Lessons from a 60-year-old intern

In February 2009 Julie Allstrom, 60, an executive assistant with four decades' worth of office experience, lost her full-time job with a professional sports team in Virginia where she earned $60,000 a year.

With sixth months' pay and insurance coverage included in her severance package, her husband and their five grown daughters encouraged her to finally finish her college degree that was tabled when she got married. By fall 2009 she was enrolled at George Mason University, studying a mix of workplace and organizational communications, human resources and women's studies. During her second semester, she found her next job: an unpaid internship at a national non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.

A CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,500 hiring managers, conducted between May and June 2010, indicates that Allstrom is not alone: 23% of employers reported seeing candidates with more than 10 years experience and workers ages 50 and up apply for internships.

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Bob Edelman, founder of and director of Interns Over 40, a job-listings and employment-search-tips site that launched in July 2009 that now reaches 40,000 monthly visitors ages 45 to 55, paints a broader picture: "With unemployment at near 10% ... the over-40 category [has seen] so many well-established industries demolished, resulting in long-term structural unemployment." Affected workers are literally forced to seek new careers.

Though she had never planned on interning, Allstrom, whose past careers include state government manager, social worker, instructor, call center manager and small-business owner, says, "I needed current experience on my resume, and I needed to build a network of new contacts. This internship has met those objectives."

Some of what she can now add to her resume? Conducting scholarly research, attending meetings in place of staff members and editing and proofreading information to be distributed to millions of members belonging to the organization.

Internship today, paycheck tomorrow

Allstrom hopes to graduate in May 2011 and is now volunteering for the D.C.-based organization rather than paying tuition to earn college credits to extend her internship. And like many before her, she's banking on paying her dues now to secure a steady paycheck in the future. "I feel very confident that if there are not budget cuts, which of course there could be, I will either get a job offer [within the organization] or through the contacts I've made."

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