Written by Sarah Welstead, co-founder and Managing Partner of Retired Worker, this blog is a forum for up-to-the-minute news and ideas about older workers and the employers who hire them.

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That degree in English Lit might be a lot more marketable than you think
Posted : Thu January 14th
Comments : 6

Dear Sarah: What's the difference between a 'headhunter' and a 'recruiter'?
Posted : Sun January 10th

You're helping the economy just by reading this!
Posted : Fri January 1st

The view from here: Recruiting in Canada
Posted : Mon December 14th

Dear Sarah: Can I work with more than one recruiter at a time?
Posted : Mon November 30th
Comments : 2

Retired Worker on the radio: Tips for job-seekers on getting the most out of recruiters
Posted : Wed November 18th

"Dear Sarah: Who pays recruiters and how do I get one?"
Posted : Sun November 15th

"Dear Sarah: Recruiters are driving me nuts. What should I do?"
Posted : Sun November 8th

Great networking lasts a lifetime. That's why Facebook is more important to your career than you think.
Posted : Fri September 25th

Dear Candidates: This is why you didn't get the job
Posted : Mon September 21st

Retired Worker Blog

You're helping the economy just by reading this!

So it's the last day of 2009 and, like most people, I'm spending the day reflecting on the year that's passed and the year to come.

I think 2009 was pretty much the 13th floor of our lives: Sure, we all know it's there, but the elevator buttons skip from 12 to 14, as though not labelling the 13th floor will somehow keep us safe from the bad luck it supposedly brings.

However, I have to say I was surprised by our collective resiliency this year. The media in the first few months of 2009 was a non-stop deluge of economic disaster stories.

But there's only so much of that doom and gloom a body can stand, and by August it felt like, as a society, we put our collective foot down and said, "Enough with this paralyzing economic stasis! Let's start moving forward again!"

In other words, barely a year after the Bear Stearns collapse that started it all, we were able to pick ourselves up, shake off the dust, and get back on the road, as it were. Maybe we're not yet running down the road, but we're definitely striding briskly, and possibly whistling.

But I found myself wondering..

The 2008/09 recession was more sudden, dramatic, and global than any other economic downturn since the Great Depression. So how come we seem to be recovering - in spirit, if not yet in actual dollars - so much faster?

(Remember the real estate tumble in the late 1980s? Not only did house prices take ages to recover, but everyone was just so depressed for so long. If I had a nickel for every time one of my friends, family or university profs told me that graduating in 1991 with a BA in English Lit basically qualified me for a life on the breadlines, I'd have been able to bail out Bear Stearns myself. Now that 'content is king', however, us English grads are looking remarkably prescientient.)

Social media: The #1 factor in the optimism that leads to economic recovery

Back in May, I wrote that social media was saving the economy, and I still think it's true.

Our connections to people far outside our previously circumscribed little worlds have given us all more of a sense of 'team spirit'. Personal economic disasters - losing a job, losing retirement investments, etc. - can be alienating and isolating. But these days, instead of holing up at home, quietly falling off the grid into an alcoholic slough of despond, we're taking to blogs, vlogs, status updates, discussion groups - and finding that not only are we not alone in our own circumstances, but there are plenty of people in far worse circumstances, so maybe we should stop moaning about how we can't afford that 52" flatscreen any more.

(All of this also puts me in mind of the whitepaper we published this year on grassroots corporate philanthropy and its effect on the bottom line, actually.)

Anyhow, I guess that's my Big Deep Thought for 2010: Spending so much time connecting with people via social media isn't 'wasting time' - it's these connections, which are driving the optimism that, ultimately, drives economies.

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