Why not send Angry in Minnesota over to my Turkey Farm http://tinyurl.com/lxu93 and tell them that I LOVE to work with OLD turkeys like myself. There are two in my gaggle right now and I have bandwidth to help 5 at a time. No guearnatees of course but I love a challenge.

I know that age discrimintation exsists but you have to have a Unique Value Equation, be able to express it, and know how to sell it. Then the age bariers seem to melt away. It’s not magic. It’s basic value.

“Oh I see, if I hire you, I get more value out of it than I have to pay. Great!”

You have to use little words, and big numbers. After all these youngsters have never had to concentrate very long, so you have 15 to 45 seconds to qualify. Your sales proposition has to be similarly laser focused. SO, when I can express my value concisely, when I can figure out how to get it under your nose, and when I have “sales collateral” (i.e., cover and resume) that make it OBVIOUS to the receptionist what I can unlock for you, it is amazing how “age discrimination” is no where to be seen.

It’s too easy to say “I’m too old”; it much hard to say “I don’t add any value”.

It’s really the same. imho

fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

Ferdinand J. Reinke
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

Webform that creates an urgent email => http://2idi.com/contact/=reinkefj
Web page => http://www.reinke.cc/
My blog => http://www.reinkefaceslife.com/
LinkedIn url => http://www.linkedin.com/in/reinkefj

Daniel, do you mind if I don’t totally agree with you? Why wait until your 40-ish to plan for when you’re 50-ish? As said by many: we’ve all been there, I was there at 39 – having moved to a different country also. Lost more than just a ‘job’.

Scott, I’m sure you know this one too – besides family ‘back-up’ you do need a network back-up. My network has helped me fantastically when we ‘were down and out’.

Great and very true post Jason. Hope you encouraged the lady in Minnesota not to give up hope for better times.

Karin H. (Keep It simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Scot – excellent additions. I was fortunate to have both and it’s made a huge difference both in a stressful job search and as I started to launch JibberJobber.

I’ll give two additions:

Financial backing. This means that — as very hard as it is — have a year’s worth of take home income in the bank (or your liquid stock investment account) so that desperation does not set in while looking for a job. This doesn’t mean you slack off in looking; rather, it can help you have the peace of mind of turning down a job offer that you don’t want.

Family backing. Having an excellent relationship with your spouse or significant other as well as children go a long way to surviving a layoff. When laid off, there is immediate emotional turmoil thrust into the family unit. Strong relationships can withstand this turmoil most of the time. Having weak family relationships can often cause enough stress to break the back of a relationship — causing even more stress.

So, yes, develop the personal brand. Understand that networking is for life. But, have financial and family backing so as to withstand the storm. No one else will do it for you.

Scot

Unless you consciously choose to get in the driver’s seat and determine where you want to go and when, formulate a plan to get there, and then execute (network, build a visible online presence, sharpen your skills), you will forever be at the mercy of employers who don’t care about you or your situation. They have a business to run and to them, it’s all about the bottom line.

Your bottom line is your career. Manage your career like you manage your business, and you can shift the job search paradigm from being a job hunter to being “the hunted.”

Recruiter Tim Norstrem and I will be talking about this tomorrow in the CFO–Career–Forum.

Cindy Kraft
The CFO–Coach
http://www.cfo-coach.com

Rob – good guesses .. it’s none of the three.

(whoever that is… oh, google says he’s either Wayne from Wayne’s World or he’s an Aussie Football player. Either way, “Excellent!”)

I agree with Jason that we’ve all been there, it’s extraordinarily painful for anyone to be laid off as we’re all making life plans (that cost money) when it happens.

I agree with this lady that it’s different for the over-50 set. Different because they’re having to learn this lesson for the first time late in the game. And that’s a little bit of extra twist in the knife for these guys. And they are right that fewer companies will hire a post-50 guy.

That’s why I recommend all 40ish year-olds to be getting ready a business plan for starting their own business. They may not need it for 15 years, and the aging of a business plan will help it, but with workers staying alive longer and retirement age not changing, they’re going to either end up in a minimum wage job or their own business.

Plan now, ladies and gentlemen.

Dan

Dan Schawbel
Personal Branding Spokesman
http://www.personalbrandingblog.com