Job Hunting at 59

Origin Story: The Attica Files: A Journey Into the Bright Future is not what some of you may think. The name came from the name of the rap group my childhood best friends and I formed in the 80s. We had no idea nor thought about the historical weight of the name then. Using the rallying cry portion of it, and I’m using it as a personal reference the younger version of us trying to create something from scratch, not as a rally cry against the system. Or am I?

Being in the position of having to look for a job is not fun. The shock of losing a job I thought was stable is still fresh in my mind. All of the thoughts and emotions run through my mind like a speeding bullet. How does it feel at fifty-nine years of age? It sucks. The lows are really low, and the highs, well, let me just say, it becomes harder to even acknowledge what a high looks like.

How did I get here? Recently, I was laid off from a position with no warning. Things were going well. I was planning for events in the future of the store, including going through a leadership development program within the company. Additionally, I had relaunched into the world of digital media publishing. FFP Collective is my personal project chronicling my journey as a Gen Xer getting older navigating the lived-in world of nutrition and wellness.

Trying to launch what I plan on being a long-term project while searching for a job got to be too much, so an early morning decision was made to combine the two. The goal was to fold my job search into my growing project and to show prospective employers how I spent my time after being laid off. The combination is kind of project management-ish without the formalities.

I have never been laid off. I had no idea what severance pay was. Confusion hit me first long before the realization of the details of what I would have to do in order to get back into the job force. Honestly, part of me wanted to throw my entire hat into making my new blog work and just work from home, but bills coming due woke me up to having stable employment means diving back into the job pool.

Now I find myself back in the job market. Am I scared? Absolutely! Having to navigate through the gauntlet of updating my résumé, filling out applications, and interviewing is terrifying but exhilarating at the same time. The biggest concern I have these days is applying for jobs knowing many companies are reluctant to hire older workers, especially in the age of AI.

I am sharing my story with the public, knowing most may pay no attention to what I am doing and others will dismiss it as the ramblings of an out-of-touch old man. Knowing that has not deterred me from moving forward in talking about both my journey into job hunting as well as learning as I go in the arena of digital media publishing. The full-time blogger in me from many years ago is excited about this journey into the unknown.

Focusing my excitement the past few weeks, I have spent time updating my résumé with the help of the AI tools on ChatGPT. Creating a project, setting up project guardrails, developing prompts. The battle to learn AI in real time has been interesting from the standpoint of getting what I want without the final copy sounding flat and lifeless, not to mention wrong! Updating my résumé with the help of AI was an uphill battle. Either the form was too short or it looked like ink was poured on the page.

As the broader picture, scope management brings me into the area of defining boundaries without letting either project run off track. Tracking deliverables is coming from a spreadsheet tracker, résumé updates, applications, LinkedIn posts, and article drafts. Finally, with stakeholder communication, I am learning how to shape the same core message for different audiences without changing who Glen is.

LinkedIn, Indeed, and the host of job-search websites are as many as the ocean is deep. I come from a time of hearing about a job, applying for it in person or just walking in the door and asking if they were hiring. Today, AI and automation are used to write job descriptions, source candidates, screen résumés, match profiles, run assessments, and analyze video interviews. I understand the concepts, but navigating them is like trying to drink from a firehose!

Right now, I am looking for work where my evolving background in digital media publishing, community building, operations, customer experience, and practical AI-supported content systems can help an organization communicate better and serve people better. I can’t say enough how nervous I am talking about something as personal as searching for a job today. Additionally, the realization that the labor landscape has changed so much that I am not sure about what I am not sure about.

Even thinking about how to describe my skill set has been daunting, to say the least. Summarizing decades of life and experiences into an elevator pitch is not something I walk into without recognition of the pitfalls.

So far, this is what I have so far, knowing it will change as time and circumstances progress.

I am an experienced retail operations leader in the areas of managing teams, inventory control, customer service, cash controls, reporting, and daily execution. Strong at turning messy operational problems into practical systems using Google Sheets, Excel, SOPs, inventory tracking, reconciliation tools, and workflow cleanup. I also run an independent digital media publishing work adding current digital operations experience with WordPress, email capture, content workflows, digital products, Google Workspace, and AI-assisted research and review. Finally, brings grounded people leadership, operating discipline, customer judgment, and the ability to connect frontline execution with modern digital systems.

Describing who I am and what I am about sometimes sounds like bragging and totally against who I am, but is essential to job hunting. If I don’t talk about Glen and who he is, then who will advocate for me? Trying to be visible in a world that thinks anyone above a certain age is this or that once again falls back into that area of ambivalence but does not stop me from moving forward.

I know that I am not alone in thinking like this. Older adults in many areas are invisible to the community at large. Even the area of Generation X. When I look at the messages across most channels, it seems as if anyone born before 1975 doesn’t exist. The messages for people older than 55 are laughable. 

The lane I am carving out with FFP Collective is to shine a light on an area not being talked about in full. Nutrition and wellness for active Gen Xers is not just a catchy slogan to me, it is a rally point towards my job search as well as how I am trying to live my life at this point. Welcome to the Attica Files. See you next week.