are any of you over 40 and still have no job?

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catpiecakebutter
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02 Sep 2022, 9:12 pm

I'm approximately 40 years old (I won't say my exact age) and there isn't enough jobs out there for people who are disabled. I never graduated from high school and couldn't understand the content, never went to college or university and have never done a independent job on my own. One of my friends who is about 20 years older than says the phrase a lot "you never know" about getting a job. But I do know since I don't have much education past grade 8 and I don't think I'm high functioning autism but I'm not low either. I'm stuck in the middle of having developmental disabilities and mental health concerns at the same time. Do any of you 40 and older struggle with finding work? I would like to hear some stories from people 40 plus.



klanka
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03 Sep 2022, 3:35 am

I have work experience for coding, the jobs are mostly junior/graduate which obviously means young.
Or they are advanced level needing loads of experience.
The occasional one comes along that is in the middle but those are hard to get.I've gotten two interviews for one job only to be turned down at the last minute etc.



autisticelders
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03 Sep 2022, 7:05 am

I only have a high school education and worked over 40 jobs in my 50 plus years work history. Now retired.

Most jobs did not last long, but were all "caretaker" type jobs, either caring for animals, kids, or buildings as maintenance janitorial, caretaking sort of jobs from cleaning, landscape and garden work, flipping apartment rentals doing trash removal, cleaning, painting, wall repair, etc.

I also cleaned and sterilized operating rooms and cleaned doctors offices and professional buildings.

It did not demand schooling, or high tech skills, just a strong stomach since some of the work was disgustingly filthy or nasty.

I got paid pretty well though because most people are not willing to do the things those jobs required.

I mostly had to show up reliably and do the work without supervision.


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ToughDiamond
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03 Sep 2022, 1:03 pm

I expect I'd have a very hard time finding a bearable job these days even if I wasn't so old, and I don't know how anybody manages to do it. These days it seems as if jobs are very difficult to get. It's more of an employers' market and they've got more picky about who they take on, so employees have to work longer and harder for less. I last got a job in 1990 when things weren't so bad. I kept it for a long time but I quit as soon as I thought I could afford to. In spite of liking some aspects of the job, there was a big downside to it in terms of stress, boredom and frustration. Relatively speaking it was quite a cushy job. No weekend work, no forced overtime, no clocking in, hardly any bullies or primadonnas, quite a lot of freedom to work in my own way. But I still didn't like it.