Bouncing Back

I didn’t know that so much bouncing back would be required of me; I fear I may be bounced out. I’ve come back from divorce, from bankruptcy, from crippling depression and from getting fired by email. Those I handled and survived. Now, at 59, I face a new daunting challenge, one I didn’t expect.  

I haven’t been able to find work. I’ve been a successful marketing consultant for 15 years, a successful corporate executive prior to that, a successful entrepreneur before that.  I am accustomed to working hard and doing well. I have gotten used to opportunity being widely available. Now, not so much.  How do you bounce back from that?  

I keep broadening my job search. I've had my resume professionally re-written. I have Tweeted, Facebooked, Plaxo’d, and LinkedIn. I have had informational interviews and met friends-of-friends who might know of something. I haven't found anything that anyone is willing to hire me for.

Where have I gotten? What am I to do now? 

I’ve never had a setback like this. I know I’m not the only one. What are other people doing to survive this economic disaster? I graduated from high school in 1969; my classmates who have done well are starting to retire to spend more time at the house in Traverse City in the summer and Florida in the winter. Their kids are out of college and out of the house.  And then there’s this big group of us who have worked hard and built lives around work that’s in jeopardy or obsolete now. We have to keep working to replace our lost retirement capital, and there are too many of us fighting for the same jobs. We have mortgages and families to support. We are having to consider options that seemed impossible a year ago. We’re selling timeshares and postponing vacations and raiding our 401k just to stay afloat. It’s like standing on a sand dune in a stiff wind, one step up, two steps back and just a windburn to show for it. 

I’ve always been good at getting jobs and finding work. But I’m overly ripe now. Things I’m good at can be done by someone half my age with half my experience.  Times are hard, and I'm not sure I have the vitality to start over again. I’m at a crossroads, dragging my feet all the way. Now what?