Middle Aged Job Hunting | JobSearchTV.com

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hi this is Jeff Walden the big game
hunter and welcome to no BS job search
advice it's a time where I like to spend
about 15 let's chatting with you on a
Monday morning about some element of job
search because I believe job hunting
really doesn't have to be as hard
difficult painful or take as long as it
does it's just the skills needed to find
a position on different than the skills
needed to do what and what I try to do
is make it easy for job hunters by
teaching you the kind of things you need
to know in order to be more effective
with your job search now this show is
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calm so this is a show for those of you
who realize you're not young anymore
that's my best way of describing
middle-aged you've reached that point in
your life where you're getting enough
messages that you're waking up to the
fact that you're not 24 anymore that
you're closer to 40 40 or 50 for or is
in my case 60
for and you can't get away with being
someone with potential someone on the
way up there's an expectation that
you've arrived and i'll also say that
there are certain things you're looking
for organizations to deliver for you too
so i thought i would cover a couple of
things that I think are important for
you to be conscious of as you're
engaging in your job search so then this
way you don't get blindsided with bad
feedback and you're as well prepared as
possible now the first thing I want to
talk with you about is branding and if
you haven't done things to market
yourself or the brand yourself properly
so people are reaching out to you now is
definitely a time to do whether it's
part of this job search or preparing for
the one that will follow branding has to
be part of the preparation for any job
starts from this point on and it's too
detailed the conversation to go into for
today I just want to encourage you think
branding start with linkedin but you
have to go much broader than just
linkedin and create a plan for yourself
and in doing so start thinking about
what's the message you want to deliver
to people so that they think of you
first and foremost as an expert in your
field so that becomes linked in with the
branding things and then when you don't
have to wait until you're putting a but
you've developed the brand for yourself
you can start doing that today who are
you what makes you unique for your craft
and start working and clarifying that
message now one thing I noticed about
myself as I got older is that so to my
wardrobe that I start to no longer dress
stylish Lee which was good because I
can't I couldn't get away with dressing
like I did when I was 24 when I was 44
my dog had changed I shift
even though I was in good shape at that
time nose marathon runner you know I
wasn't as well dressed you know in the
youthful style as I was when I was 24 34
I'd gone more classic and that's okay I
want you to go more classic but
certainly not dated not looking like
you're wearing something that's 20 years
old and there's a difference between the
two and if you're not sure ask your wife
husband or partner for advice about this
because whether you're male or female
there's a way of looking like you're an
old dowdy for women and like you're a
geezer for guys and you don't want to do
that that includes your hair so for guys
if you've got that pompadour thing going
and for women if you look like a fairer
faucet clone it's time to start looking
at a new hairstyle for yourself so start
looking at your appearance start looking
at your wardrobe I also look at the
language that the marketplace is using
for the kind of work that you do and
start defining yourself in that way on
your resume on your LinkedIn profile and
on your personal website with all a
sudden remember firms are going online
looking for people what terms are they
easy and where to find someone like you
are they using that same vocabulary as
it morphed a little bit if it has
changed update your profiles in words to
make sure that you're someone who can be
found and not just someone who's out
there hunting all the time it does make
a difference and speaking of being
hunted on your LinkedIn profile in the
summary area put your email address and
phone number what people can call me
yeah they can call Youm if you're now
looking for a job and they can talk with
you about something better than what you
have doesn't mean that you have to say
yes but it does mean that you have to be
open to it because it really serves you
folks at the end of the day if
you haven't figured this out already you
disposable to anything we're going to
say she'd you work for and as such you
need to be prepared with an exit
strategy for yourself I just did
something for periscope where I was
talking about you know it's time to go
and when you start noticing that enjoy
going home a lot more than you join I
enjoy going to work it's time to move on
it is your boss is someone who just
criticizes human doesn't praise you
maybe you're stuck doing the same thing
for the last five years you know don't
just sit there and tolerate this
treatment make your move and be open to
making a move even if you think you're
happy maybe it could be happier
certainly if you made 20,000 30,000 or
40,000 dollars more than you do now it
might be a lot happier right so when a
recruiters reaching out to you whether
corporate a third-party make it easy for
them okay so get that contact
information on your LinkedIn profile
talk about your strengths confidently
practice talking about the work that you
do so it doesn't sound like you're
giving a haphazard presentation this is
those hand-in-hand with practice
interviewing because whether you're you
know happy doing what you're doing were
you doing in your aggressively looking
for something else there's a way to
