(gentle music) <v ->Hello, and welcome.</v> I'm Anne Jordan and I'll be your host. We all know how challenging it can be to find a job, so we're gonna share some tips and inspiration to help you keep a healthy mindset. First, it is so important to avoid becoming isolated. You can get through this tough time by reaching out to others. If you're struggling with anger or frustration about losing a job, consider getting help processing your feelings. Talk to a friend or therapist. And it may sound obvious, but be sure you're not neglecting your self-care. Remember to eat nourishing foods and make sure you're getting plenty of sleep and exercise. Now, let's hear from bestselling author Kerry Hannon, who shares her method for keeping a positive mindset during the job search. <v ->I love my HOVER method.</v> Okay, who doesn't love a great acronym? And hover, H-O-V-E-R, it stands for five ingredients that I think really, really you can embrace and make part of who you are as you approach almost anything in life, but definitely the job search. The H stands for hope. And hope is this sort of idea that you hold inside you that things will get better, that you will find what you're looking for, right? It is just a feeling, but it's something that you need to really seek out, this feeling of hope. Optimism, optimism is your O and it's a little different than hope. Optimism is realistic. You know that you're gonna have setbacks, you know that everything's not gonna be perfect, but you also believe that when you put in the hard work, when you keep moving little by patient, one step at a time, that you can get things done. Optimism is something that is, you know, really something that you can actually build. You can build this optimistic attitude by looking around you and finding things that you're grateful for. I know everyone tells you to keep that gratitude list. This is one case that it really is great in order to help you start, remind you to be optimistic, that the world, there are some beautiful things. It might be a blast of tulips in your neighbor's yard or it could be looking at your puppy who sees a butterfly for the first time with wonder and you go like, "Wow, I got to remember to look at the world like that." Your V is for value, and value is having this idea that you value who you are and your skills and what you have to offer. This is something that we can also build. It's a muscle that you can build. Education; by learning new things, you're adding to your skills. You're putting another arrow in your quiver. This is something that's truly important in order to value who you are, to have that, as I say, that moxie, you know, that you've got this confidence out there. But when you have value, that is something that goes a long way in helping you along your path to achieve your goals. Enthusiasm; well, who doesn't love an enthusiastic person? I know that's not easy to be all the time, and certainly, you're not gonna be all the time. But try to find that sort of magic about life in general that keeps you upbeat, looking forward. Looking forward is really important, and when you're enthusiastic, people wanna have, you know, have you around them as well and it goes a long way to kind of helping you ride through some of the difficult times that, stumbling blocks that might come up in your job search. And the final thing is resilience, and everyone talks about resilience. It's a buzzy word. But, again, resilience is something we can learn. It is something that you can build that muscle. I'm going back to education. I'm a big fan of learning new things. And when you learn new things, you do that whole cycle. You're a beginner, you're a greenhorn, you educate yourself, you learn something new, you become educated and expert. It's the rhythm of life and building that muscle of resilience, because you know what? We are very resilient at this stage in our lives. And when you're, you know, when you look back over the pandemic, studies have shown that, you know, people over 50 really navigated this period in our time much more successfully than the younger cohorts did because you know what? We have this emotional resilience. We've been through this before. We have this maturity that we've gone through hard periods of time and we know that we're gonna get through it, we're going to get to the other side. <v ->I like the acronym HOVER.</v> That makes it easy to do a quick check-in with yourself and see if you could use a boost in any of those areas. And if you wanna stay in a good head space during the job search, it can also help to have something positive and challenging to focus on. For instance, you could take a course or volunteer at an organization where you'll meet new people and have interesting new experiences. And an added benefit is these activities look great on your resume. All right, next up, we're going to hear from a recruiter named Kevin Coggins. Kevin, thanks for being here. I understand that you made a pretty big career transition when you were in your 50s. Can you tell us about that and how you managed to keep a positive outlook during your job search? <v ->Well, I tell you, it was a big surprise to me.</v> I owned retail bicycle stores in the area, and in the economic collapse of 2008 I ended up having to close those stores. And so, you know, I felt, you know, I was a well-known person in the community, I had been involved with several nonprofits, and I really thought finding a job would be easy, nut it ended up being quite a challenge, to tell you the truth. There really just weren't that many jobs out there for people that used to own a bike shop, and to put it bluntly, and nobody could put me in a box. You know, I had done, I did marketing, I did sales, I did training, I did finance. You did everything that a business owner would do. And basically, I had to just work my personal network, keep talking to people, try to stay positive, practice job interviewing skills. I got better as I went along. And then eventually I got an opportunity and somebody saw something in me and gave me a chance and I started recruiting and I've been doing that ever since. And I'm really, really fortunate. And it was difficult to keep a positive attitude during the time, but I just stayed in touch with my friends. I stayed active. I'm a cyclist, of course, since I owned bicycle stores, so I stayed active and just kept talking to people. But it's always a challenge to keep a positive outlook, that's for sure. <v ->Well, I love what you said about working your network</v> and staying in touch with people. I think that's so key. And staying active. Yeah, so now, of course, you're on the other side of the equation. You're not looking for a job anymore. You're actually the one doing the recruiting. So I'm curious, in your work as a recruiter, do you ever find yourself seeking out older workers? And if so, why is that? <v ->You know, my clients are always looking for people</v> that have experience, that's for sure, because it's so hard to, it's hard to find people that have experience. And recently I've actually made two placements with two different clients of people that are in their upper 60s who had experience in areas that very, very few people have. So there are opportunities out there. As a recruiter, though, we're just constantly seeking the best possible person regardless of age. We don't really care about that part of it. <v ->Thanks, Kevin.</v> It sounds like there are many employers out there who value older workers and there are many older workers out there landing good jobs. You can be one of them. And AARP is here to help. Get expert career advice and find the job search tools and professional resources that every experienced worker needs to sharpen skills and get hired at aarp.org/work. You can also visit learn.aarp.org/workandjobs to find more information and videos about the job search and a variety of other topics, including caregiving, Medicare, and Social Security. While you're there, be sure to use the Your Questions Answered tool to browse frequently asked questions. If you don't see what you're looking for, you can submit a question of your own for an emailed response from a career coach. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)

healthy mindset

job search

avoiding isolation

HOVER method

career transition