9 major job-search changes for older workers

One question I ask during my introductory workshops is, “When did you last have to look for work?” Invariably I’ll get answers like “25 years,” “35,” 40,” and so on. On the other hand, others haven’t had to look for work in the past five or ten years, some in the past two years or less. The disparity is great between my customers who have been long-tenured workers and those who are veterans to the job search.

The folks new to the job search didn’t have to write a résumé that fits today’s standards, if write one at all. Nor did they have to go through five to 10 rounds of interviews. They might also be new to networking, never used LinkedIn, haven’t engaged in informational meetings, and used other job-search methods. Some tell me, “Companies came to me. I didn’t have to do anything.”

These people have a lost look on their face. It’s as if they have to learn to walk all over again.

Needless to say, there have been changes in the job search in the past decade or two, changes that represent challenges to people who aren’t used to a different job search. Here are eight components of the job search that are new to older workers.

1. The most obvious change, being out of work. This comes as a complete shock, especially for those who worked at their last company for 20 or more years. Gone is their routine, the camaraderie they shared with their colleagues, the income they came to rely on. Also gone, for some, is their self-esteem and confidence.

They know they are experienced and valuable workers, but there’s self-doubt and fear that the job search will be long. In the back of their mind they know the longer they’re out of work, the harder it will be to regain it.

2. Longer hiring process. The good news is that employers are hiring. The bad news is that it’s taking them longer to pull the trigger. I’m witness to many job seekers who are getting jobs but usually after a longer process than before. It’s not unusual for job candidates to be interviewed multiple times over the telephone and endure additional face-to-face interviews.

One of my customers endured five telephone interviews before being hired. Another was hired after 12 personal interviews–No lie. This goes to show that employers are more cautious than in the past; they don’t want to make hiring mistakes, as it can cost tens of thousand dollars to hire a replacement employee.

3. Résumés have changed in the past decades. Nay, the past five years. Employers want to see accomplishments on résumés, not just duties. I remember applying for positions years ago where I would send résumés that were one-fits-all, didn’t include a Performance Profile, and were written in Currier font.

There are enough articles written on how it’s important to list quantified accomplishment statements. (Read this article that explains 10 important elements of a professional résumé.) But talk has increasingly turned to the importance of appeasing the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Simply put, this software eliminates approximately 75% of résumés, based on the lack of keywords. Approximately 95% of my customers haven’t heard of the ATS.

4. Networking is imperative. During the days when securing a job took less time and all the jobs were listed in the newspapers, networking wasn’t as important as it is now. This is a tough change for many people who haven’t had to look for work for a couple of decades. Networking was necessary as part of their job. But to find a job? Not so important back then.

Now your business is called Me Inc.; meaning you are your own business and therefore networking is absolutely necessary. And it can be uncomfortable, even scary. (Read this article on getting outside your comfort zone to network.) Anywhere from 60% to 80% of your success can be attributed to personal networking.

5. LinkedIn arrived on the scene. At least 95% of hiring authorities (recruiters/hiring managers/HR) are using LinkedIn to cull talent. Twelve years ago LinkedIn didn’t exist. My customers who haven’t had to look for work since 1988 feel like a confused child when they hear of LinkedIn’s ability to help them find work. Talking about having to learn to walk again.

Some are even afraid of “being on the Internet.” This is an immediate stopgap to LinkedIn. When I hear some of the long-tenure employees say they’re reluctant to disclose too much information, I’m inclined to tell them not to join LinkedIn. (Read this article on how LinkedIn isn’t for everyone.) One cannot be afraid of the Internet if he wants to benefit from LinkedIn.

6. Most jobs are posted online. Older workers are now faced with the prospect of searching for jobs on job boards like Monster.com, Dice.com, Simplyhired.com, and a plethora of others. Because most jobs—75%-80%—are unadvertised, this is time often wasted. In addition, the applications are difficult to fill out for some older workers who aren’t familiar with the computer.

Twenty years ago I remember picking up the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe which was thick with job ads, and the challenges of the Hidden Job Market weren’t as glaring as they are today. More jobs were obtained by using newspapers to locate them, and then we simply sent a generic résumé to land an interview. This speaks to changes in technology, which some older workers struggle with.

7. Telephone interviews are more challenging. This includes telephone interviews which are making the traditional screening process an oxymoron. Yes, employers want to know your salary requirement, but the questions go way beyond that. Telephone interviews are conducted by most employers. They are similar to face-to-face interviews, save for the fact you’re not at the company.

Now, as one former customer told me, the phone interview can consist of behavioral-based questions only. “They’re tough,” I hear. “I wasn’t prepared.” More than one customer told me they were only asked behavioral-based questions, approximately 12 of them. (Read this article on Preparing for behavioral interviews.)

