no job yetMy question is that I have put in several hundreds of applications and posted my resume, but only two responses and those fell through. I keep getting all these web sites to help with this and after i go through all the trouble of filling out the info,I find out they charge for these services. I do not have this kind of money right now to join these services, if i did I would not be looking for a job. I have updated my resume and I do have the qualifications that the jobs are looking for, but I 'm beginning to think that once they look at my age of 56, it turns them off. I lost my position with a company after 12 years, they sent mine and several hundereds positions to India. What am I suppose to do. I cannot prove that it is my age, but what am I suppose to think or feel? It has been since August of 2005 since I have worked a regular job. I am in a nowhere job now and I hate it. Start with your resume. You are probably going too far back and revealing too much. There shouldn' t be anything on your resume that clearly shows your age. You can post it (minus name, address and phone) on the resume board for some good (free) advice. You also need to target jobs where age and experience is an asset, so be sure you' re looking at the right level of jobs. Also, contact your local unemployment office and see if they have any programs that can help you with job counseling, resumes, practice interviews, job retraining, etc. You may well qualify for those services and should make use of them. Sounds to me as if you were downsized because of outsourcing, so it may or may not be age at all. It might be that there are just tons of people with experience vying for the same jobs. That was the case when I lost my job years ago in hi-tech. We were all in the same boat, with similar backgrounds and experience. So it was just a matter of competition. In my case, I switched fields because the jobs in my other one basically dried-up. But if it is an age thing, then you may want to tone down your resume. Instead of saying you have say 25 years experience, make it less, such as 10+. In other words, show that you have some experience, but maybe not as much as you really do. The same goes for responsibilities in your past and present jobs. Try toning those down as well. Years ago, I had to hide my Masters because I was over-qualified for jobs as an Administrative Assistant. Doing that got me interviews and offers. So I think your situation is pretty similar. When it comes to age, a company is most worried about two things. One is that you'll probably want more money than they're willing to spend. And second, you are nearing retirement and will cost them money in terms of benefits. These are the attitudes they might be taking. Not to say they're right, but it might be their underlying attitude. And so to combat this, you need to tone things down a notch or two so they don't see you as "older." Lowering your level of responsibility and/or experience often accomplishes this. Another thing you may want to try is just listing that job you had for 12 years before it was outsourced to India. I just want to make a brief comment on this thread in general. It is a VERY sad statement regarding the practices of employers, the condition of our economy and the utter disregard with which humans are treated in the hiring process when we actively have to hide the full complement of our abilities simply to get a job and keep paying the bills. Rather than bleating about how we can "dumb down" our resumes, we should get active about changing the establishment. Unfortunately, that takes the power which can only come from paid, gainful employment. A truly vicious circle, isn' t it? Dumbing down resumes, hiding age, are on par with lying about your knowledge, experience and skills.... oh i guess since the intention is deception maybe dumbing down your resume is lying..... The bottom line is that being disingenuous might get your foot in the door but as soon as you walk into the room under a fraudulent pretense and your "found out" you basically cut yourself from the running. Look at it this way. I am looking for someone with 3-5 yrs experience and you show up with 12 yrs experience after making your resume look like you have 3-5 yrs experience. Do you really want to subject yourself to my humiliating questions of, "Why on earth would be want to take such a huge step backwards in your career?" or... "I am paying entry level wages and you have a Master' s degree? Why would I want to hire you when I know that the first Masters level position that comes along and you will be out of here?" ...Or my personal favorite at the other end of the spectrum. Early in my career search when I was unemployed a while back, I was just trying to get the lay of the land since I had not been unemployed in many, many years. I went to a job fair for a large internet company opening up a local office. The ad was that they were looking for seasoned managers among other positions. During the general orientation some busty kid in a t-shirt and tight jeans (who had a title like enthusiasm coordinator) was asking quiz questions and tossing our water bottles and ball caps to those shouting out answers... When the tone became "serious" and questions were fielded, a guy (looking about my age) sitting a couple rows in front of me raised his hand and asked, "Do you have anyone in this company who is over 30 yrs old?" Needless to say, he and I were walking to the parking lot together rather than subjecting ourselves to such nonsense.... NOBODY who has any basis in reality would be stupid enough to suggest that "you need to tone things down a notch or two" Having a resume that looks too academic or too specialized or too much like a job hopper may be causes to revise your resume (when I was unemployed my resume went through several iterations and I actually have 3 different slices of my skills in different resumes. But omitting information or underplaying your skills (to chase after jobs) is a totally dis-empowering thing to do. The bottom line is that you are in control of your career. It will save you a whole lot of failed interviews if you STOP chasing after jobs that you are over or under qualified for. Get real about your expectations, your