So you’ve been displaced from your job and are struggling in the job market. You suspect that employers maybe holding your age against you but don’t know what to do (short of commissioning a time machine to take you back to the years of your youth!). Though there is little you can do to change the reality of your age, there are some strategies for altering the perception that employers have about your age and vitality. The following tips will help you to assess and restructure the image you are presenting in your job search activities:
1. Update your look. Consult a stylist about the way you are wearing you hair and for women make-up and ask about a more youthful style. Many men can immediately take 10 years off their appearance by coloring their hair and/or shaving that grey beard.
2. Update your wardrobe. Visit a local fashion retailer and purchase a couple of outfits that have a more current and youthful flavor.
3. Be aware of your posture and body language. When networking and interviewing, stand upright and introduce a spring to your step.
4. Identify genuine feelings of excitement about your meetings/telephone interactions and exude energy in your voice and gestures.
5. If you have become less physically active, introduce an exercise regimen into your daily routine. Consider taking on an active outdoor hobby like hiking, cross country skiing, power walking, running, biking that shows that you are still energetic.
6. Learn something new, ideally related to your chosen field and document it on your resume/LinkedIn page. Take a course, seminar or complete a certification. Show that your mind is still active!
7. Remove irrelevant, ancient history from your resume. Keep recent employment and volunteer work with dates but consider leaving off the year of your degree if it dates you too severely.
8. Be preemptive. Secure references from contacts that attest to your energy, willingness to learn, current professional knowledge and supply them to employers (whether requested or not).
9. Volunteer or intern to update your experience or introduce a new foundation if you are targeting a different field.
There is no doubt that age discrimination is a powerful reality confronting middle aged job seekers. All you can do is make sure that you influence the perceptions of employers and present as youthful an image as possible!
