Over 50 Job Search and Ageism
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses a few rules to follow when you are job hunting and over 50.
Where Can a 70 Year Old Man Find a Job?
The fact of the matter is, ageism exists. We can pretend it doesn’t exist. But it is really helpful to pretend. Let’s just acknowledge that it exists and, frankly, there’s really very little that you can do about it. If people going to be stupid and bigoted because you’re 50 or older, excuse my language, screw them. You have a lot more to offer and they just don’t get it. Let’s look at a few things that you can do that are within your control that will help you get hired for a job that you want.
The 1st thing is don’t fixate on your age. If you get turned down for a job, learn the reasons why you got turned down for the job because they may have nothing to do with age. So often, I listen to job hunters complained to me about how their age was the stumbling block in getting hired when, in fact, there are other factors that were involved were perfectly valid. So let’s not focus on your age.
- You have to think like you’re self-employed. You are in business for yourself and you have to do your own career management. What do you do to ensure that you are marketable to the next organization, to this organization that you’re trying to get hired by? Thinking like a business owner finding that lever that is going to connect you to their firm is almost more important than anything else that you can do. Again, look for that lever that is going to make you attractive.
- Stop spamming your resume. I receive resumes are absolutely useless to me. “Hi! I’m looking for a job. I’m applying for this vice president of such and such and you haven’t managed a person in the past 15 years.” It is spam. No one is going to give you the shot to go back to what you did 15 years ago. You are what you are today.
- Time to use your connections. That’s really the strongest place we could take advantage of your assets– your Rolodex. I will use the language of the Rolodex that I grew up with even though no one uses it anymore. You know what I’m talking about. You have connections . . And not talking with the people that you connected with on LinkedIn who you’ve never spoken with before in your life. I’m talking about the real connections– the people who you’ve worked with. The people who you have worked for that you could really reach out to AND you really need to reach out to them to make sure that, at the end of the day, you utilize an asset that you could really take advantage of.
- Talk to particular employers. Don’t just simply respond to job bids. They confirmed to might be at someone like you. Start working your connections to see if you can get an introduction into the firm. See if the firm could be approached, but you could approach through your connections, ideally, and sell yourself.
I see that these factors will go a long way toward helping you land your next position rather than fixating on the, “Oh, woe is me,” I am 50 and no one is going to hire me is useless.
6 Tactics for 55+ Year-Old Job Hunters
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ career easier. Those things
can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2600 episodes.
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