needs, and the values you bring to the workforce. Focus your job search on those handful of companies where your skills and values align with their business model and myopically develop relationships with those companies. In my case, I went through an unemployment stint that lasted 18 months. During that time I worked a made ends meet through a self-employment gig totally unrelated to my professional career. During that time I focused my job search on three companies and worked at building a network among a number of other smaller companies. I interviewed for six different jobs in the company where I am working before landing my current management gig. In another company I interviewed for four different positions, including a recent interview that would have been a significant advancement. I was the number 2 candidate and lost to an insider. however, the VP I interviewed with has his eyes open for me. Its your career. FOCUS focus focus focus and run like heck when you hear self-proclaimed doctors spewing malpractice quackery. I' m not sure anyone was advocating misleading or lying on one' s resume.... Surely, tailoring one' s resume to the job at hand is what is required--anybody should do that. If you don' t tailor your resume to the job for which you are applying, you are not marketing yourself properly. On a resume, you do not need to list every job you' ve had for the last 25yrs, and if you list 15 years' worth, there is nothing wrong with stating on your cover letter that you have 15+ years of experience. If the job calls for 7 to 15 years, and you are either willing to work for the wages specified, or your skill set more closely approximates someone with 12 years of experience rather than 25 years, that is, IMHO, perfectly acceptable. As to toning down one' s resume, if the job doesn' t require all the skills you have, then you focus on the ones it does require. If you mention the others in passing, or choose not to mention them, what' s the problem if they are not required for the job you' re applying for? I agree with you about the state of today' s economy and employer practices, but I see nothing wrong with selectively highlighting your experience to match a job you' re applying for. Provided that you do not intentionally seek to blatantly mislead, or you do not lie. If, e.g., you held a job where you' re title was Assistant Manager, and you say you were a "Customer Service Rep," that' s lying. If, however, the job you' re applying for requires more service skills than management, and you, in your Asst Mgr job, also worked floor duty, then you highlight more of those skills than the others. And, don' t forget, sometimes highly experienced people do not WANT a job at their previous level (as in my case), and have to "tone down" their experience so that they can even get an interview. If you' re winding down your career instead of ramping it up, and you' ll be happy in a lower-level position, then you have to adjust your resume accordingly, or you' ll never get a call, let alone a job! The point we agree on is that there is a big difference between customizing and tailoring a resume to highlight one set of skills over another say, "project management" for one job and "software engineering" for another job. That is entirely different than intentionally dumbing down your resume to hide or misrepresent your education, experience, age, etc... In the first case you are in the drivers seat trying to position yourself for a job in the other you are using smoke and mirrors to misrepresent yourself, "jeeez, if i only close my eyes hard enough maybe s/he won' t notice that I have 2 master' s degrees and 15 yrs experience...." which is keeping the employer in the driver' s seat. If it is your age that is turning employers off, then shame on them. You not only have the job experience but you have the life experience that should put you ahead of those just starting out or have only a few years under their belts. You did mention in your post, however, that many position in the company were outsourced. If this is the case then those are the people you are most likely competing against and the job market for you will be tough. Just tough it out and keep looking on career sites such as Monster, Career builders, Carigs list ahs a job section, Hot Jobs (I think they are through yahoo). These are free sites. Try googling job boards and see what comes up. The search may bring something new your way. If the worst thing happens and you cannot find a job in your field right away, you may need to transfer your skills into another area. I too was laid off , this past January. I am in my early 50' s with many years experience. I have sent out over 100 resumes by either mail or email. I have had less than a dozen responses. It is very disheartening and one feels worthless. And also knowing that unemployment will run out soon and that I will be living in my car. You are actually bringing up a totally different "weakness" of a job search strategy, which is an over-reliance on the Internet for identifying jobs and equating quantity with an effective job search. While the foundational career guides --like Bolls' What color is your parachute (which all the rest of the self-published junk books by self-appointed career docs just plagiarize) talk about using multiple job search strategies, a lot of job seekers get stuck on quantity. Its a numbers game --goes the thinking-- if I only send out enough applications like blowing leaves with a noisy air blower, one of them will land face up and receive grace of an employer. I am convinced that job seekers need to be much more focuses in their job search. Identify the 5 or 8 companies in your commute area that you want to work for and set about building relationships with those companies. Learn the companies inside out, network with as many people who have connections to those companies as you can and seek to build relationships with people on the inside of the companies. At risk of sounding like a noise machine, I strongly suggest that you work closely with your unemployment center and maximize their help in creating ways of building relationships with a very short list of companies. | |
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