8. The personal interview is tougher. Many of my customers are taken aback by group interviews. Thirty, or so, years ago, group interviews were not common. Rather, companies would conduct one-on-one interviews to size up the job candidates. Group interviews are commonplace these days; they should be expected.

The group interviews aren’t the only challenge candidates are facing. Tough questions, such as behavioral-based and situational, as well as tests to gauge one’s knowledge. Interviewers are asking questions that get to the core of the applicants. One of my customers told me that after a five-person group interview, he felt like he’d gone three rounds with Mike Tyson. He told me this prior to his next interview with the company, and maybe additional interviews henceforth. When do they end?

9. Age discrimination is the white elephant in the room. This is not a myth nor an excuse. Older workers are experiencing it from not only younger interviewers, but older interviewers as well. The reasons range from the demand for higher salaries than younger workers to inability to keep up.

However, the smart employers understand these reasons aren’t necessarily true. As well, older workers have many fine attributes they bring to the table. (Read this article on the 5 strengths of the older worker.) I suggest that my older job seekers explore companies that are older-worker friendly. AARP can be helpful, or simply looking on LinkedIn for companies whose average age exceeds 40 plus can be a find indicator.

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These are a few of the changes that have occurred since older workers have had to look for work. Very talented people, who were at the top of their company, are experiencing changes that are hard for them to grapple. But eventually they get into the groove and learn the proper tenets of the job search. Some of the long-tenured workers even see this as a welcomed challenge.

Please add to this list of job-search changes older workers are facing today.

From: https://thingscareerrelated.com/author/thethingsmethinks/ 

Artículo publicado por "Business insider",  el pasado 7/10/2016. Como se ve, el #Ageism es un fenómeno global que afecta especialmente a las empresas de tecnología.:

More software engineers over age 40 may join a lawsuit against Google

Google suffered a setback in an age discrimination suit this week. A judge ruled that other software engineers over age 40 who interviewed with the company but didn't get hired can step forward and join the lawsuit.

The suit was brought by two job applicants, both over the age of 40, who interviewed but weren't offered jobs.

Specifically, the judge has approved turning the suit into a "collective action" meaning that people who "interviewed in person with Google for a software engineer, site reliability engineer, or systems engineer position when they were 40 years old or older, and received notice on or after August 28, 2014, that they were refused employment, will have an opportunity to join in the collective action against Google," the ruling says. 

Father of the Internet and Google employee Vint Cerf
is one example of the Google's "Greyglers" group

While this isn't good news for Google, the ruling was strictly focused on whether the suit could be broadened to include more people. It doesn't meant that Google will ultimately lose the case.

Google says it's fighting the suit. A spokesperson told us, "We believe the allegations here are without merit and we will continue to defend our position vigorously. We have strong policies against discrimination on any unlawful basis, including age."

Interestingly, the judge is particularly not buying that "policies" defense from Google, writing in the ruling:

 "Having such a policy does not necessarily shield a company from a discrimination suit, particularly in light of the evidence and allegations presented here ... today, most, if not all, companies are well versed in anti-discrimination and make great efforts to ensure their written policies comply with anti-discrimination law."

In terms of allegations, one of the plaintiffs alleged that a Google recruiter told her she needed to puts the dates of her graduation on her resume so interviewers could determine her age. That same plaintiff argued that she had found seven others who say they had similar experiences at Google. She also presented evidence to the court that the median age of Google's workforce is 29 while the median age in the US for programmers is 42.8 years old.

How old are Google employees?

Google has about 61,000 employees and we asked Google if the company has publicly released statistics on its median age. Age is not included with the company's published diversity report, which discusses sex and race. Google didn't respond.

However, we do know that Google has a diversity club on campus called "Greyglers" which is for Googler employees over 40. The company describes it as a group for "company elders" that helps the company with "promoting age diversity awareness."

The company was sued way back in 2004 for age discrimination and, after winding through the appeals system, the case was ultimately settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Still, just allowing people who went on job interviews but didn't get a job to join a suit is a startling turn of events.  Some folks on Hacker News, a site where programmers discuss news items of interest to them, worry that instead of solving the tech industry's age discrimination problem, it will make it worse.

