortgage, gas, heat, hydro, insurance, internet), but those savings r now gone. I don't make much, but I don't have any debt...my student loans were paid down right away. In the meantime, I am looking after what I can.
JobAdvisor community is pretty powerful, so if there r just a few of u out there I would appreciate any insights, feedback, or words of wisdom.
Sometimes just knowing that u r not alone is supportive.
🤞🙏 Thx for taking the time to read this & giving me a space to share.
Even friends who r working don't fully understand the situation & u do start isolating from them because u r not.
JA:
I think her age is likely a significant factor. Many people will look at her and assume she’ll be retiring soon or should already be retired.
Her best bet is to lean heavily on what is likely a substantial network. She should call pretty much everyone she knows in the field to let them know she’s looking and ask them if they know of anything that’ll be a good fit for her.