3. Be at your best: This may sound a little silly, but look and be at your best. Splurge on a new interview outfit (even if that 30-year-old suit still fits). Be well groomed, maintain your personal fitness to the highest possible level, make sure your health or medical conditions are under control, be well rested, research the employer, and display your knowledge. These tasks should help keep you confident and poised. Try practicing for interviews with a friend or professional coach. Finally, put all concerns about your age and the threat of age bias out of your mind.
4. Be a continuous learner: Whether you are a candidate or an employee, always grow and learn. This is particularly important for your computer skills and knowledge. The abilities to use a computer, send e-mail, surf the Internet, and handle basic applications, such as word processing, are not optional anymore. Inability to make even basic use of a computer is a cause for rejection in all but a handful of jobs—many of which you wouldn’t want. Buy a computer, set up an Internet account, and take lessons. While you’re at it, get a mobile phone. PC skills and a cell phone are powerful ways to show you are technically savvy and not a dinosaur.
5. Seek employment and work in the right places: Many industries and employers value older workers. Search them out and apply there. If you’re already working for an age-friendly employer, do everything you can to stay with that organization. Meanwhile, here are a few places to start looking for companies who hire and affirm older workers:
- AARP National Employer Team: A list of major national employers who have committed to age-neutral practices.
- AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50: A list of employers recognized by AARP for their exceptional practices relating to the older workforce.
- Web Job-Posting Boards for Older Workers: There are numerous Web sites with job announcements focused on workers 50 and older. These include RetirementJobs.com, which evaluates employers and grants Age Friendly Certification to companies who welcome older candidates, RetiredBrains, Senior Job Bank, Jobs4.0, and Seniors for Hire.
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Bob Skladany is the Director of Research & Chief Career Counselor at RetirementJobs.com
Source: http://www.aarp.org/money/work/articles/what_you_can_do_about_age_bias.html
Things You Can/Can't Do About Age Bias (3)
Written by Unknown on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 11:00 AM
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3 Responses to "Things You Can/Can't Do About Age Bias (3)"
December 29, 2009 at 11:06 AM #
Good, useful post. Has anyone filed an age bias complaint? How did it go?
May 10, 2010 at 10:50 AM #
Thanks for an informative and useful post. It is clearly easier to make a case for age discrimination in cases of termination than it is in hiring, especially when a terminated worker is soon replaced by a much younger employee in essentially the same job. I suspect it's damn near impossible to make a solid case when it comes to hiring unless an employer tells an applicant he/she is too old for the job.
In my experience as a 65-year-old hiring manager and recent job applicant, what many candidates perceive as simple age discrimination is actually something much more complex and therefore difficult to overcome:
* Employers no longer place the same value on years of experience as they once did. The focus is on skills and recent achievements. In my opinion this is the number one reason that employers shy away applicants like me with 40-plus years of experience. This obstacle can only be overcome by finding an employer who understands the value of experience.
* While employers are looking for qualified employees, they are also mindful of cost. They assume (sometimes incorrectly) that an older candidate will demand higher pay than a younger one.
* Hiring managers are looking to hire people with specific skills, many of them technical. They assume (often incorrectly) that older applicants don't have these skills, and even if they do, they're just not as with it when it comes to social norms and media.
* Hiring managers may believe it makes more sense to hire a younger person with the potential to grow than an older person who has already peaked and is seen, rightly or wrongly, as having no future.
* I suspect, although I have no evidence to support this, that employers are eager to hold down the average age of their workforces in order to hold down the cost of group health insurance coverage.
*Younger hiring managers and others naturally favor hiring people like themselves. They may feel challenged or even threatened by more experience people who know more than they do.
May 10, 2010 at 1:14 PM #
Good article...but he didnt answer the question on what to say if you are asked "how old are you" and it would have been good to have a link to the law that he mentioned regarding age discrimination rights (ADEA).
I will look into it.
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