2017 Career Pivot Reader Survey Results [Infographic]

2017 Career Pivot Reader Survey Results

I want to thank everyone who participated in the recent Career Pivot reader survey. The results confirmed what I thought, which is always a good thing but also provided wonderful insight into the community.

We had 130 people respond to the reader survey, which exceeded my expectations for this first reader survey.

Let’s get into the details.

Demographics

Gender

The readership is pretty evenly split between men and women.

Women – 56.69%
Men – 43.31%

As early results were being reported the number split evenly between men and women but as I “pimped” the reader survey on social media the results started to skew to the female side.

Age

The age distribution surprised me a little bit but then I really did not know what to expect.

Over 75 – 2.38%
65 to 74 – 13.49%
55 to 64 – 46.83%
45 to 54 – 28.57%
35 to 44 – 5.56 %
18 to 34 – 3.17%

I was a bit surprised that a little less than 10% was from the “younger” crowd, under 45.

Location

Most of the respondents were from North America (90%).

7% of the respondents were from Europe and the last 3 percent were from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

I was disappointed that I did not get any respondents from the land down under, Australia. I know there is a significant readership in Australia.

Listen to the most recent episode

Career Status

This was one area that I did not know what to expect.

Approximately 56% were employed and some wanted to make a move.

Approximately 40% were unemployed or underemployed.

It was the 16% of others that was interesting.

Some are pursuing further education:

“Finished a masters but need to find an internship to fulfill requirements. I’m 52! Also looking for a job in my old field which pays 2-3x more than my new one.”

“Going part-time and returning to academia for a higher level qualification.”

Some are concerned about security and fulfillment:

“Consulting when first subscribed and looking for full-time work. Recently started 3/4 time job and continuing to consult some. Knowing there is no job security, continuing to keep options open.”

“Unemployed and looking for a second career, not just a ‘job’.”

“Working but looking for another source of income.”

We have passed the point for many that a fulfilling career is a goal. They just want some level of financial security.

Career Pivot Website

The traffic to the Career Pivot website has grown steadily over the last 5 years. Today, search or “google” traffic makes up a little over 60% of the visitors. Another way to say this is 6 out of 10 visitors searched on google, yahoo or bing and found a page on Career Pivot website.

As you can see to the right readers find Career Pivot in a variety of ways. This chart is for all traffic from January 1, 2017, to March 15, 2017.

Direct or someone who goes directly to the website makes up approximately 10% of the traffic.

Survey Participants

Over 65% of the reader survey participants find new content via the Career Pivot Insights weekly e-mail.

That is music to my ears!

A lot of effort has been expended in building the e-mail list and providing useful information via the Career Pivot Insights weekly e-mail.

Another 32% of the reader survey participants find new content via LinkedIn.

12% come directly to the website and what really surprised me was 10% find new content via Twitter. Given the older demographics of the readership, this surprised me it was even that high.

BoomerJobTips

The one thing I wanted to learn from this reader survey was whether BoomerJobTips was valued by the readership.

The answer was YES!

29% read every week
50% read every so often
20% never read BoomerJobTips

BoomerJobTips has gone through some changes in the last year. The BoomerJobTips post was originally based on the @careerpivot Twitter feed which was 70% curated content from around the Internet. The other 30% were evergreen posts on Career Pivot.

After an analysis of the Career Pivot’s over 800 blog posts, I switched to sharing the most popular evergreen (posts that are timeless) about 70% of the time. The measurement of what was most popular was switched from the Twitter feed to my personal LinkedIn account.

I will be working on organizing the existing content on the Career Pivot website throughout 2017. I will be creating portals for each topic that is popular.

What do you like best about the website?

This was an open-ended question and here are some of the responses:

“Variety of topics”

“Well-researched and engaging”

“Your perspective”

“Advice on how to stay curious, connected & current!”

“Directed at people my age, facing similar status in life.”

“The fact that there even IS a site for us older folks – all the job advice seems to be geared for Millennials on most other sites. We have more perspective and more skills.”

“It makes past posts easily accessible and indicates which are the most popular. It also curates other articles of interest.”

That is just a smattering of the responses. All told 57 out of the 130 reader survey respondents gave me feedback.

Thank You!

Are there topics that you would like to see addressed?

This was also an open-ended question and here are some of the responses:

“How to build a portfolio career.”

“More about switching gigs.”

“Advancing & enhancing our careers with our bilingualism.”

“Please focus more on crossed generations communication.”

“Dealing with age discrimination in the hiring process. What employers are “age-friendly.”

“Flexible, telecommute jobs, including freelance.”

“Info for boomers re-entering the labor force after 5+ years out.”

“Part-time employee after retirement.”

“How to overcome perceptions about salary/title when applying for a job that is lesser than what you have performed in the past.”

“More hints on convincing employers to give us a chance, especially young interviewers/bosses who are already biased.”

This is just a sampling of the 48 responses. If anyone is interested in writing a post on any of these topics please consult my guest post requirements page and get back with me through any of the contact forms on this post.

Are there topics that you would like to see eliminated?

Most of the responses were no. There were a few responses to change the focus to a slightly younger audience. A couple of respondents did not care for the multi-generational posts, but I will read through them carefully and make modifications.

I am exploring adding a group coaching component to the website. This would likely be a membership website with a modest monthly fee. Is this of interest?

Approximately, a third of the respondents said yes. Those who provided e-mail addresses will be contacted in the next couple of weeks. I will be reaching out to many of you via e-mail and later to have discussions over the phone or Skype. If you are interested just contact me via any of the contact forms on the career pivot website.

The goal is to build a beta group that can guide me through content development. I have a long history of developing both online and offline curriculum but I need your guidance.

What is Next?

The development of this post was delayed by of all things South by Southwest Festival or SxSW. This is known as Southby to those long-timeAustinites. Elizabeth Rabaey, who develops all of my graphics always attends SxSWi (interactive). Make sure and listen to Elizabeth’s career story on this weeks Repurpose Your Career Podcast. Susan Lahey, the co-author of Repurpose Your Career, has a press pass every year. SxSW consumes Austin for multiple weeks.

This brings me to the big announcement that Repurpose Your Career – A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life is now available to pre-order on Amazon