New job-hunting tricks for older workers

chicagotribune ^ | May 3, 2009

[JoeProBono]

Tips for older job seekers Update and rejuvenate: Spruce up your resume by keeping it short and emphasizing skills and achievements instead of the length of your experience. Be aware of your health and appearance. Recruiters can sense depression and illness. And a look that is too stylish or too dowdy can ruin a first impression. Your age is not the focus: Don't distract yourself with suspicions of age discrimination; keep a positive, confident attitude.

Keep your college graduation dates off your resume and avoid discussing activities that might date you. If you seem overqualified, recruiters might make assumptions about how much you want to be paid. If a company wants 15 years of experience, trim descriptions of your 40-year career. Use age to your advantage: Stress your loyalty and dedication to a company. Recruiters will contrast that with younger workers who tend to hop between jobs and prioritize personal time over work engagements. Seek out age-friendly employers with older employees and executives. AARP has a good list.

[JoeProBono]

[Dallas59]

I love working with “older” people. Their wisdom, their experience, their ability to bring everyone together at the work place is unmatched.

[BipolarBob]

On the way out mention “My law firm is Dewey, Cheatham and Howe in case you don’t hire me”.
/jk

[JoeProBono]

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[Kid Shelleen]

what do you say when the recruiters ask you what your GPA was? I was in college pre grade inflation...

[JoeProBono]

[mamelukesabre]

Do they really ask that? I don’t even know my gpa. It’s three point something.

[anniegetyourgun]

Be honest. But, there’s a good quote someone gave me once in an interview I had with them (from Will Rogers): “Let’s just say that I never let my schooling get in the way of my education!” Lighten it up and move on. Also, you may have worked while going to school, so that is a mitigating factor you can mention.

[death2tyrants]

Trick No.1 : The comb-over.

[utahagen]

“Keep your college graduation dates off your resume...” Wrong, wrong, wrong! I've been in recruiting for fifteen years and the only people who leave their graduation dates off their resumes are...older people. When you leave your graduation year off your resume, you: call attention to the fact that you're old; advertise your insecurity about your age; and insult the intelligence of the people reviewing your resume. People will know your age when they see how many years of work experience you have. In fact, people may guess that you are even older than you are if you leave your graduation year off your resume!

[utahagen]

It shouldn’t come up if you’re more than a couple of years out of school. (In any case, tell the truth.)

[hunter112]

It’s worked well for me to leave the graduation date on, but then, I went back to school and got an associate’s degree in computer network administration six years ago.

[fuente]

I've been highering like crazy lately, but and the biggest mistake that I see is folks way overpricing themselves. If you match up PREFECTLY with the job description, then top dollar is probably more feasible. But if you don't, forget about it. People are usually very poor judges of their worth to the marketplace.

I had a guy hounding me for a position so I asked him what him about his salary requirements, and he answered, “consistent with my 10 years of excellent experience in the filed of bla, bla, bla (he was very specific) post PhD.” I told him that when my group starts exploring that particular niche of science will consider that salary range.

The job description was clear about the experience levels and 10yrs post PhD was not even close.

[cgbg]

Do not discuss your heroics in World War II/Korea during the interview. It is a real giveaway.

:-)

[BunnySlippers]

Bad hair dye.

[Cindy]

Are you looking for a job?

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