Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & Dale: I recently began to seek full-time employment in sales. One company owner was impressed and hired me on the spot. When the HR person later asked my birthday, and I revealed that I was 70 years old, I could see a distinct change. I was never given the promised training. After six months, I was downsized, even though I had just brought in a big account. A younger woman, hired later, was kept on. Since then I’ve gotten interviews but no offers. How does a woman my age find employment? – Diane
J.T.: Please know that you will continue to be discriminated against. The prevailing assumption is that work output slows with age, as does the ability to keep up with technology. In this economy, the emphasis is on two things: speed and technology. So be prepared for more of the same.
DALE: There’s a ray of sunshine. But I can’t disagree. The question is how you overcome the discrimination, and that starts with selling yourself. Here’s something I found helpful. I went online to one of the sites with birthdates for celebrities. It cheered me to find that I’m about the same age as Jay Leno, Richard Branson and Meryl Streep, and 20 or more years younger than Clint Eastwood, the architect Frank Gehry and many others. I could see your using such a list in job interviews. Remember, no one is going to bring up the issue of age, but they’ll think it. So say something like: “You may be wondering about my age. Let me say that I’m a lot younger than Warren Buffett or William Shatner or Toni Morrison.”
J.T.: You also might add, “They say you’re as old as you feel, and I feel about 35.”
DALE: Or, “I’m old enough to know that companies hire people because they make the company more money than they cost. Let me tell you about a recent major sale of mine.”
J.T.: Good. Change the conversation to how you can make the company money, and you’ll get a new result. Money never gets old.
Dear J.T. & Dale: I have several gaps in my employment history. Also, my last job was in Branson, Mo., and my prior job was in San Diego. I am now in Palm Springs. Can I omit the city were I worked on my resume but keep the other information? – Bernice
J.T.: Well, Bernice, I doubt that where you’ve lived and worked is the issue.
DALE: I agree that it’s not THE issue. But employers are looking for someone who’ll be around awhile, and they know that people who’ve recently relocated are, statistically speaking, more likely to relocate in the coming year.
J.T.: But more important than relocation is the recruiter’s need to be able to connect the dots in your work history and see that it leads to a logical reason to hire you.
DALE: Before you can connect the dots, you have to find them. What skills did you develop in each job? What did you accomplish for your employer? Once you have a list, you can put ones that connect into a career narrative. Just remember that the goal of this exercise is to sell something that companies want to buy.
J.T.: Being new to town, you probably don’t have much of a network to call upon. So you’re going to have to contact managers at employers who might need your skills and ask for advice on the best way to present yourself to their companies. That’s the kind of proactive marketing that job searching takes these days. Sitting back and applying online is easy but unlikely to be effective. Instead, build a network by seeking local advice.
DALE: That’s where being new to town can be an advantage. There’s still the kindness of strangers, and that’s why you can leave the names of cities on your resume. Start by following J.T.’s advice, and once you are meeting managers and explaining the logic of your career, it will be easy to explain why you picked their city as a place to live.
