Career Center | Ready or not, retirement usually happens

By Tim Grant / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Many people have surrendered to the idea that they will “work until they drop,” especially if they haven’t saved enough money to retire. The problem with that strategy is that a high percentage of

Job Calendar | Mature Workers Job Club

WorkSource's supportive small group for older workers and veterans focuses on maintaining a positive, action-oriented attitude during job search. It is peer facilitated and includes guest speakers and job search topics for networking and confidently looking for a job.

Job Calendar | M-Powered Job Club

Concerned that you may not be getting job interviews or offers due to your age? This WorkSource job club focuses on individuals ages 50 or older.

Job Calendar | Mature Worker Workshop

This free WorkSource workshop is primarily for job seekers over 55 and covers the myths of maturity, networking, assessing strengths, resumes, etc.

Job Calendar | Mature Workers Workshop

Due to common stereotypes, mature workers can often face difficult barriers to becoming employed. This free Worksource workshop will highlight ways to overcome these barriers and provide a forum for discussing ideas on how mature workers can conduct a successful

Job Calendar | Mature Workers Job Club

The supportive Mature Workers Job Club is primarily focused on mature workers who are concerned that they may not be getting job interviews or offers due to age.

Career Center Blog | Will the long-term unemployed soon get a rescue platform?

Earlier this year, while going about their usual business of investigating the nation's power brokers and exposing corruption wherever they find it, the journalists on the CBS TV news magazine "60 Minutes" told one of the more uplifting stories to

Job Calendar | Mature job seekers seminar

This free WorkSource workshop offers employment tips for mature job seekers.

Career Center Blog | Certificate programs might be your ticket to a career boost

If you've been thinking about increasing your skills, retraining or exploring a new career but don't want to spend the equivalent of a full college degree (and don't have the time for more intensive schooling), you might want to consider

Career Center Blog | Recession Generation has stories to tell, lessons to teach

In The Seattle Times' new special report The Recession Generation, young people are opening up about what they face in the job market today. Their stories are worth reading and learning from. I admire their persistence, their optimism, their continuing

Career Center Blog | Employers want to hire your bright future, not your past

Envision yourself standing beside a train track, watching an engine come rumbling down the line from hundreds of yards away. Or, perhaps more appropriately for the season, picture yourself at a Mariners game at Safeco Field, listening to the iconic

Career Center Blog | How to overcome the 'over the hill' bias

In October 1984, during a televised debate with Democratic presidential challenger Walter Mondale, President Ronald Reagan gave one of the more succinct defenses of older workers ever given by a politician. When asked about whether his advanced age (he was

Career Center | Interviewing tips for mature job seekers

Tribune Media Services When John Hemon interviewed for a job as a salesperson with a major electronics retailer in St. Louis, the 61-year-old father of four knew he would have to overcome perceptions about his age. He just didn’t think

Career Center | How to find legitimate work-from-home opportunities

Q: I am 62, have an M.B.A. and 40-plus years of management experience with excellent references on LinkedIn. My position was eliminated in December 2009, and I have been looking for employment since with little success. That is not, however,

Career Center Blog | Resources for finding a job you love in your encore years

My previous post featured a Q&A with Marc Freedman, author of the new book The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, about redefining work and retirement for Americans over age 50 and 60. [Marc Freedman | Photo

Career Center Blog | Redefining retirement, work, and play for those over 50 and 60

Over 50 but feel like those AARP notices you keep getting in the mail aren't speaking your language? Feel more like you're embarking on a new chapter of life than moving toward retirement? Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of

Career Center Blog | Prediction: The biggest workplace stories for 2011

Although it was no 2009, this past year was another doozy for the U.S. workforce. So rather than reminisce about the many ways 2010 whooped the collective hide of the working public, let's look forward to the new year. Following are

Career Center Blog | Forging an encore career in today's tricky job market

The IT professional turned social worker. The lawyer turned schoolteacher. The corporate accountant turned non-profit fundraiser. In the past year, you've no doubt heard stories like these of professionals who -- thanks to layoffs, burnout, or general job dissatisfaction --

Career Center Blog | Health care relief for Washington state's self-employed

A recent news item from the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner made my week. According to the OIC, come October 1, freelancers, sole proprietors, independent contractors, and other self-employed folks will have an easier time finding and qualifying

Career Center | Local programs help older job hunters brush up on work and career-finding skills

By Jean Parietti Special to NWjobs When Eric Brown completed a cabinetmaking program at a local community college last year, he found the construction industry hard-hit by the recession and jobs hard to find — especially for older workers. “It

Career Center | Job picture brightens; older workers struggle

By Drew DeSilver Seattle Times business reporter Larry Dinwiddie, left rear, 57, of Tumwater, attends a career fair in Tacoma. He's been jobless since December. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times) A year and a half ago, Larry Dinwiddie

Career Center | Recession eliminated some jobs for good

By Catherine Rampell The New York Times Cynthia Norton, 52, was laid off as an administrative assistant two years ago. (Lori Moffett / The New York Times) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Many of the jobs lost during the recession are

Career Center Blog | Could you take care of Mom (or Dad) on top of your career?

