Keeping up appearances, hoping for a break

Editor's note: The following essay was submitted by a member of the Public Insight Network. She asked to remain anonymous, for reasons she explains in the article. She lives in the Twin Cities.

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My husband and I are hoping for a break before winter.

He's applied online for diverse occupations with diverse employers -- UPS, TSA, airline baggage handler, sales -- in addition to submitting conventional applications for banquet setup jobs, a grocery store, as a counter attendant at a Starbucks.

Our careers have been as freelance event photographers. We have seen our business drop to very little, due to (younger) amateurs entering the field and a lack of resources in event planning budgets. I know other photographers whose business has declined for the same reasons.

I have gone back to being a hotel banquet server while job searching. My husband is doing a little photo work while looking for a job. At age 61, we believe we are experiencing some age discrimination via the online job application process today, which is very impersonal.

I have two college degrees, in English and journalism, and was told last winter by an office temp agency that I was unqualified to be registered there.

We are not giving permission for our names to be used in this commentary because as professional people with a business that we hope to resuscitate, we don't want to sound like failures (which we feel like) or whiners in front of our peers or prospective clients. It is considered professional to be positive. You always have to play the game.

Even though job applications don't ask one's age, it is easy to determine age from school graduation and employment history. Jobs used to be easy to find; you could just walk in, and if they liked you, you could be hired.

But online applications can keep you from getting to first base with a prospective employer. A 30-year-old manager's idea of a 60-plus-year-old person who is applying online may be very different from the healthy, vital people we really are for our age. But no one sees who we really are through the Internet. Therefore jobs in sales, for example, seem beyond our reach.

Our generation didn't learn computer science in school. Taking adult education classes is not enough to compete. Many jobs require total familiarity with multiple programs. It is difficult to get this education and experience just with adult education classes. There seems to be no on-the-job training any longer.

There are various jobs out there that pay $8 an hour, but that is not enough for us to live on and pay ever-increasing health care and property taxes. My husband, a 30-year professional photographer and graduate of a business school, recently dropped his $485/month health care and now is uninsured.

If we didn't have cash flow from our paid-for duplex, we would be in trouble.

We have both done a variety of work our entire lives, and I've always worked more than one job at a time, so it is surprising how we don't seem to fit into the workforce any longer.

My husband is a Vietnam veteran who helped his daughter pay for college, and we both took time out of our lives to watch over our aging parents from 1997 to 2007. Now we are concerned that we can never retire and take care of ourselves without welfare.

It has been beneficial to have a garden for fresh produce, and fruits and vegetables to freeze for the winter. As a benefit of working in hotels and hospitality outlets, I also get a free meal for each shift I work, which has also helped keep grocery costs down.

A few years ago I took training and earned my license as a real property appraiser trainee. Guess what happened. Numerous e-mailed resumes and calls over three years have yielded no job possibilities, but I've heard from lots of complaining appraisers who have experienced serious business loss.

I tell everyone I know that we are seeking jobs. Some friends have given us ideas, such as package delivery jobs, but nothing has come of those. I scored well on an evaluation for prospective census takers, but have yet to hear.

We keep looking, and hoping for a break.