Looking for a new job in my case boils down to competing against young college graduates. I am discouraged because I have been trying to get a satisfactory offer for too long now.
It seems that the chances of getting a good offer for us with many years of experience are minimal. I wonder if there are even any companies left that still value experience and skills?
9 replies (most recent on top)
I’m going through this now. As mentioned below, get your Linkedin current. I would even invest in the professional version (49.99 a month) because there are numerous education and resources that will be helpful
Here’s my list in case it helps you:
- Get a coach. Even coaches who are for executives. Most use the term executive for the seasoned
- Create your brand and be sure your resume and LinkedIn using your brand name
- If you get laid off with IBM,,they do place you with a recruiting company who will help with resume snd linked in setup. I would still invest in a separate coach outside of RiseSmart.
- Do this now, make your list of people you are going to reach out to. Building your network is key. .
- You’ll be surprised who will come through for you, and who will go the other way. It’s ok, not everyone is strong to face a friend or colleague who is going through this
- If there’s an external network groups, join them. You’ll notice there are so many in the same boat.
- Start writing your story of each of your accomplishment, and you will be required to do this before interviews (trust me on this)
- write a story for each of your achievements and wins focusing on leadership skills
- write a story of where a project failed and what you did to overcome
- write a story if you didn’t get along with a peer or a boss, what did you do to overcome
- write a list of your strengths and weaknesses
- write the list of companies you might want to work at
- Work on your mindset first and foremost.
- Don’t Lose site of your skills, accomplishments, and talents. Read it every day.
nobody will care about your age
A hiring company absolutely cares about your age if they offer heath benefits.
The USA have screwed themselves tying health benefits to employment. That leads to a reason to fire older people - they get too expensive to insure.
Remote contracting... nobody will care about your age as long as you are not too greedy. Also, working remotely always you to work on multiple contracts, so if you can juggle them, you double-bill, triple-bill, etc... all the time. This has worked for me nicely.
Focus on supporting older products/technologies... Kids hate that and won't touch it.
Work the weekends and 3rd shift. Kids refuse to work those hours.
Plus you might even get a pay differential depending on your state.
Good luck, we're all counting on you.
Age is certainly a limiting factor - but it can go both ways.
When I was laid off at 55 I experienced a LOT of age discrimination - except (at that time) Oracle and IBM. But still interesting interviewing:
Oracle needed my skills but most of the Oracle interviewers were young and didn't think I knew enough but the manager and Architect knew I did. So it became pro-forma and I got an offer.
IBM - that particular team mind you - ONLY hired high band - and so all interviewers were more direct colleagues. So he didn't care about age EXCEPT he did want me to stay 5+ years (a complex product needing lots of come-to-speed time).
So between the two I picked one. I still felt lucky as I wasn't going to move and there were maybe 10 companies paying top tier wages (for the same work) with possible jobs in the area.
But now at 61 it might be a tougher call for my manager as age 65 retirement would be 4 years - so maybe if he thought I'd stay to 67 that'd be 6.
So kind of a pincer now.
Specialized skills - that are in demand - are your savior - if you have something in demand.
I get qualified leads through LinkedIn once a month or more - without even looking myself. And for those my age is known or can be inferred.
I'm just not following up as I'm 2 years from retirement and 5-6 weeks of vacation a year. Raises aren't great (what is a raise) but still working hard for two more years. If laid off before well I have confidence I could be employed within a couple months.
So look at your skills, how specialized they are - or what parts are more specialized and in high demand. Hone them and your resume. Apply for higher band positions.
Look also at your gaps and spend time, time, time bolstering them. For example I did a lot of low level work (device drivers, hardware, kernel) and found that my skills were dusty. They were still tops at that company - but had barely heard about lock free programming and such. So I spent a lot of time refreshing skills to (1) current state of the art, and (2) needs of current market.
In part to guide that I looked at ALL jobs in the area and make a table of desired skills.
Then prioritize and decide how much of which to beef up.
For example, Python had become a lot bigger. Now I didn't want (nor would qualify) as a high dollar Python guy - but I bolstered it while focusing on other skills.
If one is still employed then this is a far better time to do it (esp use ALL the IBM resources). Do this if you want to leave, transfer, fear being RA'd, contracted out (i.e. "you will become a contractor for X company taking over your product .... or will 'retire'")
New grads may have skills that are competitive with yours, so focus on your experience. In areas like management and technical communication you probably have the advantage. Whether you’d want to go one of those routes is another question. I’m struggling with the same myself FWIW.
And IBM is a shithole.
I bet you salary history (and possibly your age?) is the road block. That's going to be tough....
Let’s start a consulting company for the old (experienced) folks.