Ask HN: Career advice for a family member?

Posted by galazzah on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @08:03PM
from the ask-hn dept.

My uncle is in his 50's. He graduated with a B.S. in EE and went into sales, where he excelled. About 6 years ago he got laid off and has been struggling to find a job-- he can't even get interviews despite a stellar resume. He went through some health problems and what not but continues to apply to jobs. Despite the fact that he was at director level in his past jobs, he is open to entry level jobs in sales/marketing. What should he do?

( 5 comments | 6 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Career advice for a family member? by Mz on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @01:57PM (#12175090)

By 2020, 40% of US workers will be doing gig work of some sort. He needs to be looking for an intermediary service, like UpWork, Textbooks, Task Rabbit or Amazon Flex https://flex.amazon.com/.

He needs to let go of the idea of having a job per se and go find work that pays.

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Re:Ask HN: Career advice for a family member? by orky56 on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @02:19PM (#12175276)

If he's still open to technology, I would recommend picking up Salesforce. As a Salesforce admin with experience working in sales, he could be a valuable asset to a company. The admin certification is not as difficult to pick up and many people within the industry see the industry experience to be a big asset.

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Re:Ask HN: Career advice for a family member? by sndean on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @09:32PM (#12169941)

That sounds similar to my uncle's situation. BS in Engineering, laid off during the recession, health issues.

He's had to take whatever job he can get, currently pretty close to minimum wage. And that's after hundreds of applications since 2009/2010.

Hope they both can find a job (or a better job) soon. I'd like some good advice too.

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Re:Ask HN: Career advice for a family member? by dc17 on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @02:20AM (#12170889)

Whats about self-employment? May be your uncle may offer some kind of service or consulting in sales/marketing for businesses or other entrepreneurs? I know some examples when after retirement people started their own business and became successful.

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Re:Ask HN: Career advice for a family member? by Spooky23 on Tuesday July 26, 2016 @09:43PM (#12169978)

Take a civil service exam.

A fifty year old is a dead man walking to any company.

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