SENIORS : Volunteer Center’s Classes Help With New Careers

Trying to get a job when one is over 60 takes some doing, and Marilyn Jacques-Sullivan did it all wrong. She made the mistake of sending out close to 100 resumes. “A lot of people didn’t bother with me after they read that I graduated from high school in 1945,” she said.

For 15 years, Jacques-Sullivan had worked for the federal government as a manager of a department that processed purchases and contracts. “Then they upgraded my position and required a person to have a college education, which I did not,” she said. A year ago, she was forced to leave and at the age of 62 was back in the job market.

After several fruitless interviews and some false starts, Jacques-Sullivan began looking for computer classes and found the Second Careers Program, a 15-year-old nonprofit project of the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles.

She enrolled at Second Careers’ Computer Learning Lab. Because she already had strong typing and secretarial skills, she quickly became proficient in two widely used office software programs--WordPerfect, for word processing, and Lotus 1-2-3 for business accounting. In four months, she had a job.

Jacques-Sullivan said she found that her new computer skills opened doors that an impressive resume did not. Prospective employers might not care that the New York native had extensive government experience and was once the documents officer for India’s delegation to the United Nations. Mastery of WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3, however, was immediately marketable.

By choice, Jacques-Sullivan now works part time for a psychotherapist. If she decides she needs to work full time, she said, she is confident that finding a job will be easy.

When the Second Careers Program started, its emphasis was on training retirees for volunteer work, but program officials say that the economics of the 1980s forced them to shift their emphasis to offering direct employment assistance.

An additional benefit of the Second Careers Program classes, Jacques-Sullivan said, is that they are enjoyable. “I like to go to school--it keeps my mind active,” she said.

“Old age can creep in at any time, even when you’re young, she added. “It’s about thinking old, not being old.”

The Second Careers Program is located at 3923 W. 6th St., Los Angeles. Call Todd Lipka at 380-3166 for more information.