Experience? No Problem! : Seniors Returning to Work Get Help Where They Really Need It--in Updating Their Job Skills

Just as they always have, senior citizens come to the Costa Mesa Senior Center to shoot a little pool and have lunch with friends. But increasingly, they also are coming for help on resumes and to learn new computer programs.

Hoping to supplement Social Security checks that don’t cover the cost of living and medical care, more retired people are clamoring to get back into the labor force, according to the advocates who work with them. In response to the demand for help, senior citizen centers are changing the services they provide.

“There is still a need for the arts and crafts and bingo and pot luck dinners, but that is not the backbone of the center anymore,” said Pat Trotter, director of the Fullerton Senior Multi-Service Center.

The Costa Mesa Senior Center recently held its first two-day seminar aimed at helping clients understand the job market of the ‘90s. It has also installed eight computers and has begun teaching computer courses to seniors who need such skills to secure good jobs.

Donna Mondor, who admits only to being well past 65, the age at which many Americans hope to be enjoying retirement, suffered a series of medical problems in her early 60s and quit a career selling real estate because she found it too physically demanding.

A desk job would have suited her needs, she said, but she didn’t have the skills. On her first visit to the senior center in Laguna Niguel, however, she learned about training opportunities for low-income seniors and decided to enroll.

Now she is back at work as a receptionist at the Norman P. Murray Senior Center in Mission Viejo, using computer skills she acquired in the last year.

Likewise, Hannah Markman, now 72, said she did not keep up with the rapidly changing world of technology, even though she worked as an independent systems analyst for more than 15 years. Markman, who retired about 10 years ago, believes she is “out of the loop as far as technology is concerned” and is learning new computer skills.

“The last computer I bought is completely out of date and I don’t know how to use any of this new software,” she said, “so I’m learning Excel and Windows.”

Terri Lavoot, a job counselor from the state Employment Development Department, said the seminar at the Costa Mesa Senior Center was put together partly because of demand from those who use the center. Lavoot had provided one-on-one counseling before, but decided it would be more efficient to have a seminar to address several dozen seniors at once.

During the two days, she advised them not to be intimidated by applying for jobs in industries that didn’t exist when they were working.

Leslie McDonald, community services coordinator at the Norman P. Murray Senior Center in Mission Viejo, said most of the centers in Orange County have become keenly aware that this is an issue they all need to address.

To help its clients get back to work, the center in Mission Viejo conducts several job fairs each year, which McDonald said are “always very well attended.” The center is also in the process of setting up a comprehensive referral service to help senior citizens looking for work.

Despite years of experience, Lavoot said many seniors are ill-prepared to reenter the job market. Most will find that technology has passed them by and many will not be able to get the same job they once had because they lack technological training.

“You must continue to learn,” Lavoot told a group of about three dozens senior citizens last week at the Costa Mesa senior center. “Now there isn’t a job that doesn’t require computer skills. Even people who worked as clerks before need to know how to use a computer.”