Five Ways for Older Workers to cope with Job Hunting

Five Ways for Older Workers to Cope with Job Hunting from a Top Expert - PLUS
Over 55 and Looking For A Job? Five Strategies From a Top Career Coach

Dec. 27 2010 - 10:44 am
By KERRY HANNON

There are plenty of things that block older workers from finding work, no doubt about that.

One of the biggest: You’re a dinosaur. Not true, of course, but age is probably your biggest stumbling block.

Here are five strategies for older workers from MIT Workforce Expert David DeLong:

1. Accept that age discrimination exists.

* Focus on small-and-medium sized companies. They’re more likely to value your experience.

2. Reframe your experience.

* Sell how your deep knowledge-base and skills can solve business problems in the future.

3. Network.

* In this era of online job postings and applications zipping into black holes, how can you get passed the palace guard for a face-to- face interview? It’s that magic word: Network. You’ve got it in spades. This is an asset younger workers don’t have one up on.

4. Update your tech skills.

5. Understand how the way you work changes with age.

DeLong has spent more than a decade studying the aging workforce and knowledge loss on organizational performance. He’s a research fellow at the MIT AgeLab, founder of David DeLong & Associates, and author of Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce.

He is also the co-author of the study, Buddy, Can You Spare a Job, one of the best accounts I’ve come across on the job market for older Americans. The report was commissioned and published by the Metlife Mature Marketing Institute. It’s based on interviews with two-dozen career coaches and counselors, an equal number of older job seekers and a telephone survey of 1,200 others who are in the job market.

I learned about David DeLong when I was interviewing Mark Miller, author of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security.

He turned me on to Over50andOutofWork.com, a new online multimedia project that documents the stories and the impact of the Great Recession on jobless Americans, 50 and older. The site, produced by journalist Susan M. Sipprelle and her team, is top-drawer. It features interviews with renown experts such as DeLong, but also is posting a series of 100 interviews with out-of-work older Americans who discuss their dilemma.

DeLong talked with Over50andOutofWork.com about five ways older workers can tackle job hunting today. In this video, he provides concrete recommendations for older jobseekers.

I will be back to give you more details on Sipprelle and her project, but for now, spend some time and listen to the interview with DeLong. I found his advice to be clear, insightful and proactive. I think you will too.

Kerry recommends listening to an interview with David de Long here:

Plus her previous and following posts on her blog :
Ten question older job hunters need to answer
Take action - do a job performance interview today

Over 55 and Looking For A Job? Five Strategies From a Top Career Coach

Maggie Mistal

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Maggie Mistal, career coach and Sirius XM radio host, loves this quote from Theologian Howard Thurman.

But Mistal has heard enough corporate castaway tales from her clientele and radio-call-ins to know that soul searching is the first step to making a successful career transition today, and a job search requires more.

After all the gloom and doom of the recent Rutgers’ report and the December unemployment statistics that I wrote about last week, I asked the New York City-based coaching powerhouse to share her secrets. What’s she advising people over 55 who’ve been slogging through a long stretch of unemployment? Here are some of her tips:

1. Broaden your search. Don’t try to recover exactly what you had in your old job, Mistal says. You can’t have tunnel vision and try to shoehorn your experience into a certain job’s description and requirements, she counsels clients. Use it as a starting point to help the employer see how you can do that and far more. “Think bigger. Not where’s the hole, and I’ll plug it.”

And maybe you should be hunting for more than one employer. Many people are mired in the mindset that a full-time employer is the only money-making option that’s safe and worth their time, she notes. If you can work freelance, or as a consultant for several employers, and not have all your eggs in one basket, that gives you flexibility, she says.

You might even make more money, if you know how to package and sell your skills. A coach could help you with that. Of course, not everyone has the temperament, or self-motivation to work for himself or herself.

2. Think like an expert. If you’re desperate and thinking I just need a job and want to make money for the next ten years, employers are on to you. They are going to pick the best, most interested, most innovative candidate. You need to be able to articulate your value.

Approach the interview like you’re a highly-paid consultant. State clearly what you think needs to be done and why based on your experience. “By taking a genuine interest in the firm you’re interviewing with, learning about the company’s history and goals, and talking to people who work there, you can demonstrate that,” she says.

3. Get a faith-lift, not a face-lift. That’s my terminology, not hers, but Mistal laughs. “You won’t believe how many clients ask me immediately if they should dye their hair, as if that’s the number one thing to do.”

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to landing a job is “negativity” she says. People dwell on the bad news—“I have a stigma. I’ve been unemployed for too long. There’s my age.”

That’s all true, of course, but you have to have faith in yourself. She tosses out an Oprah Winfrey quote: “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

After you have been out of work for a while, you forget your value. You take for granted your accomplishments and contributions. “Take time and internally focus on your best moments, what situations you shine in, and be clear in interviews that if they put you in those situations, you will perform,” Mistal says.

4. Go for an ego boost. Sometimes it’s hard to toot your own horn. One of Mistal’s favorite exercises: Ask people who know you well, whose opinions you value and trust, to write down on an evaluation sheet what your best skills and talents are, what your personality is like, what roles you have been really good at.

Guess what comes back? All the accomplishments, all the positives that you need to be reminded of to demonstrate to yourself that you’re a quality individual, who still has a contribution to make.

“Then when you’re in the interview, networking, or doing informational conversations, you can say, ‘well people have said about me that blah, blah, blah,’” Mistal says. “All of a sudden you have all the words to use, and it’s easier to talk about your accomplishments and qualifications because you are using someone else’s testimonial.”

5. Keep a healthy skill-set. Feeling depressed and shut out of the working world? To be honest, when you are out of work, it’s hard to hang around with people who have jobs. And answering questions about how the job search is going gets old fast.

“So do something,” Mistal instructs. If you’re on unemployment benefits, try volunteering for a non-profit organization, or do pro-bono work. You might even use your skills to create your own business or non-profit project at home. “Coursework and travel, too, will also demonstrate that you’ve been actively learning and growing,” she counsels.

You’ll probably land additional references, too…after all, you’re doing something that makes you come alive.

Kerry Hannon is the author of What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job, available here www.kerryhannon.com.