Returning to the Job Market? It has changed!

You are over 45 and have been with one employer for more than 20 years. Maybe you were hired even before you graduated or or you knew somebody. Either way you had the endorsement that comes from an institution or personal reference. Those interview were a piece of cake. When you were up for an internal promotion, everyone was pretty friendly. Now you’re unemployed and looking for work through no fault of your own. Suddenly people you have never met are dumping expectations on you that you never imagined just to get an interview. Some of your colleagues left before you and they got jobs. You hope like crazy that you can be one of those exceptions and land a new job the old way. Lots of luck!

The way you got your last job isn’t working

People will tell you that you can’t get hired today without networking. Forget about just sending your resume to every job posting you find on the Internet. But you know somebody gets hired from the big job sites. Why shouldn’t it be you? Well, it could be but your chances aren’t great. they improve dramatically if you do some of the things that nobody else wants to do. You can become one of 5 or 6 instead of one of 2,000.

It’s not your fault that the job market has changed, but it has.

You talked to some people at the local career counseling center and they told you a whole bunch of mystifying things about looking for a job today. You feel like Rip van Winkle who woke up after a 100 year sleep to find the world had changed too much.

It’s taking you a while to accept the new job market. I get that. If you’re talking to a career counselor who seems impatient, understand that they can’t relate to your experience. Rest assured that millions of other job seekers can. So can I.

You haven’t prepared for the job market‘s expectations

It would have helped if someone had coached you years ago to prepare you when you weren’t under pressure. In the meantime, you would have paid a lot more attention to tracking your accomplishments. You’d have taken more initiative to solve problems and quantify the results. Employers now take for granted skill levels that you didn’t need in your previous job.

Interviewers ask questions you’ve never been asked before. How have you handled an ornery person in your workplace? You can only think of one and you’re not about to tell this young interviewer how you responded.

Look, you can’t “should have”. What now?

First, accept what’s true. The employment marketplace is what it is. Do the hard work. Become very clear about the skills and accomplishments that you already bring. Know how those skills benefit potential employers by reducing costs or increasing revenues. Rehearse your answers to interview questions. Plan your responses to those questions so that you perform better in job interviews. It’s doable.

I created this blog for you. Stick around.

You deserve better from everybody after your years of faithful service. Find people who respect that this isn’t easy for you. Don’t take anything you experience personally. It’s the system.

Keep coming back for information, encouragement and information. Send me a note if you think I can help!

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