Losing a job is a nightmare for workers, especially older workers, as it is not easy to find a suitable new job. If any of us find ourselves in this situation, the article “What Should I Do When I Lose My Job at 40?” shared by TalentBold Advisor today will help you suggest many suitable future directions.
3.1. Take advantage of internal industry relationships
3.2. Find a temporary job while waiting for official employment
3.3. Search for opportunities on online recruitment networks
3.4. Personal capacity supplement
3.5. Discover career change opportunities
3.6. Improve health and mental stability
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1. Characteristics of workers in their 40s
Turning 40 is the first step towards middle age. At this age, the ability to work remains and the ability to develop relationships continues. However, the speed of physical and mental activities has shown signs of being slower and less flexible than that of adolescents, but they have many work experiences and life lessons that young people have not yet accumulated.
So, in terms of working capacity, 40-year-olds are not inferior to anyone, even the most experienced, but in a society where young workers are increasing, every year hundreds of thousands of new graduates continue to stay. jobs, which creates more opportunities for companies to find young talent, but poses a risk for middle-aged workers in their 40s.
2. Causes of job loss at 40
Losing a job at age 40 is not necessarily due to lack of work experience or poor work ethic, but can be due to the following reasons:
2.1. Reduced work performance
Old age and poor health are inevitable, especially sharpness of thought. This results in a slowdown in the progress of work, even if quality is still guaranteed. However, to increase their competitive advantage, companies will often limit hiring more people and assign more and more work to each employee. With slow progress, it will be difficult for you to complete it completely, your work efficiency will decrease and the quality will not improve, so you will easily be put on the dismissal list.
2.2. Slow ability to absorb new things
Technology applications that help improve the speed and quality of work are constantly developing, challenging every business to proactively innovate based on new operational trends. Young people are very sensitive to technology and have a lot of time to learn, unlike middle-aged people like 40s. Doing a huge amount of work every day, having to learn how to apply new technologies and having to manage family matters…, the pace will definitely be slower and you can’t ask the team to wait for you.
2.3. Difficulty integrating into an environment full of young people
A young working environment will always be accompanied by dynamism and new and highly competitive innovations. Thus, companies will gradually change the “blood” of their team by recruiting young people to replace them. Faced with this work environment, even if you are the one left, after a while, if your pace of work and your ability to bring new things to the organization cannot keep pace with the class of successors, your ability to stay will also be affected. . Therefore, the first is that you withdraw, the second is that the company will use the excuse of staff reduction and system reform to force you to withdraw.
2.4. High salary costs
Attractive jobs
With senior staff, operations will be stable, everyone will know what to do, but salary costs will be quite high. Therefore, not only employees and specialists, but also older senior managers can always be dismissed in order to reduce the cost burden on the organization. The salary paid to young workers is lower, they are very dynamic, so they absorb the basic nature of the work quite quickly, so the functioning of the whole system fluctuates only for a very short time.
2.5. The business situation has deteriorated
The clear evidence is that at present, clothing and footwear companies have no orders, expenses are higher than revenue, forcing companies to lay off thousands of workers. This is a force majeure situation, forcing the company to unilaterally terminate the contract. The employee compensation is quite large, but compared to the efforts made and the impossibility of reviving the business in the future, the amount of employee compensation is quite high. This compensation remains the most effective solution.
3. Solution for people who lose their job at 40
3.1. Take advantage of internal industry relationships
During your previous work, you approached and built many working relationships. If you are confident in your professional abilities, temporarily put aside the word “face”, proactively contact acquaintances from former companies or partner companies to ask whether they have recruitment needs or not. To make it easier to open your mouth, you can say that you are asking to find a job for your younger brother, sister or classmate.
The advantage of this solution is that you have experience in the business, have proven your abilities and understand the work process. With this, the ability to get hired and quickly adapt to the business system will be quite achievable.
3.2. Find a temporary job while waiting for official employment
Finding a side hustle while working is the advice the advisor gave in the previous series of articles. But if you don’t have one, in the meantime, you should aim for side jobs that you can manage, for example: driving a motorcycle taxi, delivering food via an app, security guard, online sales, receiving goods. parcel, process… This will help you stabilize your life, reduce the burden of food and money while waiting for the job opportunity you desire.
These jobs are paid by product or time, so you can organize your schedule completely proactively or choose the amount of work that suits you. If you have an interview scheduled, you can take a day off, or when you are tired, you can just work a few hours or half a day, without affecting other work plans.
3.3. Search for opportunities on online recruitment networks
Although the opportunity to find professional jobs requiring technology and experience online is not high for employees and specialists over 40 years old, do not miss this opportunity to apply. Who knows, maybe a company urgently needs experienced staff to replace a former employee who is about to leave, and you meet their recruiting criteria.
If you have experience in the right profession, you should look for specialized or mid-level management positions. As for positions that only match your qualifications and not positions you have held previously, you should ignore them because if you apply they can only be at staff level, which at this level is usually reserved for young candidates under 30 years old. years.
3.4. Personal capacity supplement
When you were working, the pressure was high, you didn’t have enough time and mind to devote to personal development courses. Now, after losing your job, you should make a plan to supplement your professional knowledge. times.
One thing the advisor wants to mention is that you should choose knowledge content close to real work and choose a training location with a placement commitment to have some guarantee. Because, as the strategist said, people in their 40s are fired not necessarily because of low abilities, but because of their age and job performance. If you acquire additional knowledge and spend a lot of money without increasing your chances of finding a job, you will waste even more money.
3.5. Discover career change opportunities
Flexibility is something that workers in their 40s who lose their jobs need to apply for. Being able to do the right job with stable employment is a good thing, but with the current situation of low recruitment and the large number of young unemployed workers, returning to the right job is not easy. Therefore, while doing a temporary side job, you should consider changing careers.
Changing sector here is not aiming for an office job with a stable monthly salary, but a job that does not require much in terms of qualifications or health and that you can choose to commit to. for a long period. It could be a side hustle that you choose, or you could open your own small business, such as live streaming online sales, cooking/mixing drinks to sell online through a catering app.
3.6. Improve health and mental stability
Anxiety, sadness, and disappointment are emotions that arise easily during this time. Instead of staying forever immersed in anxiety, let’s take advantage of the free time we lose at work for activities that provide better value that we couldn’t do when we were too busy working. . For example:
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Back home to visit your loved ones, who knows, you might discover a good business start-up opportunity in your hometown.
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Travel inexpensively to nearby destinations mainly to relax your mind, explore life and find new opportunities
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Exercise regularly every day to improve health, reduce stress and prepare the best energy for a new journey.
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Learn your favorite programs yourself via online systems (youtube, facebook, tiktok…) such as learning to cook, learning to arrange flowers, learning information technology…, without losing money but the value of knowledge remains very high.
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Keeping your spirits up in the face of all the changes in life is a very important thing that people in their 40s who lose their jobs should do.
For those who are 40 years old and have lost their jobs, do not be pessimistic, because you have health, knowledge and skills that young people take a long time to accumulate. The number of job opportunities is not great but not non-existent. As long as you maintain a good mental state and show flexibility to adapt to situations like the suggestions shared by TalentBold, you can always find the direction that suits you best.
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