Overcoming Obstacles Affecting Older Jobseekers
BABY BOOMERS WORKING FOR GENERATION X / GENERATION NEXT
There was an era when the boss was usually the oldest person in the company and those over the age of forty were respected for their knowledge. Now, when a job seeker wants to move from up in their career path, but have been stuck in the same position for several years, or decides to go back to school and change their career path, they often face a real dilemma. The people reviewing their resumes and applications are half their age and looking at them, their experience, and their skills in a much different light.
X-ers and Next-ers often have a problem believing that anyone over the age of forty can possibly be a benefit to their organization, because a lot of us tend to shy away from technology, haven't continued our education, or have stayed so long in the same position that we're viewed as underachievers.
So, how do you overcome the "X" dilemma and get an X-er or Next-er to look at your resume long enough to decide they want to give you an interview and stop revealing your age?
A simple rule of thumb is to rule out any dates that are more than 20 years old, even 15 years, if you can get away with it.
Granted, there are some situations that are exceptions to the rule. This is true for corporate executives, researchers, academia, and doctors of both philosophy and medicine. It is also true if you apply for a job that requires a specified 20-25 years of experience. However, most jobs don't require more than 15 years, and most employers only require you to provide information on your work history for the past 10.
The best advice I can give a job seeker is to provide only as much information on a resume as is necessary to get the interview. If the requirement is for 7 years of experience, don't show more than 10 years of experience. If it calls for 5 years of experience, only show 5-10 years of experience and pull accomplishment bullets out of previous work history and put them in a separate accomplishments section.
I have had numerous clients who have looked for work for months without ever getting an interview, because they tell the resume reviewers that they have 30 years of experience and launch into a litany of professional history that spans 4 pages.
How do you avoid this? One way is to say that you have more than ? years of experience using profile or summary in such-and-such industry. Replace those question marks with a number of years that exceeds the requirement by 2-3 years and back up the statement with proven work experience, accomplishments, etc.
Another aspect of writing your resume that you should seriously consider is making sure that you are presenting your experience, skills, and abilities in a format and layout that says you know what current resume writing and cover letter standards are.The "block" style formatting, of the typewriter days went out with the typewriter. Inclusion of personal information, age, and hobbies is an absolute faux pas, as is putting a photo on your resume, if you're looking to find employment in the good ol' USA. All of these things not only date you, but also put you at an extreme disadvantage in your job search. Age and beauty are discriminatory factors. By including these on a resume that you submit, and employer is almost required to disregard your request for a resume review. If they hire or don't hire you based on any one of these factors they are susceptible to a law suit, because they can't prove they hired a prettier, more handsome, or younger applicant based only on their qualifications. So, many make it a policy to disregard resumes with this type of information, regardless of the person who sent it.
Just a few months ago, I worked with a client who was once an actress and live theater director. She was also a credentialed Ph.D. with more than 30 years of experience. All of the qualifications made no difference to her potential employers. As soon as they saw the picture at the top of the resume, the 30 years' worth of work history, and that she'd only earned her doctorate a few years ago, she was automatically out of the running.
A complete revamp of her documents, rewritten to maximize on her current skills and abilities, with no picture on the document, and leaving off 15 years of her work experience helped more that she ever could have imagined. She'd been looking for work for several months. Within a week of the revitalization of her personal marketing materials she had received 6 call-backs on 10 or so resumes, and set up 4 interviews for top-level academic positions.
This only goes to show how age discrimination is running rampant in the workplace, regardless of the laws in place that make it illegal.
If you're in a similar predicament, and are wondering why no one is calling you back, give this advice a bit of a try. Of course, you can always hire an experienced resume writer to assist you, but please remember that even when your resume writer creates and superb document, you'll need to tweak the information to meet the needs of every position that you apply for.
Happy Hunting
