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So... why won't you hire me?
After a certain age, if you aren't already working in a stable job, it is extremely hard to find something. It is becoming a major problem as people are living longer and remaining healthy, viable workers. If you are in this position, you know what I'm talking about.
The mind set seems to be that:
1. They want a long time commitment to employment and because we are over a certain age they believe we will retire soon.
2. We are a health risk.
3. We don't have the endurance, energy, or enthusiasm as a younger person.
4. Many of us don't have degrees, so experience means nothing.
5. We are unreliable for whatever other reason they can think up.
Of course they don't voice these concerns to us, so we are unable to refute them. There are various ways they are able to find out how old we are without asking, which is illegal. Not only can they see how many years of work you have accomplished with a chronological resume, but I have been required to give what year I graduated from High School. Hardly important information for the job, but it identifies your age group. An immediate signal that you don't fit their profile.
I would bet these are the same people who are jumping on the band wagon about the Social Security crisis. As an older American I am encouraged to work longer, and continue to add to the fund through paycheck deductions. To me, this is a catch-22. I worked with a woman who had to retire early, and because she couldn't exist on what she received, she was lucky enough to return to work full time. Many things are wrong with this. First she was forced into retirement after running through all her unemployment benefits, unable to find a job. She filed for social security but continued to look for work. Finding a full time job, her benefits were suspended. She would never get an increase in her benefit, and yet after returning to work, the deduction was still taken from her check.
There will be people who read this and say, she should have prepared herself better for retirement. That is another blog post. It's not always possible to prepare. I will leave it at that, everyone's situation is different, life events sometimes prevent the best laid plans.
The point I would like to make here is, we have to change how we feel about older workers. If they have the requirements for the job, they should be considered the same as any other applicant. That's what the law states, however, we all know it doesn't happen. We ask for a chance to prove ourselves. Our years of hands on experience is a asset to any company. You can read about how to do something but putting it into practical use takes a learning curve. We are ahead of that curve. We hit the ground running.
My expertise is running an office all by myself, to running just a small facet of a large company. In my portfolio, is experience from food service management, to a high level distribution company. I have had experience with different types of companies from a factory assembler, to financial management. I worked my way up, it wasn't given to me. I would be most happy to provide my resume to any serious employers close to this zip code, 78664.