This past weekend, many of us spent time wining and dining our moms, burning up the phone lines with her, or honoring her memory. But how many of us in touch with our aging moms have broached the topic of

Career Center Blog | U.S. retirement age: Work till you drop?

You've probably heard it said that continuing to work into your golden years can keep your mind sharp and help stave off dementia. Good thing, considering how many older Americans can't afford to retire.  [Photo: Kevin Zollman] As the

Career Center | Brain drain: computers can cause a digital divide among workers, author says

By Linda Hughes NWjobs Photo by Jupiterimages In less than three decades, technology has transformed the workplace. Computers, BlackBerrys, iPods and cellphones have almost become extensions of us. But what impact have these devices had on the processor and

Career Center | Older and unemployed: Despite the recession, job seekers over 50 can beat the odds

By Suzanne Monson Special to NWjobs SARAH CLEVELAND / SPECIAL TO NWJOBS At age 51, Jill Ste. Claire Berndsen began working at the Ben Bridge jewelry store at Seattle’s Northgate Mall after a sales career in the construction industry.

Career Center | Retirement detour: Older employees working longer; more retirees seeking jobs

By Deb Riechmann Associated Press Associated Press photo courtesy CareerLink CareerLink employee Beverly London, 74, right, reviews job order requests with Jo Helman at the CareerLink office in Punxsutawney, Penn. London and her husband sold their retail carpet store

Career Center | What happens when an unemployed husband finds that his next boss is his wife?

By Erin Chan Ding Detroit Free Press SUSAN TUSA/DETROIT FREE PRESS Don Evanowski, of Brides-To-Be Shows, talks with Patricia Gammicchia, sales vice president, in Troy, Mich. His wife owns the company, which he joined after forced retirement from Chrysler.

Career Center | Cycling enthusiasts turn their hobby into a vocation by training as bike mechanics

By Julie French Ashland Daily Tidings JIM CRAVEN / ASHLAND DAILY TIDINGS Gary Mathis, left, leads a class in the art of using an acetylene torch to braze bicycle frames at the United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Ore. The

Career Center | Franchises beckon older workers to test their entrepreneurial mettle

By DAVE CARPENTER The Associated Press COURTESY OF LAURA MAGDALEN / AP Jim Devine, here with wife MaryLou, has bought a franchise for a non-medical in-home caregiving business in Clackamas County, Ore. CHICAGO — Kathy McAvoy-Rogalski keeps her year-old

Career Center | Overqualified applicants flood the job market, fighting for posts they once managed

By Eve Hightower McClatchy Newspapers M. SPENCER GREEN / AP Job seekers line up to attend a job fair Jan. 27 in Chicago. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time record, and more layoffs are

Career Center | Career fairs seeing older job seekers

By EILEEN AJ CONNELLY The Associated Press NEW YORK — Catherine Olohan took a buyout from Verizon Communications last year after working for the telephone company for more than 30 years. She then promptly rolled over her pension into

Career Center | Older workers looking more glamorous to company recruiters

By Kristen Gerencher Dow Jones Matt McClain / AP Seventy-seven-year-old Mary Buhr, who works in the accounts receivable department at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital, poses for a photograph taken on Monday, April 7, 2008, with a restless cat named

Career Center | Mature workers find opportunities

By Lynn Thompson Times Snohomish County Bureau GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMESMichelle Hartman took free computer classes offered by WorkSource of Seattle-King County where she successfully mastered Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access, Microsoft's office software, and got a

Career Center | Retiring? Don't bail on stocks

The Seattle Times Once they retire — and often several years before — investors typically shift out of stocks and into bonds in an effort to boost income and reduce risk. But investors are being too conservative, says Jim

Career Center | Not out to pasture yet

By Jan Norman The Orange County Register Ygnacio Nanetti/Orange County Register/MCTMarge Ball retired from Orange Coast College to run Marge's Tours, a travel management company. When Marge Ball retired in 2002 from Coast Community College District in Costa Mesa,

Career Center | Lying down on the job not a vertical move

By Dana Standish Special to The Seattle Times David G. Bradley, the owner of the Atlantic Monthly, recently named James Bennet, 39, to be the new editor of the august magazine. Bradley said he chose Bennet because he had

Career Center | 55 + ... and looking for work

By Scott McCredie Special to The Seattle Times CHAD COLEMAN / SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES Five months ago, right on cue when he turned 65, Larry Otos retired. For the previous 50 years or so, give or take

Career Center | The new retirement era - part two

By Robin Ryan Special to NWjobs "Retirement's not all it's cracked up to be," said former school secretary Jo Madison. "You get bored and need something to look forward to. Mindless days and going to bingo isn't my idea

Career Center | The new retirement era - part one

By Robin Ryan Special to NWjobs Diane McDonald, business lawyer, financial planner, college professor and author of Personal Finance: Tools for Decision Making (1999, Southwestern Publishing), enlightens us: "Mandatory retirement is quickly becoming an archaic dinosaur. With many people

Career Center | Laid-off men are shaping up and landing new jobs

By Robin Ryan Special to NWjobs When the first career counseling client told me he had been on the Atkins diet since he lost his job, I thought it was a good move since he was over 50 and