Are You Acting Your Age in Your Job Search?
The other evening, at our monthly Ohio CareerConnect
networking event for people in a job transition, I reviewed resumes for five
individuals, all of whom had varying degrees of gray hair. I always put on my hiring manager’s “hat” when I’m assisting
people with their resumes or overall job search strategies, thus my feedback is
provided from that perspective. In regard to those five people, I
saw their value – how they could potentially make me “look like a genius” for
hiring them and how they had the potential to help a team go from good to
great.
During our discussions, I did not pay any attention to the
color of their hair or spend any time doing resume math (using dates of service
to estimate a candidate’s age)…I simply listened to their value propositions –
their stories about why hiring them would be a great idea.
Perceived value of the candidate to my organization, my team and me
always trumps his/her age.
That said, here is the big problem – most older (50+)
candidates don’t do a very good job of making me believe that hiring them might
just be one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made. Many come across as
“old and outdated” either because of the words they use to deliver their
message, how they dress and/or their body language.
What can you do to not act your age? Here are a few things
to consider:
Email address –
If you are still using an AOL or Hotmail email address, which pretty much puts
you in the 50+ crowd, consider creating a Gmail account. Oh, using something
like, “m.perry1954@gmail.com” basically tells the reader that you were probably
born in 1954. Don’t be so obvious.
Home phone - Yes,
I still have a land line, along with a whole lot of other 50+ people. But, as
we live in a cell phone world, there is no real reason to list anything but
your mobile number on a resume or business card. Listing a “home phone” can make
you look old or at least old-fashioned.
Presence on social
media – Everyone, at least everyone who is currently employed or seeking to
be employed, should have some type of digital footprint. For most this should
at least be a LinkedIn profile. Employers will check out a candidate’s online
presence as part of their recruiting due diligence. Not having a LinkedIn
profile or using the standard/default public profile URL (yes, you can change
your public profile URL to be more professional looking than what LinkedIn
creates for you) can make you look technology “unfriendly”, which is often
associated with being old/outdated.
Recently, while assisting someone with a resume, I asked about
having a LinkedIn profile. That person replied with, “No, LinkedIn is kind of
newfangled and I’m not very good with stuff like that”. I advised that
individual to never again use the word, “newfangled” or ever refer to anything
technology related as, “that kind of stuff”.
Please remember that your Facebook page is for personal
items, not communicating information about your career, skills inventory and
key accomplishments.
Many celebrities and professional athletes often regret what
they “Tweet” and usually wind up quickly following up such messages with
apologies. This can happen to anyone who uses Twitter. Consider this – once you
hit “send”, what you've said is out there forever in the digital world for
anyone to see…even a prospective employer.
To help establish a stronger digital presence, consider
following experts (on LinkedIn, Twitter or blogs they write) in your targeted
industry and commenting on their posts or Tweets. Posting well thought-out
commentary helps to establish you as a thought leader/expert in the industry.
There have been many stories in the media about people who do this - getting noticed
and then hired/recruited by the authors or readers of those posts and comments.
Also, consider writing your own blog – it’s really not that difficult to get
started.
Ensure the relevance
of the skills and accomplishments included in your resume – Just because
you won awards in the early ‘80’s does not mean that you are still performing
at that level today. Including “MS-DOS” under your listing of technologies with
which you've worked does nothing to make me believe you are tech-savvy. Your
thorough research of the targeted employer and position sought will provide you
with the road map to being their ideal candidate. Don’t tell me everything
you've ever done, as most of that may be irrelevant to the skills and
competencies I’m seeking for the specific open position at my company. Be
relevant!
Dress for success
– Guys, stop wearing sport coats that don’t fit and look like you took them out
of your grandfather’s closet. A sharp looking suit is pretty much always a good
idea and at a minimum, a sign of respect for those with whom you will be
meeting for either an informational interview or actual job interview. If a
suit is just “not you”, at least go visit the company prior to an interview to
see how the employees are dressed…then dress one step up from that.
Just a reminder that a networking event should always be
considered to be no different than a business meeting. Would you show up for an
important business meeting in jeans (OK, if you work for a place such as
Google, yes…I guess you would, but that is more the exception than the rule)?
We've had several guest speakers at our monthly networking events (CEO's,
corporate recruiters, HR managers)…not one of them has shown up in jeans or
anything less than professional business attire.
Do a good self-inventory
- What I mean is to take a good look at yourself in a (full length) mirror.
Do so with a hiring manager’s hat on and consider this, if your job (as a
hiring manager) was dependent upon finding an enthusiastic game-changer, would
you be eager to speak with the person looking back at you in the mirror?
We all tend to quickly make judgments about people we meet –
what is the first impression you get from that person in the mirror? Would you
be proud to introduce this person to the CEO and tell him/her, “This is who I believe,
out of the 300 applicants, is my ideal candidate”?
Is that person in the mirror “standing tall”? What is the
body language communicating (i.e., “I’m a high-energy, game-changer” or “You’re
probably not going to hire me because you’ll think I’m too old”)?
We've all heard some version of the following statement, “Price
is only an issue in the perceived absence of value”. The word, “age” could
easily be substituted in that saying for “Price” and be just as true.
When I speak to job seekers groups, my message normally includes reasons why I
feel my value as a member of an organization could far outweigh the difference in ages between myself and much younger candidates:
- I've had interaction with more clients in more different situations during my career
- I've learned from more mistakes (my own and by observing others)
- I've interacted with more people at different levels of organizations
- I've been on more special projects, more task forces and steering committees
- I've hired, trained, mentored and coached more employees
- I've earned more annual performance awards
You get the picture. Bottom line, many (not all) employees in their 50's and 60's, just by virtue of working longer than their much younger counterparts, have had the opportunity to amass many more experiences and accumulate more accomplishments. Thus, there can be a lot of value associated with such longevity.
So, as I get ready to add another year to my age, I do so feeling not older, but wiser and more valuable.
How about you, are you acting your age?
Comments
Post a Comment