One of the most ironic things about finding employment is that experience is always considered an advantage when someone is seeking employment. Yet if you have too much experience, those same businesses from five years ago that were banging on your door asking you to work with them are now too busy to even interview you. If you have over twenty years experience in your field and are not a C-level executive, experience becomes a barrier. More factually, it’s not the experience, it’s your age.
Something about being older than most of your cohorts will turn employers off from employing you. Unfortunately, they have biases due to increasing health issues and stubborn attributes that are often associated with older employees. So how do you fight age discrimination? How do you get an employer to look at your age and experience as an asset as opposed to a liability?
Our guest blogger, Kevin Donlin answers this question in his article, “How to Get Hired Faster by Overcoming Obstacles Like Age Discrimination”. Before turning over the realm to Kevin, I want to point out that many of us know these answers. It will be the same time and time again. You must always sell the positive and forego the negative. If you are unsure how to do this, hire a professional. If you want to attempt to do it yourself, be sure to click on the link for The Guerrilla Job Search DVD at the end of Kevin’s blog post.
As always, good luck on your job search.
Ayesha Long
www.AyeshaWrites4u.com
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*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!
How to Get Hired Faster by Overcoming Obstacles, like Age Discrimination
By Kevin Donlin
I got an email last week from Jim S. in New York. His job-search question may not apply exactly to you, but the mind-set I suggest to solve it should.
So, if you give me two minutes here, I’ll show you two ways to get hired faster, by playing to your strengths, and offering employers the equivalent of “found” money.
Ready?
Jim writes:
“I have been a self-employed residential general contractor with some commercial supervision experience for 35 years. Last fall I had heart surgery and as a consequence, I am no longer able to meet the physical demands of the job. How do I best convey this situation to a potential employer and still get in the door?”
When Jim asks, “How do I best convey this [health] situation to a potential employer and still get in the door?” what he’s really asking is: “How can I bring up my health problems and still get an interview?”
This is common, backwards thinking.
Instead, of worrying about how to confess a negative, Jim should build a case for his strengths until they overcome any resistance in the minds of employers.
Here’s the question that Jim (and you) should ask instead: “How can I appeal so strongly to an employer’s self interest that any issues about my physical condition won’t matter — they’ll want to hire me for my brains and not my body?”
Put another way, there must be some management function Jim can perform in construction that can leverage his 35 years of industry experience and knowledge, without requiring hard physical labor. He should examine his work history until he can picture a suitable job.
Better yet, he should call past supervisors, vendors, and clients, remind them of the good things he did for them, then ask: “Given my knowledge and experience, what leadership role do you see me playing for an employer?”
This is one way to overcome obstacles of physical condition, age, etc.
To learn more about how to use Guerrilla Job Search tactics in your job search, click here.
