Employers Don't Pay For Age 40+ Candidates' Experience - They Will Pay For This

When you're in your 40's, 50's or 60's, employers don't want to pay you for your experience.

While some job seekers claim this is job search ageism, there's a valid business reason for it.

When you describe your experience in your resume and interviews, employers aren't able to see if you were successful or unsuccessful in your experience ... because you make them guess.

And it's not just you, because almost all age 40+ job seekers do this. You were taught to describe your career based on your responsibilities and experience - You were taught this by outplacement firms, career coaches, authors and other career resources. Professional resume writers who wrote your resume were taught (and tested) to describe your career based on responsibilites and experience.

You were taught to describe yourself as qualified. That's good enough if you're the only qualified candidate. Even if there are just a few qualified canadiates, it can work. But when employers expect many qualified candidates, qualified makes you look average. And if you're age 40+ or looking for a high-level role, you also give the perception that you'll have higher compensation needs.

So you look average and expensive ...

Would you hire a candidate who looked average, expensive, and didn't show if they were a success or a failure. Or would you instead take a risk on a less expensive option, even if that candidate had less experience?

The reason most age 40+ job seekers lose opportunities to less experienced competitors is because they do a poor job of proving they are worth more than less experienced candidates, making it a rational business decision to choose the less expensive option.

But you know you're worth more and can do more than someone with 10 years less experience. So why can't an employer see it?

Probably because you don't tell them ...

But there's something you can do about it.

By this stage in your career, employers expect more, hiring candidates who prove they've been a success through their career. That's why employers hire based on impact.

Impact doesn't show up much (or at all) in your resume or interviews, because you weren't taught to think of your career in a different way than responsibilities and experience (the things employers don't want to pay for). So the story you tell yourself when you think about your career is reflected in how you describe it to employers, on your resume and in interviews.

Because you don't know how to describe the impact you've made, you think about and express responsibilities and experience, presenting you as average and expensive.

I help people solve the most difficult job search problems, including getting past ATSs, ageism, remote positions, product/job function/career/industry/ geographic change, job search acceleration, unemployment, "bouncy" recent career path, job search turnaround, seeking raise/promotion, industry in decline/consolidation, long term gaps, family leave, or other of the most challenging job search issues.

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