Discriminación por edad en Apple

Esta semana ha saltado a los titulares la siguiente noticia: "Un alto ingeniero de Apple rechazado para trabajar en sus tiendas por su edad (54)". Es fascinante que las empresas (y la sociedad en general) considera a las personas de más de 50 años prescindibles laboralmente hablando, cuando es más bien al revés: están en la cima de su experiencia y sabiduría.
Recientemente he visto la película "el becario" en la que Robert de Niro, un sénior de 70 años, vicepresidente de multinacional y jubilado, se apunta a un programa de becarios de un startup de internet, cuya CEO es Ann Hathaway. Lo cierto que es que acaba convirtiéndose en imprescindible por su experiencia y buen hacer... Recomiendo su visionado, porque es exactamente eso lo que defendemos en este BLOG: Los sénior podemos y debemos seguir aportando (y mucho) a las empresas (nuevas y existentes).
A continuación, reproduzco el artículo de "La Vanguardia" acerca de este lamentable hecho, que se reproduce todos los días en muchas empresas de España y de todo el mundo:

Un alto ingeniero de Apple, rechazado para trabajar en una de sus tiendas

 John Kullmann Scheinberg solicitó un puesto de trabajo en la Genius Bar de una Apple Store cuando tenía 54 años, y no lo consiguió

Un alto ingeniero de Apple, rechazado para trabajar en una de sus tiendas

John Kullmann Scheinberg, un alto ingeniero de Apple, fue rechazado para un puesto de trabajo en una de las tiendas de la compañía, después de trabajar 21 años para la empresa fundada por Steve Jobs. De hecho, durante esos años ayudó al genio de la manzana a hacer el Mac OS X compatible con los procesadores Intel en la década del 2000.

La historia aparece en un reportaje que publica The New York Times bajo el título: “¿Eres viejo? Nos pondremos en contacto contigo”. El artículo aborda en profundidad el tema de la discriminación por edad en el trabajo. Allí, Scheinberg relata que, tras formar parte de Apple del 1987 al 2008, decidió presentar una solicitud para trabajar en una Genius Bar, nombre por el que se conoce la barra de madera de las Apple Store donde los técnicos resuelven las dudas y arreglan los productos de los clientes.

Por aquel entonces tenía 54 años y doblaba en edad al resto de candidatos en la entrevista. “Nos pondremos en contacto contigo”, cuenta Scheinberg que le dijeron al terminar. Pero nunca volvió a saber nada de ellos.

Era, sin embargo, una de las personas que más sabía sobre los productos de la empresa hoy dirigida por Tim Cook. Con él empezó el proyecto con el que Apple dejaría atrás la plataforma PowerPC y se pasara a Intel. Según cuenta su esposa Kim en Quora, Scheinberg investigó por iniciativa propia la manera de trabajar con el sistema operativo de Apple desde su portátil personal Sony.

Scheinberg ha compartido en su cuenta de Twitter un enlace a un artículo de Bussiness Insider sobre el tema con un mensaje irónico en el que dice: “Me pregunto si Apple finalmente hará esa llamada de la entrevista para trabajar en la Genius Bar”

You're How old? We'll be in touch...

Este es un artículo del NY Times, del pasado 3 de septiembre. Ya se ve que no es cosa sólo de España (dónde es un problema de los gordos), sino que alcanza a todo el mundo. La generación de los "millenials" está dejando de lado a su generación anterior, la gen "X", y no hablemos de los "Baby boomers", muchos jubilados... Buena lectura, para situarse:

You're How old? We'll be in touch...

It might not seem that Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have much in common. But they share something important with each other and with a whole lot of their fellow citizens. Both are job seekers. And at ages 68 and 70, respectively, they’re part of a large group of Americans who are radically upending the concept of retirement.

In 2016, almost 20 percent of Americans 65 and older are working. Some of them want to; many need to. The demise of traditional pensions means that many people have to keep earning in their 60s and 70s to maintain a decent standard of living.

These older people represent a vast well of productive and creative potential. Veteran workers can bring deep knowledge to the table, as well as well-honed interpersonal skills, better judgment than the less experienced and a more balanced perspective. They embody a natural resource that’s increasing: the social capital of millions of healthy, educated adults.

Why, then, are well over a million and a half Americans over 50, people with decades of life ahead of them, unable to find work? The underlying reason isn’t personal, it’s structural. It’s the result of a network of attitudes and institutional practices that we can no longer ignore.

The problem is ageism — discrimination on the basis of age. A dumb and destructive obsession with youth so extreme that experience has become a liability. In Silicon Valley, engineers are getting Botox and hair transplants before interviews — and these are skilled, educated, white guys in their 20s, so imagine the effect further down the food chain.

Age discrimination in employment is illegal, but two-thirds of older job seekers report encountering it. At 64, I’m fortunate not to have been one of them, as I work at the American Museum of Natural History, a truly all-age-friendly employer.

I write about ageism, though, so I hear stories all the time. The 51-year-old Uber driver taking me to Los Angeles International Airport at dawn a few weeks ago told me about a marketing position he thought he was eminently qualified for. He did his homework and nailed the interview. On his way out of the building he overheard, “Yeah, he’s perfect, but he’s too old.”

