|
|
|
Get Beyond Your Tasks
Ever hear the story of the two masons working side by side at a building site? They're doing the same work under pretty much the same conditions. Then, one day a stranger comes along, approaches one of the men and asks him, "What are you doing?" "I...
Getting a Masters Degree Online
In order to get that promotion you feel that you deserve, it's often necessary to further your education. One of the best, and most convenient, ways to do this is to explore earning your Master's degree online. This innovative and exciting method of...
Help. Federal Grants Are Making Me Crazy!
Chasing federal grants you can go crazy. Where do I look for us government grants and how do I get these free grants? All good questions. Without having to buy a federal grants guide, I hope to show you. This is why I have started this site. If you...
Organize Your Job Search
Every successful pharmaceutical sales job search requires two basic elements: time and organization. All other components are secondary. If you are organized , you will find more time to conduct a full-scale job search. The rule of thumb in todays...
What You Need to Know about Career Training
You’ve thought a lot about the kind of work you want to do. The duties, the pay, the hours, the environment – everything sounds right. According to the newspaper ads, there is a big demand out there. You find a program that sounds really good. You...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smashing the Gray Ceiling
For decades, women have chaffed at the invisible glass ceiling which prevents their moving into the high executive brackets that their competence, knowledge and skills have earned. The same amorphous barrier confronts older workers both in terms of advancement within a company and, most especially, when a job change is required. There is an adage in the military that if a rank above major has not been obtained within twenty years, it never will be. The ranks of early military retirees are sprinkled with majors who knew that ten or fifteen more years would never bring a Colonel's cluster.
How can such "unwritten rules" be fought? No lawsuit can prove that you were the best individual for the job. No employer is unintelligent enough to state that your age is the stumbling block. You sense the discrimination, you become aware of the sideways glances and the emotional response of an interviewer, but you feel powerless to change their perspective and their bias.
Sitting across an interviewing desk, often facing an individual the same age as your son, your esteem erodes and your confidence self-destructs. Impotent, humiliated, and angry, you accept that nothing you can say is going to change anything. You continue job hunting with a mounting sense of frustration and an indisputable anticipation of failure.
If you have nothing to lose, why not attack the problem head-on? Prejudice and discrimination survive only in the silence of unexamined judgments and, often unconscious, illogic. Confront the situation and at least you create the opportunity for the white light of reason to enter the fray.
Try these approaches to prompt more honest interaction and possibly more rational conclusions.
1. You need to be the one to put the age issue on the table. Offer it gently, as one area of needed exploration regarding why you fit the employer's needs. Bring it up objectively, as something that can be discussed unemotionally, without triggering lethal interviewer defensiveness.
2. Acknowledge your age as a basis for emphasizing the experience of a lifetime and the value that such experience can provide to any employer. Concentrate on describing how business has changed over the course of years and how deftly you have adapted to those changes and incorporated new ideas and technical advancements into your work performance.
3. Acknowledge common misperceptions about the weaknesses of age: hard-to-break habits, lack of flexibility, technological ignorance, and distrust of authority, especially if young. Then use your sales ability to eliminate those misperceptions, probably already resonating in the interviewer's head.
Habits: Remind your host of the
ability to adapt and reshape yourself which has kept your thinking young. Stress your relish for new challenges and innovative approaches. Cite some examples from your past about how smoothly you have been able to change to new workflows and procedures.
Flexibility: Discuss your dislike of unproductive routine and your preference for trying new methods of approaching tasks. Stress those times in the past when you were able to develop creative solutions to long-term problems and how your resourcefulness helped your previous employers.
Technology: Identify new technical advances within your field and address how you have internalized those changes. If you have successfully transitioned from dictating to a secretary to email and instant messaging, if you have moved from a manual adding machine to competent computer literacy, then small changes like learning new software or novel production systems should be a snap.
Authority issues: You have attained authority in the past and you have also worked under a variety of supervisors in your long career life. Clarify your relationship with power: the respect you extend to those who are knowledgeable, the loyalty and support you offer any leader of your team, the self-respect you enjoy which allows you to participate in group goals enthusiastically without feeling that you need to be in charge or command the top title.
4. Once you have demolished the myths of age, emphasize its strengths: reliability, mature judgment, lack of impulsivity, timeliness, a strong work ethic, and the ability to perform without outside distractions such as personal relationship problems, child commitments, and social responsibilities.
Undoubtedly, there are individuals out there who have their own issues with hiring someone who reminds them of their father or who have had problems in the past with an underperforming older worker who was difficult to terminate. There will always be those you cannot reach, no matter how convincing your logic and your presentation.
