July, 2011
Since job-loss crisis hit bread earners in the fourth quarter of 2008, the worst affected was the boomer generation. The obstacles to path of re-employment for this demographic have to do with high salary expectation, over-qualification, turn over due to retirement possibilities among others.
I got a wind of it back in 2009 at Right Management sitting in my make-believe office cubicle, while next door someone haggled with a HR Recruiter type. From the other end of the phone question veered on ‘How old are you?’.
The crisp and clear answer that I could certainly attest to was ’56′. The answer held a challenge, a note of defiance if not belligerency.
What lessons can I learn from this historical upheavel?
Don’t wait – that is my take away. Hedge against unemployment risk at all times to be sure. But never more so than when age creeps up on you as an old problem.
The solution is to stand out in one career choice. Be the software engineer, the marketer, this or that of this world. Make a name for yourself. Earn the respect of your peers. Envy of your enemies.
All along, diversify and develop skills and talents, connections and network that help you re-imagine yourself in related industries, new ventures if need be.
General Mccrystal, when he got fired, found a gig for himself in Yale University. That is, from the mess of a steamy battle field into the air conditioned class room of a genteel campus. If that is not diversification, developing a new talent, then what is!
When we have defined our earning potential in more ways than one, we negotiate job-loss from a position of strength. And that lets us get back into our career of choice. Age withstanding, we get back to being the software engineer, the marketer of this world.
Tags: Business, Change, Creativity, Culture, Inspiration, Leadership, Life, Money, People
July 31, 2011 at 1:18 pm |
Agism goes hand-in-hand with specialization: you have to be “the outstanding choice” but if you are an expert in a field or a specialist for a product or technology that goes away; you will both be “too old” and “non relevant”.
Being an excellent generalist is slightly better but you need to become thick-skinned; the deep secret is that if you can program, you can program in any language or know two or three test automation harnesses, you can pick up any other. Hiring agents look for the key words “XYZ” – don’t have “XYZ” even though you have 4-5 others, you will be rejected.
Having been through the ringer multiple times (the joy of working with startup companies), you need to have three things going for you:
1) be “the best ” candidate. Know your field, if you are a specialist you’d better be the best. If you are a generalist – know sales, marketing, hardware, tech support; all these will help the HR interviewer see you as a general, well rounded person.
2) have current knowledge -If you are over 40, you need to have relevant experience and maturity. Being the best Cobol or Ada/Jovial programmer isn’t going to help in these days of .net and c++. Knowing multiple languages may help in an interview but it’s hard to get past the resume review stage.
3) Keep the network going. I landed my current position by keeping up a dialog with the company that hired me as a temp contractor for a month two years ago. It was a rocky two years with many short time gigs, but the persistence has paid off.
- Al Murray
August 5, 2011 at 2:03 am |
Al, thank you for leaving your analysis and more importantly, some much needed solutions.
I’d like to add that eliciting the pain point driving a hire is a critical business intelligence for job seekers.
Fehmida