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Get a life, after 40!

Photo: K. Ananthan

OPTIONS GALORE You can even try your hand at stock-trading

“Tell me please, are there career options for a woman who is forty-plus?” wailed a member on a networking site. “The washing machine seems to swallow me, and shopping is for morons.

My high-school kids are sweet, but they have ‘things to do’. The husband has multiple appointments — his work is in his meetings. Life has fallen into a clock-work pattern. Strangely, it’s pressure-free — what the doctor orders. And I’m stressed!”

She had an impressive list of ‘job expertise’ gained from her 20-year stint as home-maker. “I’m adept at man management — make that people-of-all-ages management. I’m efficient at inventory control, excellent in event management. I have successfully organised parties for teens. I have first-rate fire-fighting and crisis management skills.I’m used to being on call 24x7 without over-time, bonus or casual leave. I’ve never defaulted on a deadline.I am a committed, organised, disciplined worker, an expert in communication and time-management. My degree may be worthless, but I have unquestionable hands-on experience. I’m sure I’ll pass a not-too-strict medical test. Will the corporate world employ me flexi-time?”

Answers poured in. One woman touched a raw wound. “It’s not just the empty-nest syndrome,” she wrote. “In these days of downsizing, de-layering, re-engineering, right-sizing, pay-cuts, frozen increments, lay-offs and a general meltdown, shouldn’t we homemakers be ready to pitch in financially?” Indeed!

It’s possible to re-start life, be the come-back kid. There are plenty of options that don’t need Learjet-buying capital. Browse job portals, speak to people you know. And, check out these achievables.

Ready to invest a bomb? Turn a hobby into a growing business? Open beauty parlours with all those “therapy” trappings. No? Start reiki or yoga classes. Initial costs are confined to buying comfortable mats. Sell stuff such as Tupperware and noni products, through the chain route.

Been praised for patience and understanding? Train yourself for special / remedial education. For short-term / part-time courses, call Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan or the Spastics Society. You could join a school or work with a couple of students at home. Or register for a degree through distance education. For your information, a Pune Sangathan teaches women to become priests in a year!

A job that promises good returns is being a financial advisor or an insurance agent. Insurance companies are among the few on a hiring spree.

Try your hand at stock-trading if you have the guts and the aptitude. A 50-plus woman (a commission agent) visited us offering postal deposit / MF / insurance schemes.

Are you a natural in handling the English language — spoken and written? Get in touch with call centres — there are age-neutral ones, they are hiring. Some BPOs have day shifts. For those with English language skills, there are bonanza job openings. You could teach online, if you aren’t put off by night shifts.

There’s a sizeable demand for teachers, copy-editors, freelance writers or paid bloggers. That’s right. Websites want good bloggers to enhance traffic. Not confident? Give tuitions at home.

Have a kind heart? Walk into an NGO as a paid volunteer. Train to be a counsellor. Read / record for the blind. A good cook? Plenty of dough in supplying chappati / subzi to offices. How about pickles, wafers, jams and chutneys? Baked products?

I know someone who sells T-shirts with funky logos. Another has started a glossy women’s mag. Others run boutiques of clothes and accessories. I’ve bought night dresses in simple drawing rooms, art-deco wall-hangings in furniture stores. One young woman makes customised leather handbags and shoes, lovely ones.

A plucky woman leases furnished houses to working girls and boys. Dig down for your talents. Math and Science teachers are in big demand abroad. So are social workers.

“I migrated to New Zealand at the age of 45,” says someone I know.

“I earned enough for my family, a better life style and education for my son. I became a statutory social worker. I did a Master’s in social work. I joined a trust that organises one of the biggest regional cultural programmes for ethnic communities. There is no retirement age, as there is a dire need for social workers across countries of the West.”

All the best!

GEETA PADMANABHAN

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