Offering opportunities to senior citizens (Hindu)

Offering opportunities to senior citizens

R. Mahendran (66), a former English professor, is quite sceptical of
online jobs that promise a new career to retired persons. He had
freelanced for a private firm that specialises in designing
educational software for professionals and though he was paid what was
agreed upon, Mr. Mahendran feels he undersold himself, being unaware
of the market trends.

Besides many recruitment agencies and consultancy firms, several
websites promise career opportunities for retired persons. While major
opportunities exist in administration, purchase and accounts, many
NGOs, health-care centres and small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs)
seeking understanding of legal and financial matters, prefer elderly
candidates. Besides roles that require licensing or liaising with
government, auditing jobs target retired officials.

However, apprehension remains with both the potential employers and
the employees raising demands and suggestions on recruitment and
advertising methods.

Most senior citizens do not aggressively market their credentials, and
many project themselves as being involved in work just to while away
time and employers do not take them seriously, says Aruna Damodaran,
manager, Dignity Second Careers. Senior citizens should communicate
better and act professionally, she says stressing the need for them to
be equipped with basic computer skills. "Being adept at applications
like Tally can help a senior citizen earn at least Rs.10,000 more
every month." She cited instances of consultants and lawyers not
giving due respect to senior citizens which can dissuade senior
citizens from ever working again.

On the other hand, Asha Chandrasekhar (62), a retired teacher, says
though most of the advertised website management and content writing
jobs require a lot of hard work, the pay is often not commensurate.
"Things have become so commercialised that there is a price tag even
on experience and expertise," she says. D. Rajasekaran, general
secretary, Tamil Nadu Senior Citizens Association, says that elderly
persons should not trust job portals totally and have contracts
cleared with the employer beforehand. Long hours of work, work
timings, work to be carried home, commuting problems and the stress
involved are not mentioned in the sites which they need to look out
for, he says. "They should not enter fields they are not skilled in,
depending on the training the employer promises because elders
normally take time adapt to technology," he says.

Website reviewer Arun Prabhudesai feels that portals designed for
senior citizens should be sensitive to the technological limitations
of the elderly
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Source:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Chennai/article898809.ece

My comments placed at the Hindu Site:
Very interesting and some unexpected observations by Vasudha.
Expecting all that Rajasekaran mentioned, to be made available at the
job site for each vacancy is too much. These are personal problems of
senior citizens. Such matters of concerns should be sorted out during
interview only. Blaming job sites is not proper. Aruna may have
mentioned how successful are they (dignity Second Careers)in securing
suitable jobs for retirees. I run a blog site with weekly listing of
vacancies for senior citizens called
http://apsccon-second-careers.blogspot.com/ Quite a few have
benefited. Here,One may learn of all about available job portals for
elders.The service is free.

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