I’m 52 and Can’t Get a Job in My Field. I Wasn’t Expecting This Shame.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jodi Lynn Karpes, a 52-year-old public relations professional who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

I’m 52, and I’ve been working in public relations for the last 25 years.

I immigrated to the US from South Africa five years ago, at age 47. When I moved to Florida, I left a country where I’d had my own business, GreenQueen PR, for about 17 years. After moving, I paused the business to look for full-time work.

The first job I found in Florida in 2021 had terrible pay, and I couldn’t live on it long-term — I had to dip into savings each month. The next took about three months to find. It was a director-level role for a PR agency based in New York, and I worked remotely. That agency was a terrible fit, and I hated the job — so much so that I was having terrible nightmares. So I resigned in December 2025.

In Still in the Game, Business Insider is chronicling the realities of job hunting in your 50s — from overcoming age bias and navigating career transitions to rebuilding confidence, updating skills, and finding new opportunities in a competitive job market. Read more stories here, and share your own experience here.

In order to create financial stability through multiple streams of income, I had a three-prong strategy. First, reopen my business and look for clients. Second, look for freelance or part-time work. Third, look for a full-time job. That was seven months ago, and while I’ve been able to find clients and freelance work, I haven’t had any luck finding full-time work — I haven’t even gotten interviews.

I wasn’t expecting the shame and humiliation around not being able to make enough income and not being seen as a viable candidate in my 50s. It feels like I’m walking in water and sinking. Doing my best not to drown.

It’s been incredibly difficult to be so unseen and unacknowledged

I’m surprised at how hard it’s been, how long it’s taken, and the huge toll it’s had on me emotionally. There’s so much self-blame, a deep sense of failure, and imposter syndrome. I feel utterly useless. I used to see myself as buoyant and resilient, but I don’t anymore.

Getting interviews and any response is really tough. There are so many portals, so many subscriptions — it’s a rabbit hole.

What’s changed in the past few years, since I’ve entered my 50s, is that people don’t respond. The ghosting is unbelievable, and there’s no feedback loop. I know employers get hundreds of résumés, but it would be so nice to know why I didn’t get the role. Being ignored is worse than being hated.

I’ve talked to a lot of others in their 50s going through the same thing, and a big question that comes up is, “Is it just me being ignored?”

The time spent on job hunting and client hunting has also been a shock

I’m surprised at how busy I am at the moment. Searching for freelance work, part-time work, and a full-time job feels like a “full-time” job too. Sometimes responding to a role can take three hours. To spend so much time and have no response becomes really expensive.

Applying for jobs was easier in my 30s and 40s. Now, if it doesn’t say “easy apply” on LinkedIn, I don’t bother. I don’t spread myself across multiple platforms. I stick to LinkedIn for job hunting, but nothing happens. There’s so much disappointment and fear on the other end of that click.

Another barrier is the job spec expectations — the workload, the role description compared to salary, and then asking for one to two years of experience for a job that requires someone with 15 years of experience.

I see these roles that require something I’ve never done in depth, even at my experience level. So, I’ve lowered my expectations in pay, title, and industry to try to find a full-time job. At this point, I’m open to any kind of position that pays reasonably well and where I can keep the freelance work I’ve picked up.

I’ve looked for assistant jobs and virtual assistant jobs. I’ve even applied for jobs at Walmart and other retail stores since I live across the street from outlet malls, but I got no response.

Catching up on AI has also been a problem for me

There’s AI now, and having been out of the tech loop for almost five years, catching up at 52 is a minefield.

My brain doesn’t work how it used to. I don’t have the funds and the time to put into it, but I need to do it anyway because AI is the foundation of the business model now.

I took a couple of AI courses. In my 20s and 30s, I moved faster, and I was the best in my tech classes. This time, I was the slowest one in my class. I couldn’t keep up. It’s more difficult for me to adopt technology at this age, particularly when I’ve been absent from it for even a short period.

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In the job application process, I’m up front and transparent about my age and other personal demographics so that no one’s time is wasted. If the employer is looking for someone who’s younger, they can eliminate me immediately.

I feel companies want younger people who have more energy. Energy doesn’t necessarily decline in your 50s; it just changes. Our cycles change as women specifically.

It’s surprising and difficult to describe, especially because it’s different for each woman. If a company doesn’t have humanity toward those changes or only pays lip service to them, it will be a problem. In my 50s, some days I can work until 10 p.m., and other days, my brain is off at 5 p.m., and I can’t form a sentence properly. I can’t tell you which days these are going to be.

I feel that work culture has to shift to accommodate the brains and experience that different people in their 50s come with.

On the other side, I don’t want to buy into the concept of ageism — I don’t want to keep that as part of my belief system. I want to help create a culture that’s more patient and understanding toward the different seasons of life.

Some job search strategies have been helpful in my 50s, and others have been a complete waste of time

Building a network is slow going. I’ve had to be creative about who to reach out to.

I’ve joined the Chamber of Commerce, and networking there fills my cup because that’s when I can be myself, have conversations, and develop something genuine. It’s good to be seen again, and I don’t feel discriminated against or feel an age gap at those meetings. But other things haven’t worked at all.

Have you ever felt your age was a factor in a job rejection? Scroll down to the comments and share your experience.

I paid a lot of money for a career coach before I quit my job, and it wasn’t working for many reasons; it required a lot of time and was costly. She was a lovely human being, but it created more work for me to do. At that point, I was working 10 hours a day, and then I had all this homework from the coach. It was slow, the strategy was ineffective, and the amount of work required was unrealistic.

I also can’t count how much time and money I wasted on my résumé to be redone. In the end, someone in one of my networks helped me do it for free because she was a good person.

Job searching in my 50s has hurt my retirement plans and sense of stability

The little bit I was able to put aside for retirement, I’ve been using to fund looking for clients and freelance work.

This has dramatically affected my finances. To have no savings is very scary. My car needed a big service recently, which cost so much. A month later, the car battery had to be replaced. I’m scared that my AC is going to need to be replaced, too. This has shaken every bit of stability that I felt I had.

I feel fear about what I’m going to do when I’m in my 60s and 70s now that I’ve used my savings.

I feel like I’m an octopus with eight arms in my 50s, but I have a vision

One arm is having to learn AI, another is looking for part-time work, another is looking for a full-time job, and another is getting processes in place for my business.

Then there’s pitching for clients, doing bookkeeping for my business, making pitch decks, and attending networking meetings. At 52, having all of these arms makes me feel unstructured and chaotic.

At this age, the hope was that I’d be traveling and seeing the world, enjoying my career, where I’ve got some kind of gravitas, not starting from scratch. I’d like to be fully back in my own business with all the processes in place and streamlined with the help of AI.

In this vision, I’m able to be out in the world to bring in new business, find opportunities for my clients, grow my business, grow their businesses, and to be the best version of me at this age.

Are you navigating a career change in your 50s? Contact this editor, Tess Martinelli, at [email protected], to share your story.