About
Welcome to my Blog. Come in and find a comfortable place to sit, while we visit.
My name is Jerry Dill and I’m pleased to meet you. Won’t you please tell me what brought you to my blog? Surely, you have a need I can fill and nothing would please me more.
Perhaps I should tell you just a little about myself, so you get some idea of which of your current needs I might serve. Well, first I was born at a very early age to a young couple in the State of Idaho.
Dad was a sheep herder turned timber cutter, a very hard working young man. He taught me how to work, in due time. Mother was the daughter of a dirt farmer and had a good education. She instilled in me a desire to get a good education.
Fast forward about 49 years, when I decided to change careers, leaving behind my 23 years in the commercial insurance business, to pursue an education in Information Management. By that time, I had four children, all but one of them grown and on their own.
University life was a real treat for me. Admittedly, trying to compete with the brighter students who still had all their life in front of them was a real challenge. Convincing some of my professors that I was not sent into their lecture halls to spy on them for the administration was a kick, though.
After three full years (no summer breaks), I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Information Management, with a second major in Accounting. I was anxious to utilize my new education “making a living” and providing innovative guidance to the corporate world.
Besides a degree, I also offered over 20 years experience in the corporate arena. How could I possibly fail to find an employer who would just gobble up my services?
How, indeed! I sent out over 100 resumes to corporations that sought after business graduates from my school. I received exactly zero responses. I used the university’s student placement service and finally sneaked into one on-campus interview with a large corporation. The interview lasted for about seven minutes.
Do you know why I was having such miserable results in job hunting? I am not an ugly person. I don’t have any glaring abnormalities. I like people and I get along with almost anyone, given half a chance. I even finished my studies with an overall GPA of 3.6—not perfect, but nothing to be ashamed of, either.
So, what was the problem!!? In a word; discrimination! I had heard of it, but I had never realized it was really prevalent. But, there it was, blatant and unabashed discrimination—age discrimination.
The industry into which I had sought to make a career, could not imagine that anyone over about 23 years of age would even know how to use a computer, I had to resort to my secondary education and stoop to becoming an auditor/accountant, to find a white-collar job.
The story gets even more depressing, but it also becomes way too long, so I’ll cut to the current scene. I finally stumbled into the “online” world about 12 years ago. I was as happy as a pig in mud, helping people on the internet, by providing web hosting service to the Dot Org community.
Now, don’t be put off by what I’m going to say next, because the people who work in the non-profit world are almost all super heroes, in my eyes. They work long hours, get paid nothing or less and are willing to give you the shirt off their backs.
Nonetheless, the great majority of non-profit organizations have no sustaining income. Therefore, they necessarily seek volunteer services, as well as volunteer helpers. Suffice it to say, we (my wife and I) emptied our money pit, providing all free services and finally had to bail out.
After a year or so away from the online community, I yearned to return. I knew there were people making at least a living wage from their online endeavors. Although I was no younger than I was when I graduated from university, I didn’t feel any older, either.
Considering all I had been through and convinced I could make a success of an online career, I happened on to a brilliant strategy–turning a weakness into a strong motive.
The baby-boomer generation was already becoming a dominating force in the world. Social Security was beginning to look like a lost cause for up and coming retirees. You can probably see where I’m going with this, so I’ll just tell it like it is.
The first thing I did was go to my domain registrar and buy “Never2old2work.com.” My plan was to reach out to the older generation who were either about to, or already had, run smack into my former enemy, Age Discrimination.
I decided to set myself up as the “poster ‘boy’” for that generation. You’ve heard it before—If I can do it, you know you can do it. Just let me guide you through the maze, so you can avoid most of the common pitfalls and start reaping the common benefits.
How much do you need? How much do you want. How much time do we have to get you where you want to be? What are your assets (do you have a computer, do you have computer skills)?
What talents do you have? What are your favorite hobbies or interests? What do you absolutely detest? What kind of budget do you have for gathering all the missing pieces? Make a list or a spreadsheet of your answers to these questions and keep it handy. You’ll make good use of this information more than you might think riight now.
If you read all this page, I am impressed. If you have any questions or suggestion, please post them on this blog.
Thank you very much.
*Jerry
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