Is it too late for me?

“Hello, my name is Anna, I’m 46 years old. In December 2019 I was laid off. All this time I’ve been looking for work, but it’s been radio silence. My acquaintance, who works as an HR professional, said that I was TOO LATE to make a career, these days people of my age aren’t hired anywhere. What to do?

Hello dear friends. If this letter seems to tell your story or the story of one of your friends, then this text is for you. To start, let’s discuss what’s happening. Unfortunately, we are forced to admit that such letters are not a myth, and it’s not just “happening in their authors’ head”. In the last 5 years, it’s become damn hard for people of mature age to look for work.

What does “mature age” mean? It was found as a result of experiments that today mature age can come before 40. That is, for some positions of the middle or starting level, this age can also come after 30, for mid-level managers it becomes more difficult to look for work right after their fortieth birthday, and after 50 years work becomes difficult for almost everyone, unless you are a person with a name that everyone knows, but cannot afford to invite to work.

Why so and why now? It’s no secret that digital technology, social networks and artificial intelligence have penetrated all the areas of our lives. New tools and platforms help organize communications, monitor finances, and organize sales. To promote their products, companies start pages on social networks, produce entertaining content, and engage subscribers. Artificial intelligence writes out payments, pays bills, analyzes indicators, looks for something similar in the unique. All these innovations require a certain personal culture, interest in digitalization and social networks, and in general, love for all new things

And then the pattern of perception begins to work: if you are 40, 50, 60, it means that you are not modern. Why? Well, “no reason really”, there’s just a pattern. Perhaps many HR specialists who are engaged in recruiting people for vacancies came across a lot of people “older than X” who weren’t familiar with Bitrix24 for task management, or were surprised how a bot on a social network could respond to customer requests. And therefore, just in case, they decided that all the people over that age “don’t know how to – can’t – are afraid”.

Are they right? Only in part. Will the assurance that they are wrong help us, and that’s all because of age, “but I’m actually good”? No, not at all. Even if they’re wrong a hundred times, the decision to invite a person for an interview is made by these very wrong people, and therefore their attitudes and perception patterns must be taken into account.

There is another group of challenges that applies to people of a more mature age. It’s especially difficult to find work for those who have recently been in a state of relative stability. The reasons for this stability can be different: from a successful spouse and career as a housewife, to a high position in a state corporation, where this specialist has worked for the past 5, 7, and sometimes 15 years. But stability relaxes the “fighter” in us, calms anxiety, and creates the illusion of our irreplaceability. In your head it sounds like this: “Everything in my life is good, I have money. And it will always be so”.

People in a long period of stability are the most vulnerable people. Why? Because they’re used to a “good life”, there’s a familiar level of needs that are being met, there’s a certain sense of status, there’s familiar culture around, a system of interaction that hasn’t changed for a long time. It’s very likely that there are some skills that have also been developed over the years. They are durable and archaic at the same time. There’s a look, habits, language that gives away the styles of the early 2000s. All that has been shaped, all this works, all this gives away the “lack of modernity” of knowledge and experience. Recruiters determine this lack of modernity from photos, from the dates of the latest advanced training courses in the column “Education”, and by the wording “experienced user of Xerox and fax” in the column “Skills”.

What can you do? Take 10 necessary steps:

1) Recognize the reality. Yes, you are being discriminated against. Yes, it’s wrong, and it’s bad. But today, the employer chooses the employees, and even if they are wrong, they have the opportunity to choose someone other than you. It’s infuriating, but ignoring it is pointless.

2) “Mourn” your stability. When something that had seemed unshakable leaves our life, a state called “grief” comes along. It’s like the old world is dying. There will be a place for sadness, and nostalgia, and bitterness, and the feeling that life was wasted, and all the decisions that were made were wrong. But these are feelings. If you pay attention to them, they will go away, and you’ll have more room to maneuver.

3) Figure out what’s the most annoying thing about the modern world than it seems terrible, fragile, temporary, flat to you. And then try to hear the arguments “for” such a world. If you do this, it will be easier for you to participate in negotiations with different partners, including those younger than you. For example: Julia is annoyed that young people everywhere, even at parties, are constantly surfing the Internet and social networks. And then she comes in for an interview and gives the same look of disdain to the young female recruiters. And it’s clear that she’s not sent anywhere beyond the first interview

4) Be inspired by the changes. Think about what you’d like to know, study, perhaps, what kind of profession you’d like to get from the modern ones. For example: one time, looking through the graduates of a very famous school of targetologists, we found a seventy-two-year-old Katherine Arcades. In the photo she looks like an ordinary grandmother. Except with more than 3,000 followers on VKontakte, developing her blog about gardening and planting, and offering, for a competitive fee, setting up an advertising campaign for an online school.

5) Start analyzing your competencies, talents, strengths. This is your support. They don’t age. Their packaging does. For example: Anna has worked as a warehouse manager in the 90s, in the 2000s she was a personal assistant, office manager, and then administrative director. In 2017, she began working with a small, ambitious IT start-up, and six months later she was working from Thailand, remotely managing the project, with more than 10 people of different profiles under her. Throughout the years, she led people and made arrangements.

6) Learn to analyze the labor market. Thanks to this simple skill, you will always know which specialists are in demand and how much these experts earn. After the quarantine due to the coronavirus, restaurant specialists would find it difficult to land a job. Only analyzing the labor market would help them figure out which field they’ll derive maximum benefit for themselves from most quickly – IT, pharmaceuticals or construction.

7) Choose a direction within which you’ll be looking for a job.

8) Reread your resume, cross out everything that doesn’t apply to the chosen direction; clearly describe the experience that relates to this area. For example, you’re an executive director of a small network of children’s centers. Do it all! Now you want to switch to personnel management. Your task related to the title of the position is to indicate “Administrative Director with HR functions,” and in your duties, you only list the selection and adaptation of personnel and monitoring of compliance with standards, omitting the conclusion of contracts with contractors and subcontractors or analysis of the results of an advertising campaign.

9) Learn to write cover letters. You need to learn how to answer the question why you want to work with this particular employer. If the employer promotes home appliances for vegans, you must indicate that you share the philosophy of healthy lifestyle, and if the employer sells baby food, it’s important to say that you’ve read that a large percentage of mothers choose this food because of its excellent quality or affordable prices.

10) Practice interviews. The trickiest question here is: “Tell us about your shortcomings.” And the correct answer to the question would be: “I am always very devoted to the work and tasks of the company.”

Good luck in your job search! You have a long, creative road ahead of you – don’t drive off it. It’s interesting and engaging.