One is never too old to get a job - even at 70!

My last blog post was about a different approach that I recommend be adopted by employees, employers and governments to deal with an aging workforce - essentially, different policies, attitudes and skills from all parties.

This post is an inspiring real life example of what I mean drawn from a career transition program for a delightful 70 year gentleman I will call John (not his real name) I had the pleasure and privilege of working with between November 2010 and January 2011 in Sydney, Australia. There are many career and life lessons to be gleaned from the process we adopted which resulted in not just one but two very credible job offers at much enhanced salary levels.

Background

John had recently accepted a redundancy program after a number of years service with a major financial services company. Prior to this role, he had had a number of other roles with various financial services and public sector organisations, some at very senior levels. John has also since the age of 50 undertaken a significant number of relevant post graduate qualifications to stay current with the legislative changes in the financial services industry.

Process

John and I went through a fairly normal career transition program process in assessing his values, goals and career assets and developing a contemporary resume which would facilitate the targeting of John's desired roles. As John's experience and education from the last 10-20 years was really only relevant to his job search, we ensured that was only included/highlighted in the resume. (However, for how important I consider a resume, please see my earlier blog post). A job search process targeting particular recruiters and network contacts was then initiated by John.

LinkedIn

I also recommended that John develop a LinkedIn profile and re-establish connections with ex colleague and contacts. As John was not really familiar with LinkedIn and its features and purpose, we spent some time enhancing John's knowledge and in particular focusing on the "buzz-words" that John would wish to include in his profile so as to maximise his chances of being found in a LinkedIn search process. We also only focused on the past 10-20 years as we had done with the resume.

BINGO! Within only 10 days on LinkedIn, John was found by a specialist financial services recruiter looking for a particular combination of skills, experience - and in this case, maturity - for a six month special project role in a major bank. Both the recruiter and John were previously unknown to each other.

Part-time work

As indicated above, we had discussed John's goals at the commencement of the career transition process. One aspect he had been very clear on (or thought he was) was a desire to preferably have a 3 day per week role - with maybe consideration of occasionally up to 4 days per week. We discussed that we would need to wait to ascertain how that would fit with the needs of prospective employers.

When this contract role arose, we discussed what part-time meant and why it was important to John. Could part-time mean work six months of the year full-time and have six months off? Could such an option actually work better for John and his wife given their desire to travel overseas during the Northern Hemisphere summer? There is never a definitive answer in such cases. There is, however, a flexibility in thinking that is required when considering such issues.

A second job opportunity arises from networking

In the meantime, John was still pursuing other roles and activating contacts with his network - some of whom were somewhat dormant - although pleased to reconnect. Out of one of these network connects, the possibility of another role in another major financial services organisation arose. The role was one that may never have been advertised so the networking was critical. John with my strategic input continued to pursue this role in addition to the first role on the basis that one has to always keep options open.

Outcome

John ended up receiving job offers from both opportunities. We discussed how each one met his objectives at this stage and John decided to accept the first opportunity because of the uniqueness of the project BUT also ensured that he maintained an opportunity for a role with the second organisation after the first role concludes (once he and his wife also undertake their overseas travel). John was able to do this through a combination of professionalism, courtesy, respect for relationships and transparency with recruiters and employer personnel through the whole process - including aspects such as thank you and proactive update emails and phone calls.

This highlights a latent goal that should be in all job search processes - we should be looking beyond the immediate job on offer at the career possibilities beyond - whether in the same organisation or another organisation. We also do not know if the "best" job on offer is going to work out - for employer or employee - and active career management is therefore considered essential as I wrote in an earlier blog post.

Retirement

It may have been noticed that at no stage have I discussed retirement for John - notwithstanding he is past Australia's current age pension age of 65 and he could have been accessing all of this superannuation on a tax free basis. This is deliberate - because it was just not on John's agenda at this stage - he wanted to work because he enjoys the structure and the intellectual and social stimulation that work brings.

John clearly had an active mind and had kept himself current for the times - he was not trading on past glories. He was also clearly willing to learn new things eg LinkedIn. This highlights why it is important that assumptions are never made based on aspects such as age without considering the individual needs of the person. It also highlights that one is never too old to get a job - or to pursue education, learn about social media such as LinkedIn or be flexible........

Key Lessons

1. One is never too old to learn - whether formal education or new technologies and applications.

2. LinkedIn does work - we just need to be on there and actively managing our profile and connections.

3. A resume needs to be contemporary and targeted towards the job you want.

4. Networking is also a very important way to obtain a job.

5. Active career management - looking at positions ahead in future years - is also recommended.

6. Old fashioned courtesy and respect for relationships/people never go astray.

I look forward to staying in touch with John and watching his further progress. He is an inspiration to us all.


PB

Copyright: Peter Black 2011