One handicap, or employer prejudice, that is getting increased attention in the days ahead is age. Millions of baby boomers (the 76 million people born 1946–1964) are beginning to enter the so- called “retirement years.” (Ha!) A lot of them are not finding pensions waiting, but are going to have to keep working long after they thought they would have to. What are they running into?
Well, let’s say it’s you who is getting older. It happens. Let’s say you’re in your fifties—or maybe you’re already in your sixties, or seventies, or even eighties. What are employers going to think about you? Well you know what they’re going to think, at least some of them. They will think you’re too old for them to hire. Why? Well, in some cases they just think so. Prejudice!
But in other cases, their concern is their bottom line. Their reasoning is that you will cost too much. Given all your years of experience, you might easily expect a high salary—but they could hire two inexperienced workers in their twenties for what it would cost them to hire just you. You would cost them too much. Also, you would cost them too much if they’re a company that still has a generous pension plan—though that is increasingly a vanishing breed these days. Or you will cost them too much, they think, if age means more medical problems, and they are mandated to have a medical plan.
Still, there are some employers out there who will hire you, regardless of age, if …(and here we have quite a list of ifs—all of which lie within your control, thank heaven, depending on your attitude).
They will hire you:
If they are a small company and they don’t have to put you late into a pension plan; and
If you come with a positive attitude toward your aging. To assist in this, it is helpful to think of your life not in terms of work but in terms of music—particularly a symphony. A symphony, traditionally, has four parts to it—four movements, as they’re called. So does Life. There is the first movement, infancy; then the second movement, the time of learning; the long third movement follows, the time of working; and finally, this fourth movement, traditionally called “retirement,” though now that is an increasingly complex concept. It is much better to think of it as the Fourth Movement, a triumphant, powerful ending to the symphony of our life here on earth.
Onward with our ifs: and
If you convey energy, even in this period of your life. Ask any employer what they are looking for, when they interview a job candidate who is fifty years or older, and they will tell you: energy. Okay, but where shall we find energy, after fifty? When we were younger, energy came from the physical side of our nature. We were “feeling our oats,” as they say. We could go all day, and all night. “My, where do you get all your energy?” our grandmother would ask us. We were a dynamo … of physical energy. But after fifty, physical energy may be harder to come by, despite workouts, exercise, and marathons. Increasingly, our energy must spring not from our muscles but from our excitement about Life; there are inevitably some employers dying to have that excitement in their organization; and
If you have done some life/work planning, and you know alternative ways to describe who you are and what you can do, because you did the self-inventory in chapter 13; and
If you have learned what it is you especially can contribute because of your age. You have learned, above all else, a precious skill: namely, how to handle interruptions. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, just before his death:
“The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions—the door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed, or that lovely poem that didn’t get written because someone knocked on the door.”
Many employers prize this attribute in any employee, because interruptions are the bane of their existence; and
If you keep going on interviews until you encounter an employer or two or three who share this understanding of age. What do I mean by keep going? Well, here is an actual job-hunter’s records (the “process” she is referring to, is the PIE method, to be described in chapter 7):
“Here are the figures you wanted: In the course of my surveying, September through November, I was referred to 120+ people. Of these I contacted 84 and actually met with 50. I met most people at their offices, a few for lunch, a couple for dinner, and one for breakfast! The process worked so well for me, I am really excited about my new prospects.”
Having the right attitude toward yourself often means this kind of persistence, keeping at it, working at your job-hunt far longer and far harder than the average job-hunter would ever dream of doing. And why? Because you know your own worth and you know you will be valuable to any organization that is able to see you clearly, and without prejudice about your age.
ATTITUDE: YOU IN RELATION TO OTHER JOB-HUNTERS
I said earlier that a good attitude toward yourself depends, in part, on how you think of yourself in relation to employers. It also depends on how you think of yourself in relation to other job-hunters. Especially if you think that you are handicapped, while they are not.
Maybe this is the point where I need to remind you that everyone looking for work is handicapped. What?!
Well, sure. As we have seen, a real handicap means there are some things that a person cannot do. To see what that means here, let’s start with how many skills there are, in the whole world. Nobody knows the number, so let’s make one up. Let’s say there are 4,341 skills in the world.
How many of those 4,341 do you think the average person has? Nobody knows that number either, so again let’s make one up. Let’s say the average person has 1,341 skills. That’s a lot. That would be 1,341 things the average person can do.
But 4,341 skills in all the world minus 1,341 that the average person can do, leaves 3,000 things the average person can’t do. Of course, what those 3,000 are, will vary from person to person. But, in the end, everybody is handicapped. Everybody. In each of our cases, there is a lot we can’t do.
So when you go job-hunting, if you have a real handicap, what’s so special about your handicap, compared with others’? The answer is nothing.
Unless—unless—you are so disheartened by the fact that you are handicapped, and so focused on what you can’t do, that you have forgotten all the things you can do.
Unless you’re thinking of all the reasons why employers might not hire you, instead of all the reasons why employers would be lucky to get you.
Unless you’re going about your job-hunt feeling like a job beggar, rather than standing tall to offer yourself as a helpful resource for this employer.
