Print edition: 
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —She's not even sure it's a word, but Allison Sabraw has a term for her life's latest chapter:
"I'm re-careering," Sabraw said. "At this stage in my life, it's the most exciting, challenging thing that's come to me in a long time."
For nearly 30 years, Sabraw's life was the world of sales and marketing. The Sonoma, Calif., native began her career as a rarity, landing a Sacramento sales job at then-male-dominated beer giant Anheuser-Busch.
She soon moved on to Eastman Kodak, rose to the position of sales director at a local construction firm and led her own small firm for several years.
But like others who have lost their jobs, this 60-something is changing course and looking to a new career in health care as an activities coordinator for seniors.
Sabraw talks about the course she's plotting with passion and pragmatism.
She has decades of life and work experience, says her new career choice "isn't a place where ageism will kick me in the (rear)," and sees a bright future for herself in the growing industry.
"I'm better prepared today with my years of experience," she said. "Aeronautics? No, but I can do something like this."
But move past the practical and the reasons for Sabraw's planned career change become more basic.
"I want to leave something of myself with them. Going to the second half of my life, I want to lay my heart on the table and say I'm going to finish it with value," she said. "I'm looking forward to it. I've done the 14-hour days, but this is a different mind-set. At the end of the day, that someone has felt good in your presence, that's very fulfilling."
Sabraw's latest transition began in January. Throughout her career, she had prided herself on being in the right place at the right time.
For the last several years, her one-woman firm Sabraw and Associates had provided marketing services on contract to clients cultivated from her years in the Sacramento market.
But as the economy tightened, then worsened, business dried up, contracts vanished and Sabraw was soon out of work.
Suddenly, finding work had become a full-time job, a stream of resumes, applications and employment boards.
She became single-minded about finding a new job in the same field. She had been doing the work for nearly 30 years, after all.
But months into her search, without any offers, she began to look at things from a different point of view.
"One day, you scratch your head and say, 'Now it's time,' " she said. "I'd always felt flat in my job search. It wasn't until a few months back that I started shedding old habits and became more relaxed. Maybe I can do it in another skin."
Sabraw sought out Sacramento Works' Mark Sanders Center with its career seminars, one-on-one career counseling and resume workshops.
"They're a great resource, and I took full advantage of it," she said. Counselors "helped me redirect my career thought process. I could step back, calm down and think."
It was a step, but not Sabraw's only step.
Recently, Sabraw and more than 20 others sat behind computer terminals learning the basics of Microsoft Excel. The class is her second go-round after an earlier course on Microsoft Word.
She and seatmate Marlena Turner shared laughs as they helped each other understand the spreadsheet program.
Like many in the class, Sabraw said she "wasn't born into the computer world" and is making up for lost time. She and her classmates hope to parlay their newfound skills into a new job or career.
"We're seeing people who'd worked in a certain field for many years, but because of the economy, that field is dead," said Charles Coger, a course instructor. "When they're looking for work, they can't find anything similar to what they were doing. They're just new to the field of (computer) office skills."
New skills are only part of the bargain for Sabraw.
Because so many others in the class are starting over, "there's an incredible bonding. There's the old saying, 'Something good's going to come out of this.' "
She's talking about the class, but she very well could be talking about her entire experience over these past 10 months and what is to come.
"Employed or not employed, it doesn't matter. How many people come home and hate their jobs?" she said. "To take a certain aspect of yourself and reinvent it — to me, that's exciting."
