- Pete Petersen, 58, struggled to find work after being dismissed from a business job.
- Petersen said his age and salary expectations could harm his job search in the white -collar sector.
- Despite the savings and allowances, Petersen said he couldn’t retire yet.
This also told attempt is based on a conversation with Pete Petersen, 58, who was You are looking for work Since February 2024 after being dismissed from his business work. Petersen has spent a large part of his career in the health care division of consumer products of a pharmaceutical company. He suspects his age and wage expectations have taken over its chances of finding a white collar work. His words were published for duration and clarity.
I live in Hingham, Massachusetts. I was raised by two parents who grew up in more difficult circumstances. I grew up in what you probably consider as an upper middle class lifestyle in a higher city in the middle class. I was not too frugal As a father, but when I passed, I felt guilty about it.
I went to the University of Massachusetts and I got my baccalaureate in communications because I wanted to go to cinema and television. I worked with people in industry for a long time, 35 years old living in tiny New York apartments and barely rubbing money. I saw all my friends manage pretty well and have a good time, so I ended up going back to Boston and starting a career in sales.
I connected with what was at the time Smithkline Beecham, a consumer health care business. I joined the idea that it was going to be three years, then I would leave and find another place to make my millions. Thirty years later, in 2019, when GSK merged with Pfizer, it was when my career ended.
A long career
I started at GSK by making retail sales, leading from one store to another, speaking to people in the aisles, chatting with the store managers of the construction displays and by ensuring that our product was in stock. I learned the company at ground level, appearing on Saturday morning to reset stores. Then I managed a team that supervised the regional supermarket chains.
In the early 2000s, he became more and more on data analysis. I had a boss who encouraged me to enter a very analytical job. I devoted to calling national accounts, which in my case with CVS. I went there and I fell in love. I could lock myself in the basement for three days and dig into the data to understand what our business trends were and see where we fail with customers.
In 2019, we would have these meetings, and I always laughed because everyone said: “Who will have the ax?” I would show them the gray in my beard and I said to myself: “my time has come”, because I was quite expensive. I was right, and the reduction in the workforce came in December 2019. In March 2020, all hell detached, so I looked for a job during this period.
I finally landed in a broker distributor who had worked for regional food chains. They ended up folding this. I went to work for a business that produced cannabis sleep help. The brand was great, and it was a Dream result. I also invested in a brewery with a former colleague, and I helped with my wife’s business.
I told myself that I would be 62 years old and I would sell the product while doing six figures, and I would sail at the end of my career as I could never have dreamed.
Despite the success of the construction of the company, the work ended suddenly and unexpectedly with the discovery of a financial fault by the CEO and its tragic passage shortly after. I was without work in February.
A year of unemployment
At the start of the process, there were opportunities that arose that I did not seize. When I interviewed for jobs and some of the packages were much lower than I wanted, I thought: “I have a daughter that I just finished Pay for university For, and I have a son at university. There is also a little ego.
I had a conversation with an old colleague who experienced a similar thing, ended up with advice and did well, but he never did as well as him in GSK. I learned that you have to stop looking at jobs as you did at the age of 39. You have to start looking at which jobs I can do to access my skills, motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning, advance my brain and cover my costs. If you are looking for this unicorn, you will refuse many opportunities by trying to find it.
At this point in my career, I have the impression that if people are going Hire someone my ageIt is almost as if the piece of the puzzle should be correct. If they hired me at 40, it’s like making a puzzle, and you pick up a room, and it seems that it is quite close.
I am not afraid of technological changes because I grew up at a time when they occurred quickly. But there is a feeling that being without work for a year made me lose my step. Will I go to work and not even recognize what people do? Did he move so quickly?
The best scenario I have seen is perhaps 10 to 15% below my old base salary, but there are 25 to 40% jobs below my old basic salary, even more if you consider the total package.
However, I interviewed some CEOs and companies, but they ended up falling. If you hire exactly the same person at 40 who can help develop the business, they could draw at least 6 to 8 years old. But when you look at someone my age, you wonder if when he builds his solid network in the region in which he did not work, will he leave?
Ageism is real, but it is not a bunch of people sitting around saying: “We are not going to hire the older guy”. They would like to bring experience, but they weigh all the different factors. I think they perceive me as at the end of my career. But if I was going to work for a company where I had a boss who got up every morning and would treat me as if I was treated when I was trained in a set of skills in their twenties, it would not be as feasible for me.
I was great at Personal financing And saved a decent sum of money, so I was able to resist this particular storm. GSK gave me a very good starting package, so I don’t worry about things like health care. But I know that for someone who makes a third or half of what I was doing in a situation like that, it could be devastating.
I could theoretically take my retirement in November, but I would live on half the budget I would have hoped, which would considerably change my lifestyle. I have set up plans all my life, and I did the right thing that saves, and that made me get back from this plan.