The jobs are there if you know where – and how – to look
➔ While many mature job seekers complain about how ageism is preventing them from finding a job, we will acknowledge that age discrimination does exist. However, it’s just as true that job seekers in their 50s and 60s are finding jobs… everyday.
How can this apparent paradox be true?
What’s luck got to do with it?
These older job seekers, are they just lucky, or do they know something that many others don’t? A colleague is fond of saying that finding a job is an accident. And it’s up to the job seeker to create quality accidents. We won’t argue with that.
Yet there are jobs out there and older job seekers are finding them, and more important, they’re getting hired.
Is there a hidden job network?
Where are all these jobs hiding? Truth is that they’re not actually hiding at all. They’re just not being posted anywhere. And job seekers who restrict their job searches to primarily applying online may be spinning their wheels.
According to zippia.com, 70 percent of jobs are never published publicly. And, 79 percent of Americans agree that networking played, and continues to play a vital role in their careers.
Talk to any recruiter, job coach and the like, and they’ll wax eloquently as to the importance of networking in a job search. Payscale.com reports that 85 percent of jobs are filled through networking – whether they’re posted or not.
In the final analysis, it’s not your resume that gets you the job. It’s not applying online or tracking down postings on jobs board that more than likely secure your next position. It’s good, old-fashioned pressing the flesh. Reconnecting with old contacts, finding and establishing a relationship with new contacts, that’s where you’ll strike employment gold.
And that face-to-face, personal contact is something that older job seekers are probably pretty adept at. Unlike other generations who mistakenly think that networks are built through smart phones.