A New Chapter in My Life

I recently decided to change my work and life direction. I have been working as an administrator for about 8 years now for 3 different facilities including a large corporation, small corporation and an independently owned facility. All 3 have their positive and negative qualities. I made this decision based on wanting to do something that meets both my personal and educational goals. The main reasons are the hours and being on call 24/7. I am getting to an age where I would like to do something that has more reasonable hours and little to no call. I want to enjoy my grandchildren and work toward retirement. Looking for a job in this day and age has its own set of issues. A positive is that the internet has opened up the search. There are many web sites that help look for positions that meet your requirements. Most companies have an on line method for applying for a job. A negative is that it is so impersonal and you never quite know the status or if they have even reviewed your resume. I have been applying and interviewing for about a month now. I have had 3 in person interviews and 1 phone interview. I have applied for over 20 jobs. This process is very difficult. I have not been chosen for 2 jobs one because they hired someone more local, I don't know why for the second one and decided myself I wasn't a good candidate for the third. Not chosen for several of the on line jobs due to the number of applicants. I did not think this process would be so difficult. I have not had to look for a job since the early 90's. I feel that some of my qualities are also negatives for this type of process. I am very knowledgeable with lots of experience which includes being a regional vice president over 8 facilities and a regional nurse over 9 facilities. I have been a director of nursing and administrator. During one of my interviews for a regional nurse I was actually asked why I went to the dark side. By that she meant went to administration. I guess that should have clued me that she would not pick me. This should be a positive because I understand both rolls. My resume looks like I have a lot of different jobs with companies but in reality because of the changes in ownership I worked for 4 different owners in 1 set of buildings. I am also 54 years old which is not old but a lot of companies are looking for younger people. I actually sent out letters to many facilities offering consulting and educational services. I have not heard back from any of them. I plan to continue to blog my progress as I go. I would love to hear from others having the same problems or any one with suggestions for me.