Age is but a number

Having been unemployed for more than a year I'm becoming more disgusted than discouraged.

I've applied for over 150 jobs and haven't gotten the first interview. I've removed all the dates from my resume as well as historical references because they immediately tell an employer I'm older than 50 and that seems to be a liability these days.

Unfortunately, when you're required to fill out an employment application it demands you fill in the dates of employment which obviously sends up a "red flag" to the employer that you're "over the hill."

So, as you climb the ladder of life you suddenly become incompetent, inept, incapable and, regretfully, inconsequential, and that is so inaccurate.

Firms looking for public relations people will hire a pretty face from the television news even though the anchor or reporter has absolutely no experience in that field. They don't take into account you've been doing the job voluntarily and successfully for more than 30 years, the latest just a week ago.

Retail managers see your receding hairline and assume you can't relate to the younger crowd, their prime customer even though you've been working and relating with teenagers and young adults for 35 years.

The fact that I've been writing editorials, magazine articles, the latest appearing in the October issue of Metropolitan Magazine, newspaper columns, letters to the editor and even my memoirs seems to be overlooked by those needing a writer.

Radio and television stations disregard the years as a nightly anchor and reporter, as an interviewer on the morning program, as a producer and host of a weekly public service program and, as recently as 2003, the writer, producer, director and host of a Civil War documentary. I guess it doesn't matter that I wrote and hosted an "old time radio" program on WOIC-AM and the internet in 2009.

I've been substitute teaching since February interacting with kids from elementary through high school and it's probably the most rewarding job I've ever had. Getting up early in the morning isn't my cup of tea but working with these kids, remembering my high school Math, English and Science and calling upon my experiences to pass that information on to the next generation is exhilarating. The school district obviously doesn't think I'm too old to do this.

However, when reality bites and I've come back down to Earth, I realize I need a higher paying job because I still have outstanding debts from the business I had to close in 2010.

From the looks of it I may never have a full-time job again and that's a shame. I'm not quite ready to "cash in my chips." It's just hard to convince an employer of that.