I’m lucky enough to get my tech support from JK Scheinberg, the engineer at Apple who led the effort that moved the Mac to Intel processors. A little restless after retiring in 2008, at 54, he figured he’d be a great fit for a position at an Apple store Genius Bar, despite being twice as old as anyone else at the group interview. “On the way out, all three of the interviewers singled me out and said, ‘We’ll be in touch,’ ” he said. To his disappointment, he didn’t hear anything immediately, and he says that he called to follow up. Though he did get an email from a recruiter some days later to set up a second interview, he stopped pursuing the opportunity.

Recruiters say people with more than three years of work experience need not apply. Ads call for “digital natives,” as if playing video games as a kid is proof of competence. Résumés go unread, as Christina Economos, a science educator with more than 40 years of experience developing curriculum, has learned. “I don’t even get a reply — or they just say, ‘We’ve found someone more suited,’ ” she said. “I feel that my experience, skill set, work ethic, are being dismissed just because of my age. It’s really a blow, since I still feel like a vital human being.”

A 2016 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found “robust” evidence that age discrimination in the workplace starts earlier for women and never relents. The pay gap kicks in early, at age 32, when women start getting passed over for promotion.

Discouraged and diminished, many older Americans stop looking for work entirely. They become economically dependent, contributing to the misperception that older people are a burden to society, but it’s not by choice. How are older people supposed to remain self-sufficient if they’re forced out of the job market?

Not one negative stereotype about older workers holds up under scrutiny. Abundant data show that they’re reliable, handle stress well, master new skills and are the most engaged of all workers when offered the chance to grow and advance on the job. Older people might take longer to accomplish a given task, but they make fewer mistakes. They take longer to recover from injury but hurt themselves less often. It’s a wash. Motivation and effort affect output far more than age does.

Age prejudice — assuming that someone is too old or too young to handle a task or take on a responsibility — cramps prospects for everyone, old or young. Millennials, who are criticized for having “no work ethic” and “needing to have their hands held,” have trouble getting a foothold in the job market. Unless we tackle age bias, they too are likely to become less employable through no fault of their own, and sooner than they might think. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act kicks in at 40.

The myth that older workers crowd out younger ones is called the “lump of labor” fallacy, and economists have debunked it countless times. When jobs are scarce, this is true in the narrowest sense, but that’s a labor market problem, not a too-many-old-people problem.

A 2012 Pew Charitable Trusts study of employment rates over the last 40 years found rates for younger and older workers to be positively correlated. In other words, as more older workers stayed on the job, the employment rate and number of hours worked also improved for younger people.

Progressive companies know the benefits of workplace diversity. A friend in work force policy calls this the “shoe test”: look under the table, and if everyone’s wearing the same kind of shoes, whether wingtips or flip-flops, you’ve got a problem. It’s blindingly obvious that age belongs alongside race, gender, ability and sexual orientation as a criterion for diversity — not only because it’s the ethical path but also because age discrimination hurts productivity and profits.

Being part of a mixed-age team can be challenging. Betsy Martens was 55 when she landed a job as an information architect at a start-up during the heady days of the tech boom. Decades older than most of the staff, she found it invigorating. “When it came time to talk about the music we loved, the books we’d read, the movies we saw and the life experiences we’d had, we were on different planets, but we were all open-minded enough to find these differences intriguing,” she told me. Things shifted during an argument with her boss, “when he said exasperatedly, ‘You sound just like my mother.’ That was the moment the pin pricked the balloon.”

“Culture fit” gets bandied about in this context — the idea that people in an organization should share attitudes, backgrounds and working styles. That can mean rejecting people who “aren’t like us.” Age, however, is a far less reliable indicator of shared values or interests than class, gender, race or income level. Discomfort at reaching across an age gap is one of the sorry consequences of living in a profoundly age-segregated society. The Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer says that Americans are more likely to have a friend of a different race than one who is 10 years older or younger than they are.

Age segregation impoverishes us, because it cuts us off from most of humanity and because the exchange of skills and stories across generations is the natural order of things. In the United States, ageism has subverted it.

What is achieving age diversity going to take? Nothing less than a mass movement like the women’s movement, which made people aware that “personal problems” — like being perceived as incompetent, or being paid less, or getting passed over for promotion — were actually widely shared political problems that required collective action.

The critical starting point is to acknowledge our own prejudice: internalized bias like “I’m too old for that job,” and that directed at others, like “It’s going to take me forever to bring that old guy up to speed.” Confronting ageism means making friends of all ages. It means pointing out bias when you encounter it (when everyone at a meeting is the same age, for example).

Confronting ageism means joining forces. It means seeing older people not as alien and “other,” but as us — future us, that is.

Correction: September 6, 2016

An earlier version of this article included a quotation by JK Scheinberg, a retired Apple engineer, saying he was not contacted after an interview for a position at an Apple store Genius Bar. Mr. Scheinberg and Apple now say that the company did send an email asking to schedule a second interview.