Make your extensive experience a positive

My company was acquired last July, and duplicated departments were cut in favor of the acquiring company. I have been looking for work since last summer, doing all the things you suggest. How do I overcome this setback of age?

J.T.: We can tell you’ve been reading our columns because you avoided the loaded term “age discrimination.” We urge people not to think in those terms — what employers discriminate against is not age, but excess experience. They fear you will want too much money or be set in your ways.

Dale: Or that you’re worn out or burned out or technologically inept. So let’s back up a minute and think about the ideal level of experience. Most managers don’t hire rookies because they not only need training in the job, but training in having a job, meaning that the failure rate is high. The result is that the perfect job candidate usually is someone with a reasonable amount of experience, typically something like two to 10 years. Work experi- ence beyond those years may or may not make a person more valuable. In other words, the “setback of age” is that there are a number of possible negatives to extensive experience, and you have to sell yours as a positive. J.T.: You have to come across as ready to hit the ground running, but also as affordable and flexible. Most of all, you must demonstrate a young mind, one that is open and inquisitive. One example: I worked with a man in his 50s who’d been searching for a job for more than a year. As I analyzed his job search, I realized that he was selling his value so hard that he was scaring everyone away. All he did was talk about how much he had accomplished. He thought this was showing them what an asset he’d be, when in reality, they saw his aggressiveness as a potential liability. When we got him to tone down his approach, he stopped “selling” and started listening. Within eight weeks, he had a new job.