Thanks everyone for those insightful replies! ExperiMental, you hit on something when you mentioned having “life experience” when designing successfully. I noticed in my class those who were 20 years younger than me, only a handful had a natural ability to design intuitively and figure out before doing their research and interviewing users, what the major problems were, the ergonomics and other issues involved in their design/redesigns. For the most part, their designs were merely aesthetically pleasing without taking into consideration any ergonomics, trangenerational issues,etc. They were more concerned with the beauty shot.
I should be applying to places that focus on more serious design that markets to a slighter older demographic, possibly Oxo/Smart Design (love their designs!). I do agree with you that sometimes “life experience” is what gives us designers that insight into figuring out how to problem solve a bad design. I will have to play that up to a potential employer, experiMental! Thanks to you and everyone for your time.