Older Americans Face Age-Related

Employment Challenges Amid Pandemic

by Alex Gangitano by thehill.com

Employed Americans 55 and older have experienced a relatively high level of job security compared with their younger counterparts since the start of the pandemic. 

    But experts say that older adults who’ve lost their jobs may find themselves struggling to find another position due to their physical vulnerabilities, age and perceived lack of technological savvy. 

There’s an old expression that seasoned college professors like to invoke about teaching: “The first year you get it wrong. The second year you fix it. And the third year you’re bored.”

    As I settle into my third year running my communications consultancy, that comment came back to me. While it applies beautifully to teaching, it applies to everything else as well.   MORE
 

Age discrimination by employers due to the pandemic is moving from a hypothetical to a real issue. But there are tactics older workers and job applicants can adopt accordingly to help protect themselves and their careers.

    Unfortunately, the protection of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (A.D.E.A.) is ebbing. Increasingly, courts in age discrimination cases have been siding with businesses and against workers.
 

Have you ever taken a job, only to find nearly from the first day that the position is not for you? There are few more dispiriting and problematic situations on the job front. Not only do you have to go through the job search process again, but you are on the horns of a dilemma. Should you stick it out and risk it becoming worse? If not, you need to strategize an explanation to new employers about why you’re leaving so soon…

    There is a solution! It’s learning to read job descriptions for red flags. While job descriptions are designed to let job seekers know the duties and requirements of the job, what they say and how they are written can reveal much more to the savvy job seeker.
 

The New Career Cycle Is Here... And It Looks Vastly Different

Are You Doing This on LinkedIn?

If You Say Any of These 6 Things During the Job Interview,

Don’t Expect to Get an Offer

Amazingly, as 2020 draws to a much anticipated close, employers are still looking down their technological noses at older applicants assuming that we don’t even know how to turn on an electronic device.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. Aside from a few (and we do mean a few) holdouts, older job seekers can hold their own against most any applicant from any generation when it comes getting the job done in front of a computer (Desktop, laptop, or tablet – it doesn’t matter.)

    When you’re faced with that kind of condescension in an interview, don’t hesitate to challenge that premise. Change to focus from “Can you handle this technology?” to how you can and would solve whatever the problem at hand is.

    When you go into that interview, be prepared to dazzle them with your knowledge of technology, of their industry, of trends and the latest innovations. Go out of your way to demonstrate your keen awareness of all those things and how – with your years of experience and business savvy – you can tackle an assignment or problem they may throw in your path.

    A word to the wise: technology is changing all the time and it’s incumbent on you to keep pace. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. But it is the world in which we live and the more you’re able to keep abreast of those innovations, the likely it is that you will shorten the length of your job search.