In the Business of You

Perception is everything, as the saying goes, and that applies to many things – including job seeking. Let’s talk about how to use your age, if you are 45+ years old, to your advantage when seeking employment. Many of the people with whom I’ve done transition coaching have fallen into the trap of feeling that being “older” was something of a curse when it came to seeking employment. Not so! And here are some tips/strategies for you to consider using to get past the fact that you are older: Don’t apologize for your age , just present specific accomplishments rather than how long you have been working. The adage of “you’re not older, you are just wiser” is the key. You are not “old”, you are experienced! Talk results, not years of service by discussing how you successfully handled the multitude of challenges thrown your way and how that ultimately benefited current or former employers (i.e., what impact did you have on their bottom line – More sales? Reduced expenses? Improve

Although the general consensus is that most jobs are found via networking, very few job seekers actually understand (or are comfortable executing) what it takes to do this effectively. When I ask of those with whom I do job search coaching, “How many people are in your network and how often are you speaking or communicating with them”, they admit that little to no time has been spent working their network. A significant percentage even claim they have no networking contacts, which is most often incorrect. Bottom line for making networking work is to help those in your network help you. That’s basically it…really. Here are some time-proven tips that any job seeker can use to vastly improve their chances of finding good opportunities and landing an interview: Networking is Communication – with family members, friends, neighbors, business associates, clients, club members and yes, even all of those baseball, soccer, basketball, hockey or swim parents. You don’t need to create