Meet lillian shupe: aarp foundation back to work 50+ program participant

For many older adults who have been out of work, six months represents a tipping point — that moment when you really start to worry: Will I ever find work again? Is there even the slightest

chance I’ll find a job I love? That’s how it was for Lillian Shupe, who found herself in her early 50s entering a category no one ever wants to belong to: the long-term unemployed, defined

by the government as people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks. But Lillian wasn’t about to let that category define _her_. She had confidence in her ability as a writer and a

journalist, able to get to the bottom of a story by doing her homework. So she set her mind to doing her homework on finding a job. And that’s where the AARP Foundation BACK TO WORK 50+

program comes into Lillian’s story. Lillian had spent most of her career as a newspaper reporter for syndicated local papers in New Jersey and then Pennsylvania, eventually landing a gig

with the monthly newspaper _Horse News_ — a job that indulged her passion for both animals and agriculture. “When I was a kid, I always thought I was born into the wrong family,” Lillian

says, “because I should have been a farmer.” So _Horse News_ was right up her alley. But as the newspapers and magazines she worked for got sold, Lillian’s position was eliminated. For a

while she “tried the entrepreneurial route and bought into a franchise,” but it wasn’t a natural fit, and she was barely getting by. “After two years, I was basically breaking even … and

working 40 hours a week. My profit was like $1.67 a month — not sustainable.” Because of her skills as a writer, she tried freelancing while continuing to look for something full-time. She

tried job search tools, a recruiter, and cruising a whole bunch of websites. “Then the pandemic hit,” she says, “which made it even harder to get any kind of freelance work.” She’d resisted

posting about her job search on social media, but finally she shared that she was looking for work. And that’s when a promotion for AARP Foundation BACK TO WORK 50+ popped up in her feed.

“How about that?” she says.                                                                She signed up for the free webinar and then the workshop, and she began customizing her résumé to

suit the particular jobs she was applying for. She had learned about the importance of customizing but hadn’t really understood how to go about it. The BACK TO WORK 50+ program walked her

through exactly how to proceed, with great help from two job search coaches, William Craig and Lynden Kidd. And that made all the difference. “One day we might talk about how to do your

LinkedIn, how to do the résumé, each week with a different topic,” she remembers. “A couple of times we did interview practice with some of the other participants.” In Lillian’s mind, the

coaching was the key to her eventual success. “You can ask them any kind of question, and they have the answers. And they’re both a lot of fun!”