November 2006
Your Strategies for Success as a 50+ Job Seeker
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
November 2006
Your Strategies for Success as a 50+ Job Seeker
By
President of Workforce Associates
and author of
NetWork: Maximizing Your Career Resources on the Internet
Available online and in print from Author House
Since I first wrote on this topic nearly six years ago, not much has changed for the ever increasing number of Geezer Boomers – except that they’ve acquired more experience and expertise. Plus, they are now ever closer to the age of 60!
While that once meant rocking chairs and arthritis, now it means something quite different, like considering new opportunities that includes a blend of semi-retirement and part time consulting or starting new businesses. There are lots of ways to continue being productive and active for another 15+ years!
Boomers are being helped in fashioning the last part of their lives now because the pendulum has swung from employers who were wary of hiring or keeping anyone with a few gray hairs to actively recruiting them because their work ethic, experience, and maturity are assets that Boomers bring to their workplaces.
In response to the Boomers who are turning 60 this year and the much larger number who will turn 60 over next 18 years, more online employment networks are springing up to meet the demand. They include advice columns and new and creative ways for the 55+ crowd to find new careers. Let’s take a look at them and a quick summary of their sound advice:
First: Questions to ask yourself
How many more years you want to work? If it's only five years, you can try to stay in your current field, perhaps with a smaller company. But if you want to work for 20 more years, as many Boomers plan to do, develop a plan that you find exciting. Include in that plan a regular regimen to keep up your skills and actively participate in professional associations.Actions to take in your current job or in a job interview:
Decide how you want to live those years? Develop a vision for the next five years, fifteen years, and so on. Your fifties may have a different configuration of working and playing from your sixties, which may be different from your seventies. But you can engage your brain and keep active for many years to come. For many people, this is an opportunity to work non-traditional hours by becoming a free agent and also to capitalize on all the experiences they've accumulated.
Update your appearance. Take off a few pounds. But be careful not to do anything unnatural or so radical that says you aren't comfortable with who you now are. Show energy and enthusiasm. Talk about your skiing holidays or hang-gliding (just kidding). You have to keep your energy level up while talking to recruiters and interviewers. Fast talkers win. Think in Internet speed. Long pauses may very well undermine your presentation and eliminate you from consideration. Be willing to pitch in: don't regard anything as beneath you.Here are online employment networks and resources to help you succeed in the next 15-20 years:
Demonstrate that maturity and experience count. Many companies staffed with kids still want a few gray heads around to call on the big corporate clients and to help the company avoid big mistakes. "I hope you want a mature person, i.e., someone who's been around the block..."
Don't confuse age prejudice with salary prejudice. If people don't want you because you cost too much, then don't say that it's because you're too old. Meritocracy is the order of the day. It’s no longer a matter of how long you’ve been showing up on time.
Address the salary issue. Find someone who is willing to pay you what you are worth. Look to those companies that have fewer than 1,000 employees. They need people who can hit the ground running. Make sure that you thoroughly understand the possibilities of what the Internet and global competition mean for your current and potential employer. You’ll quickly be perceived as a strategic player who can add value to your employer now and in the near future – until the technology changes again! – that you need to be continually on top of.
Learn how to market yourself. Older people are often used to being in one place for many years. They work hard but don't know how to promote themselves to the world. Take advantage of any and all opportunities to speak at a conference or become quoted in an article that appears in print or on a blog. Make sure that you continually update your bio on your company's website to note your new skills and accomplishments.
Pick up new skills. Everyone else has to. Why should you be different? Don't say to yourself: I'll learn it after they hire me. Learn it now. Stay up-to-date. The world is a fast paced place. Model yourself on a chief executive who recently completed a course in keyboarding, PowerPoint, and business Spanish. Another left the private sector and learned fundraising and not-for-profit management skills so that he could lead a non-profit organization capably as his second career.
Indicate how comfortable you are working with all age groups. Give examples about the different age groups that you have been involved with during your previous jobs, including any bosses who were younger than you. Volunteer work with Scouts, at church, or in your community also give potential employers a solid idea of your flexibility and sensitivity to different older and younger colleagues. Demonstrate that you’re comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. The perception is that mature workers would not be. Cite examples of deadlines that you have met on time and major projects that you have designed and implemented in a timely manner.
Consider part-time, temporary assignments, and/or volunteer work. If you want to work in the global economy, you have to prove you belong there, and nothing says more about your qualifications than your computer and language skills. Some 50+ find young graduates who can teach them about computers and whom they give the benefit of their experience in the workplace. It’s a win-win situation. Update your resume with an impressive electronic version. Make sure that your resume and the way you send it reflect your computer savvy. You need to show that you’re wired to the Internet and comfortable using email. This also indicates that you understand that recruiters require electronic resumes that include a keyword section so they can quickly search it to get an executive summary of your skills and experience.
Use crisp, concise business language in your cover letters, thank you notes, networking calls and interviews. Prepare a 30 second “elevator speech” that will respond to the interviewer's request "to tell me about yourself." This counters the widely held misperception of many senior managers that older workers tend to ramble.
Challenge yourself, even though you don't feel you should have to. Recent grads and older workers both think that they have already proven themselves -- but they are both badly out of sync with today’s fast paced, highly competitive market. Today, job searching requires a more proactive approach.
Don't use your age as an excuse for not being hired. Maybe the problem is something else. Try to figure out what it is. At The Five O’clock Club, people over 50 who work the system are finding good work in the same amount of time as those who are under 50.
Five O'clock Club: America's Premier Career Counseling Network specializes in helping older workers with up-to-date outplacement services. They also have excellent how-to-do-it guides.In conclusion, these resources are meant to help you position yourself effectively as an older worker in your job search and in job interviews. You should keep yourself VERY well informed about your chosen field and not let your skills and networks with others in your field lapse. You should also be in a good position to keep yourself marketable and upwardly mobile once you are employed. Turn to these sites regularly so that they become your regular online "friends" throughout your careers.
Forty Plus chapters can be found in major cities around the country to help 40+ college educated professionals network with one another to find better jobs or make successful career transitions.
Operation ABLE Network is composed of helpful agencies in Detroit, Boston, etc. that focus on meeting the needs of mid-career and older workers and job seekers. ABLE stands for Ability Based on Long Experience.
“Too Young to Retire” provides ideas for the over 50 set to chart new directions in the workplace and in their personal lives. Check out the Stones’ book for sage advice.
Seniors4Hire.org has been around since 2003, with more than 500 employers and close to 200,000 job seekers doing some serious matchmaking online.Employment Network for Retired Government Experts (ENRGE) pronounced “energy” or the Fountain of Use was created in 2005 to help senior government officials who have years of experience and networks of colleagues in highly specialized fields parlay their talents with employers who are looking for consulting or contracting expertise
SeniorJobBank.com has been around for quite awhile but has had a new lease on life with its new owners in the suburbs of Boston. You’ll find many different kinds of positions all over the country plus extensive job searching advice for the 55+ set.
Coolworks.com has a dynamite section called “Older and Bolder” that invites the 50+ Boomers who are still very active to consider interesting and unusual opportunities outdoors in enviable spots around the world.
Feel free to contact me re questions or comments about other sites that you know about for that are specifically targeted to the 50+ job seeker. I can be reached at jlommel@WorkforceAssociates.com
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jane M. Lommel, Ph.D.
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