There are many more who are open-minded and seek not to make rash judgments. Address their semi-conscious fears face to face and the interview may end successfully - for both you and your lucky new employer.
About the Author
Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a respected Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and emotionally supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com
|
|
|
|
|
| Jobs, Careers, Education - Careers.Org |
| careers.org, jobs, careers, employment, If it's about your career OR education ... it's here!!! Today is Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Bookmark Careers.Org! ... |
| www.careers.org |
|
| Hispanic employment service for jobs, workforce diversity, free ... |
| Hispanic employment service with free resume postings. |
| www.saludos.com |
|
| Job Search PositionsVACANT - Australian jobs, careers, employment ... |
| Australian Job Search since 1999. Find your future with us! |
| www.positionsvacant.com.au |
|
| NationJob, Employment Job Search Engine & Careers |
| NationJob.com, Job search, careers, employment, and resume services for job seekers. Find A Job. Keywords:. Category: ... |
| www.nationjob.com |
|
| Business - Careers-Employment Ezine Articles |
| EzineArticles.com allows ezine or email list publishers to upload or download free expert content that can be used within email newsletters or websites. |
| ezinearticles.com |
|
| Thomson Delmar Learning - Browse Catalog |
| Careers / Employment · Civil Litigation · CLA Exam Review · Computers and the Law ... Thomson Delmar Learning : Paralegal : Careers / Employment ... |
| www.delmarlearning.com |
|
| SWANA - The Solid Waste Association of North America |
| SWANA Logo · Join SWANA · Forms, Applications & Brochures · Solid Waste Career Center, search. GO. educate innovate communicate ... |
| www.swana.org |
|
| JOB SERIES 2152 |
| Job Series 2152. Informational Pamphlets for Entry Level Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS). ATCS · Medical Standards · Suitability and Security ... |
| www.faa.gov |
|
| The Dispatch |
| Careers / Employment Ads · Garage Sale / Announcements · Home Service Ads · Legals - Gilroy · Legals - Hollister · Legals - Morgan Hill · Legals - Pinnacle ... |
| www.gilroydispatch.com |
|
| careers employment page |
| cooljobs.adobe.com/frameset.html?goto=er-joblist - Similar pages |
|
|
| National Geographic Jobs, Careers, Employment |
| Get a job with the National Geographic Society. Search our employment listings and apply online. |
| www.nationalgeographic.com |
|
| SeeMeResumes.com - Resume distribution, jobs, careers, employment |
| Resume distribution service geared for professionals to meet professionals. |
| www.seemeresumes.com |
|
| .:: Nonin Medical, Inc. - Careers/Employment ::. |
| Careers/Employment Nonin was founded and continues to grow as an employee-focused company. Our most valuable assets are our people and the teamwork derived ... |
| www.nonin.com |
|
| Computer, Tech & IT Jobs Search, Careers, Employment, Postings ... |
| Search Computer jobs, Tech jobs, IT Employment postings & hot IT careers @ Tech-Centric.net. Use the advanced technology job board to find information ... |
| www.tech-centric.net |
|
| KONICA MINOLTA EUROPE: Careers / Employment |
| Home>Company: Careers / Employment ... Konica Minolta's Business Areas; Careers / Employment; Map to Headquarters · Environmental Activities · Home ... |
| www.konicaminoltaeurope.com |
|
| Environmental careers, employment opportunities |
| Site provides information on jobs and careers in the environment. |
| www.ualberta.ca |
|
| The Beaufort Gazette: Jobs - Careers - Employment |
| Jobs - Careers - Employment · Cars - Trucks - SUVs · Real Estate · Place an ad · Shop Locally · Early Birds · Announcements · Building/Home Improvement ... |
| www.beaufortgazette.com |
|
| About Us - Careers/Employment |
| Careers/Employment. Do You Want to Make a Difference in People's Lives? Join a dynamic, growing high-tech/high-touch healthcare organization that makes a ... |
| www.lifemasters.com |
|
| National Network of Regional Disability Liaison Officers and ... |
| Money Matters · Access Technology · Teaching Support · Careers/ Employment · Legislation/ Policy · Disability Information ... |
| www.adcet.edu.au |
|
| Search Results |
| job. ... Altera Home Page. Literature · Licensing · Buy On-Line · Download. Entire Site, Part Number. Home, |, Products, |, Support, |, End Markets ... |
| www.altera.com |
|
|