present yourself so rehearse now I'll
also mention this is really the biggest
one the older you get the more concerns
you are with ageism a bias against older
workers you start noticing that hiring
managers are younger than you are and
you have the impression that they don't
want to talk to someone like you okay
they don't want to talk to someone older
than you as old as you are and that
certainly can happen without question
whatsoever however you're probably more
concerned about than they are if you can
deliver the goods they're going to open
their eyes and pay more attention don't
get fixated on the fact that you're
older than they are and start making
excuses
proactively for why you don't get the
job focusing instead on selling yourself
and presenting yourself to them in a way
that strong and confident and powerful
I'm stalking to a guy last week who's up
for a job I the startup and he he's in
the bay area there are lots of
opportunities available to I'm not going
to talk about what he does but I'll just
simply say he's interviewed of five or
six places he's been fighting back in
five or six places my client is getting
in relatively late into the mix but I
just said them very simply you never
know where you'll run into people and
you never know if this is the one you
really fall in love with always be
selling yourself because at the end of
the day often what happens is you know
about 10 minutes into the conversation
what happened is you suddenly wake up
and go hey this is a pretty good job you
start selling yourself but it may be too
late to recapture those first 10 minutes
and fix the damage that she caused by
being more casual so understand from an
employer perspective they go through
this thing called confirmation bias
where they make a judgment about someone
and then let the confirm it well on your
side you arrive with a judgment about
someone in a 100 someone is old with me
and when you discover that they would
have it's probably too late to correct
it because you've sent that enough
nonverbal and verbal messages nonverbal
ones being basically going oh shoot you
know and and that kind of message that's
associated with she's 20 years younger
than me or 10 years younger than they
they'll never want to hire me and you
got that paste it on smile that
basically says a sheet or you have the
one that well there are lots of messages
that you send now so when push comes to
shove just remember walk into every
meeting every conversation where you're
selling yourself if there are resumes if
there's you know if you're in a graphics
profession you want to make sure
your stuff is up to date and not looking
like it's aged you want to have your
portfolio the currents you want
everything to look great so those were a
couple of things I want to encourage you
to do so then this way you're able to be
proactive with your job search and
present very well at the end of the day
you know your job is to always send out
the message that you're ready to excel
that you're a top performer excellent
that your business and whether you're 44
5464 or beyond you always want to be
seen as a leader you always want to be
perceived as exceptional you always want
to be seen as the choice so you can say
no I was doing a video earlier today
where I was talking about a woman who
liz ryan there's an interview with
someone or they should wrote in woman
described the ab an interview that she
had kept waiting for 15 minutes of the
reception invited in to meet HR HR has
coffee doesn't it asked her if she'd
like some so of course the woman says oh
you have some coffee mind if I have some
as well and suddenly the HR person is
beside herself yeah you can get some and
kind of point sort of horsham get some
coffee and then the conversation
continues when she comes back with her a
cup of coffee thing with HR asking you
have 20 minutes to prove yourself and
the candidate response I say what I'm
going to say to her and have my coffee
and if you want an answer that question
you can leave now but because I think
it's ridiculous and unnecessary so your
choice I'd be happy to answer reasonable
questions but I'm not going to play a
game with you and the HR person adapted
for the ask questions a better excuse me
and a few days later the person got a
phone call from hiring manager who said
hey I heard you're someone with spunk I
like the higher are spunky people that I
have not done like the word spunk I'd
rather look at this I'm not going to
take BS and that's the way you need to
present yourself always as a winner as a
person who's no nonsense he's not going
to take BS I'm Jeff Albin hope you found
this helpful want to encourage you visit
my website which is the big game hunter
d us there's a lot more there that you
can watch listen to it we'd help you
find work more quickly and if we're not
connected on LinkedIn semi-connection
requested linkedin com /i n /n the big
game hunter I accept connection requests
from people worldwide except if you look
a spammer or scammer except if you're a
third-party recruiter also want to
mention if you have questions about job
hunting you are not alone most people do
however they asked the wrong people for
advice it's off to friends family maybe
a former management colleague in other
words people who know as little as they
do and they ask them for advice and they
get what they pay for instead reach out
to me which you can do in two places one
through my website which if you click
the tab on the top of the page which
again is to the big game hunter us click
the tab that says have your job search
questions answer schedule time with me
through there or fruit press though
experts com or my job searching and
career coaching expert so I'm Jeff Alton
hope you enjoyed today's show I'll be
back next week with no mo due back next
week with more no BS jobs or suffice
take care have a great day