55 and broke!

JohnGeo

JohnGeo

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Hi, I am a 55 year old man who suffered a precipitous hearing loss a few years back. Though my hearing was never great, I now have 30% speech recognition in my left ear and 36% in my right. Previously, I had a successful advertising and marketing career, but my hearing loss pretty put a pretty big dent in that. As a result, I returned to my first love which was journalism. I recently completed a non-fiction book about a squadron of giant, Japanese underwater aircraft carriers that were built during World War II to launch an aerial attack against New York City and Washington, DC as a follow up to Pearl Harbor. Incredible as it may sound, the story is true. My book is called "Operation Storm" and will be published by Random House in March. Unfortunately, I am now COMPLETELY OUT OF MONEY and must find a steady job to bring in some income. I plan to write another book on the side since this is what I love to do, but need regular work to pay the bills. My hearing impairment prevents me from returning to my old profession, which is why I want to ask if anyone has any suggestions about job categories I should investigate? I welcome your input! Kind regards, JohnGeo
 
What is your educational background? That would help in suggesting possible careers.
 
JohnGeo said:
Hi, I am a 55 year old man who suffered a precipitous hearing loss a few years back. Though my hearing was never great, I now have 30% speech recognition in my left ear and 36% in my right. Previously, I had a successful advertising and marketing career, but my hearing loss pretty put a pretty big dent in that. As a result, I returned to my first love which was journalism. I recently completed a non-fiction book about a squadron of giant, Japanese underwater aircraft carriers that were built during World War II to launch an aerial attack against New York City and Washington, DC as a follow up to Pearl Harbor. Incredible as it may sound, the story is true. My book is called "Operation Storm" and will be published by Random House in March. Unfortunately, I am now COMPLETELY OUT OF MONEY and must find a steady job to bring in some income. I plan to write another book on the side since this is what I love to do, but need regular work to pay the bills. My hearing impairment prevents me from returning to my old profession, which is why I want to ask if anyone has any suggestions about job categories I should investigate? I welcome your input! Kind regards, JohnGeo
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you should be a teacher. or a web producer
 
Have you been to Deaf Vocational Rehab for help?
 
Wirelessly posted

Reba said:
Have you been to Deaf Vocational Rehab for help?
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It does not have to be a deaf VR. He can goto his local VR office.
 
Babyblue said:
Wirelessly posted
It does not have to be a deaf VR. He can goto his local VR office.
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In our state, the VR department has special counselors, resources, and programs for deaf clients.
 
Wirelessly posted

Reba said:
Babyblue said:
Wirelessly posted
It does not have to be a deaf VR. He can goto his local VR office.
Click to expand...
In our state, the VR department has special counselors, resources, and programs for deaf clients.
Click to expand...

That's cool but he can still goto any local VR. If his town has a Deaf VR then he can goto that one.
 
Well, you have skills as a writer so I would look for editor position. There are a lot of publishing companies that need editors. In fact, Random House, at this very moment, needs one:

Managing Editorial Associate
Entry Level, Full Time, -, Editorial / Writing, Editorial Department, Editorial Department
Random House U.S.A, NEW YORK, New York

Welcome to Random House Careers!

As luck would have it!!! Just go to job search at the above link and pick Editorial Department.

And, these jobs are mostly a computer related job so there is not much face to face interaction, for the most part.

Having said that, you can also become a publisher yourself as well. Convert your book into an e-book or some extra material and sell online. You can use opensource software to convert it such as calibri:

calibre - E-book management

Welcome to the world of publishing! Just make sure you don't break the contract with Random House(they might not hire you).

In the mean time, you can either collect unemployment or sign up for disability. The government is here to help.
 
You are close to Stanford. Tons of jobs on the Stanford Campus and at the Hospital. Both are always hiring. There is a VR office in Sunnyvale which is fairly close too. There may be one in Palo Alto as well.
 
Also, there is a Home Depot in San Carlos that hires the Deaf....I saw several there. For Home Depot, apply online and then wait about 3 days. Then go to customer service and ask for a Mgr. Tell them you applied online but are difficult to reach because of your deafness. They will most likely interview you on the spot. AND with hidden cameras today this will probably scare them into hiring you too.
 
How about copy editing for publications?
 
Do you have experience writing advertising copy? Perhaps you might be able to continue doing that. There are phones that will caption the caller's voice.

Nice work on getting your book published.

If you need to, for future books, you could look into how some authors have self published by releasing chapters on Amazon's Kindle. It's a pretty interesting business model.

Deaf / Hard of hearing people today have more tools available to them today than before.

Maybe you can start with telling us what kind of work you'd be interested in, regardless of your hearing loss, and we can tell you what tools are available to help you do that...
 
JohnGeo said:
Hi, I am a 55 year old man who suffered a precipitous hearing loss a few years back. Though my hearing was never great, I now have 30% speech recognition in my left ear and 36% in my right. Previously, I had a successful advertising and marketing career, but my hearing loss pretty put a pretty big dent in that. As a result, I returned to my first love which was journalism. I recently completed a non-fiction book about a squadron of giant, Japanese underwater aircraft carriers that were built during World War II to launch an aerial attack against New York City and Washington, DC as a follow up to Pearl Harbor. Incredible as it may sound, the story is true. My book is called "Operation Storm" and will be published by Random House in March. Unfortunately, I am now COMPLETELY OUT OF MONEY and must find a steady job to bring in some income. I plan to write another book on the side since this is what I love to do, but need regular work to pay the bills. My hearing impairment prevents me from returning to my old profession, which is why I want to ask if anyone has any suggestions about job categories I should investigate? I welcome your input! Kind regards, JohnGeo
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Hi John,

Just another avenue to explore as the federal government supports the disabled in the work place and the job is secure. For what it's worth.... best wishes.

www.USAJobs.gov

Laura
 
Since journalism is your fave why not do some blogs? Freelance reporting or. Feature writing, ad writing? Stuff like that would not need hearing related requirements. Is a beech to go looking at your age, especially with the hearing loss and the impact it makes.
I will be sure to look up your book when it comes out. Which makes me think you can co author with clive cussler since he has been taking on various co authors. How many authors out there would throw you a bone to flesh out a story?
 
Welcome johngeo. You may enjoy checking this deaf journalist out. His name is Charlie Swinbourne Deaf journalist, scriptwriter and photographer. Good luck to you!
 
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