Advantages of being OVER 40

Over-40 Friendly Industries: Harnessing the Age Advantage in the Workforce
by Christina Couch

No longer a spring chicken? No problem. According to Gail Geary, author of Over-40 Job Search Guide, age, maturity, wisdom, and experience can work to your advantage in a job market dominated by less-seasoned twentysomethings. “An older worker brings an immediate return on investment to an employer,” Geary comments. “That’s something someone fresh out of college can’t do.”

With the baby-boomer generation approaching retirement, resulting in a shortage of approximately 10 million employees over the next decade, candidates with relevant work experience are becoming more in demand. That gives older employees more leverage to request bigger paychecks and to change jobs later in life, says Geary. She adds that fields such as health care, business-to-business services, education, and services for the elderly are practically custom-made for the older worker considering a job change.

To find out how to get into a challenging new career, check out these over-40 friendly industries.

Health care
Diverse, high-paying, and currently in the middle of an employment boom, health-care positions ranging from medical doctor to entry-level administrator are prime territory for qualified personnel of any age. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that between 2004 and 2014, the field will demand approximately 3.6 million jobs--more salaried positions than any other industry.

One of the reasons health care is attracting older employees, says Geary, is because the industry is both lucrative and flexible, offering full, part-time, seasonal, and freelance positions designed to fit any worker’s schedule. And for many health-care positions, such as lab technician, hygienist, therapy assistant, and medical-billing specialist, necessary schooling or certifications can be completed in two years or less. For students who would like to continue their education, a bigger degree translates to a bigger salary. Positions such as doctors, surgeons, nurses, and physical therapists involve more rigorous medical training via a longer educational commitment; however, students can expect a sizable return on their investment.

As the job market shifts from offering secure, lifelong positions to shorter-term, benefit-less jobs, Geary says that employees will be forced to adapt, forming a career out of several part-time or freelance positions instead of one steady full-time role.
“The prediction from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is that by 2010, 65 percent of us won’t be employees. We will be employed, but not employees,” Geary comments. “Companies want to be profitable and lean, so it’s important for older workers to be aware and to embrace the trend.” Because health care comprises so many types of jobs, and can accommodate a broad spectrum of work schedules, job changers in this field have their choice of where and when to work.

For Dr. Maurice Hodos, former chiropractor and current health-fund administrator for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), it's the flexibility within the health-care industry that enables him to pursue all of his professional interests without getting pigeonholed into one career. Tired of dealing with the insurance end of medicine, Hodos enrolled in an online health- and welfare-plan certificate program through the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) and began consulting for health insurance firms on the side. Eventually he transferred his skills to his current administration position at the age of 60.

“I had been involved in consulting for so many years, it made changing over to it full time a very smooth transition,” Hodos comments. “When I decided to close my practice, I was going into a world that was fairly well known and it wasn’t like breaking down doors at all.”

Consulting on the side made Hodos more marketable, supplementing his medical background with experience negotiating health contracts and leading to a new career with reduced working hours. In fields like consulting that value industry experience, older workers have a significant edge over their fresh-faced competitors.

Business-to-business services
Peripheral services such as accounting, telephone and Internet services, legal representation, and human resources are slowly being contracted out to business-to-business (B2B) companies. Rather than hire and make room for in-house staffers, many companies are opting to send this work to B2B agencies. On the Forbes annual "America’s Best Big Companies" list, 23 of the 400 firms profiled specialize in business services and supplies.

For information-technology (IT) worker Everett Irving, that means greater opportunities in the field of consulting and business strategy for those with experience. Switching from a systems-management position to an IT-consulting job at the age of 52, Irving says that age actually played to his advantage.

“Once you’ve been in something like systems management for a while, by default you become an expert,” he comments. “Thanks to the network I had established over the years, I was quickly able to hook up with [a B2B] company that put me in an IT-consulting role.”

Though the transition from industry insider to a consulting role varies from field to field, consulting-certificate programs in most areas can be completed in two years or less and oftentimes can be completed in an online format at your convenience.
Education
An easy transition is the reason many older job changers flock to the field of education, says Geary. Encompassing teaching, as well as research, administrative, and specialized education roles, the education sector is currently ranked as the fastest growing field, along with health care, according to the BLS. The National Education Association (NEA) reports that the United States is currently experiencing a massive teacher shortage with more than 2 million teaching positions needing to be filled in the next ten years.

Enter employees over the age of 40. Because turnover is high within education professions--one out of every five new teachers leaves the classroom within three years--workers entering the industry at a later age, even those without a teaching license, are highly in demand. To make the transfer one step easier, most states offer provisional or alternative licensing programs that allow newbies to step into the classroom while simultaneously pursuing their teaching certification. Designed to recruit workers from noneducational fields, alternative licensing programs provide wannabe teachers with paid positions for two to three years as they complete mentoring and in-class study to become a fully licensed teacher. According to the National Center for Education Information (NCEI), people who use alternative-licensing programs tend to be older and nearly half were working in a noneducation occupation prior to entering.

Companies such as IBM are also doing their part to stop the teacher shortage through embracing the trend of older workers dominating the classroom. Thanks to the company’s Transition to Teaching program, IBM grants early retirees who want to become full-time math or science teachers $15,000 in tuition reimbursement as well as a four-month leave of absence from their current job to complete a student-teaching practicum.
Services for an aging population
As the estimated 76 million baby boomers reach retirement age, they’re prompting the growth of innovative new firms specializing in health and care of the elderly.

“The baby boomers are much more affluent than previous generations,” writer Gail Geary comments. In addition to traditional health-care services, Geary says that the boomers are also interested in luxury services, including physical-fitness facilities, spa treatments, cosmetology services, and travel packages aimed at senior citizens. Older workers--those more likely to connect with and understand the needs of the generation ahead--can find positions in anything from personal training to guiding tours. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that between 2003 and 2030, the elderly population is expected to double, giving mature employees more opportunities to get out of their old jobs and into new careers.

When it comes to finding a new job later in life, Geary says that the key is to highlight your assets such as industry experience and networking skills, while keeping workplace trends including decreased employer loyalty and the needs of an aging population in mind.

“I’m optimistic for the future for older workers; there are many opportunities open to people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s if they’re open-minded,” Geary states. “They just have to be aware of approaching the right opportunities in the right industries