Rethinking Your Career? NYU Program Helps Boomers
Most universities across the US offer career guidance for students and recent graduates. Some have open-door policies for their alumni. But few rival the public career guidance services available at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies (212-998-7060, www.scps.nyu.edu/careers), a pioneer in the field of career guidance for people who are mid-career and beyond.
Executives, professionals, business managers, homemakers returning to the workforce, aspiring actors, artists and musicians seeking a stable income—in short, a cast of characters as varied as you'd expect to find in the Big Apple—utilize NYU's services.
At the heart of the program are dozens of interactive workshop-style classes led by practitioners or experts in a given field. You can find out about jobs in public relations, financial services, college administration, health care, or non-profits. You can attend a workshop on various aspects of small business ownership and entrepreneurship. Or, you can sharpen specific job-hunting skills: writing resumes, effective networking, and using the Internet as a job search tool. There's even a workshop on “self promotion for introverts.”
Through a separate division, NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, mature students can enroll in degree and non-degree courses in philanthropy, fundraising and non-profit management. Those interested in the tourism field can find courses in special- events management or hotel operations here.
Workshops cost from $90 up, and run from a few hours on a Saturday to several sessions. The duration and cost of classes vary. All are open to the general public.
One-on-One Consulting
NYU's Office of Career Management, which operates independently of the university-wide student career service program, offers one-on-one counseling sessions available in four areas: career planning, going back to school, coaching and professional development, and job search. A popular $400 package includes a battery of tests (Link to 5. Planning a Career Transition: About Tests) and four individual counseling sessions. A la carte options include resume or interview prep ($110), and individual education advisement ($100).
Alternatively, the $340 “individual job search advisement” provides a personal job-hunt buddy. This four-session program promises to deliver a detailed job search plan, a spiffy resume and cover letter, and help with interviewing and salary negotiations.
“There's an interesting shift in introversion and extroversion and that varies as people age,” says Arlene Yellen, 60, a veteran career counselor who has seen many Baby Boomers come through the New York University's Office of Career Management. “In your 20s and 30 s you are more concerned about what kind of impression you are making. Past age 40 your family, emotional and physical well-being-- even politics-- become more important than having people like you.”
Yellen says she's struck by how many Boomers today are looking toward the nonprofit world for future jobs.
“Purpose,” she says,” is a very large word.”
About the Author: Ellen Freudenheim is author of Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide To Retirement (Stewart Tabori Chang 2004). www.lookingforward2.com.
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