Helping Over-50s Get Back Into The Workforce

"For those of us who are over 50 and actively looking to get back into the workforce, is there anything we can do to make us older people more attractive to recruiters? I know that companies are not supposed to use age as a disqualification but I also feel that age does make a difference in the hiring process."

Regards, David.

Dear David

You’re absolutely right that companies should not disqualify on age but it’s good to be mindful of human tendencies because it means you find ways to address them and present a compelling candidate. One of the most attractive features of an over 50 is their long years of experience.

 One of the most attractive features of an over 50 is their long years of experience.

Good judgement comes from experience

Regardless of whether you have remained at a single organisation, focused on a singular domain or done the opposite, the experience, expertise and insights gained from all of your endeavours are truly incalculable.

For this reason, one of the most important things you can do is to showcase this range of experience and skill-set so your reader can grasp the potential of what you can offer. Keep in mind that you’re not just writing for the recruiter.

A job can manifest from a range of sources – a peer, ex-colleague, hiring manager, mentor as well from past relationships – customers, suppliers, partners and more.

So how would you begin to showcase this experience?

You do this by talking about what you’ve done in the past, what experiences you’ve had, what lessons you’ve learnt, what failures you’ve endured and how you’d do things differently if given another opportunity. Effectively, what you’re doing is giving readers a window into your mind and working to build more influence.

You want to do this in a way that befits your sense of style and comfort so that you give yourself every chance of success. By this, I mean that if you’re the sort of person who’s more comfortably writing an article instead of recording a video, then stick with articles.

There are many best practices about how content should be developed but these practices also need to take into account what works best, what gives you quick wins, what helps you move ahead comfortably. It’s been said you need to be on a number of platforms to make sure you cover all your bases. But if producing a 2 minute video is gut wrenching and your effort is less than stellar because of this unease, it makes more sense to do what works better for you.

Three activities that will generate results

There are specific things you can do, right now, that will generate positive results.

1. Revamp your LinkedIn profile

Starting with your resume as the core document, review what needs to be freshened up and what could be removed. Tighten things up. A senior person does not need to go back 30 years and showcase educational qualifications in great detail.

What’s important is to consider the kind of work you are capable of doing, the work you’d like to dig your teeth into and then how you can position past roles to line it all up in a way that makes sense.

When looking for work, you should be forward-looking, focused far more on the direction you want to take and the roles you want to attract ( less on what you’ve got now and what you believe will limit you). 

Develop an online resume ie one that is hosted digitally which enables you to make changes in real-time and avoids having to resend resumes around to recruiters every time you make an update. There are a number of free resources for this, including VisualCV.*

Once you’ve reworked your resume, replicate this on your LinkedIn profile, ensuring all elements are consistent.

Your resume, in itself, is not enough.

With the latter however, you want to keep things more conversational and shorter (not stiff or too formal).

You’re also best served by keeping the reader in mind at all times – who are they, what are they interested in, what kind of questions are they looking to ask you, what questions might be raised about your profile and how you’d address these. If you can always keep the reader front and centre, it changes everything about how you write and develop your material.

There are many things you can do to your LinkedIn profile that will help you attract the right kind of attention including:

• your background header image – this sits behind your profile image and is prime digital real estate that should be leveraged. Use a free tool like Canva to create simple yet eye-popping images that embed text so you can craft a message of your choice here;
• your profile image – I believe that you should invest in a professional photographer every couple of years to take good quality corporate shots which you can use across relevant documents, social media and digital platforms. First impressions count;
• your headline – this is the space below your name, another relevant and well-positioned space that you can leverage. Again, focus on your reader, not yourself. It’s rarely about what you want and far more about addressing the unasked questions the readers will have about you;
• your summary – write in the second person which involves the use of pronouns you and yours. Leave out all the attributes and focus on telling a story – your story.
• your work experience – put the most relevant explanations here, show the reader what you brought to the job. Give them a brief idea of who the organisation is as well.
• Some general rules – avoid these job-hunting mistakes, leave out jargon and acronyms, spell things out because not everyone reading your profile is from your industry or understands the issues in the same way you do. Make an effort to be interesting. Don’t just present a whole stream of information and expect your reader to connect the dots the way you’d like them to – make it easy for them to come to the conclusions you want them to.
• Readers are already looking through your profile – give them every reason to stay, allow them to be attracted to what you have to say. Write at least two to three articles that are hosted as part of your LinkedIn profile. An article published here provides a wonderful opportunity for you to show readers what you know and have done because you can go into more detail and tell a story.

2. Look to your network

LinkedIn is far more than a job hunting platform now – it is a community. You can build a community around you that serves a greater need as well as your own needs.

As an over 50, you already have a fairly extensive network which means your task is to see how you can leverage this existing network to call in favours as well as to explore what’s already out there and available.

Additionally, you should also look to build your network consistently. Network building is simply building an audience around you but this time, it is a purposeful one. It is an audience of people who are relevant, who have an appreciation for who you are and what you have to offer or an audience built around a body of knowledge. Making LinkedIn your platform of choice is good because of its size and the fact that it is a professional network.

But who should you connect to? 

Start with the low-hanging fruit. University and college mates. Look back over all of your past roles and identify peers, bosses, suppliers, partners and clients who you feel are a good fit to reconnect to. They do not necessarily need to be in the same industry or same role but if you believe the relationship is still in a good place then it could be a win for both to re-establish contact. Have a sense of diversity in your network to bring a richness to the discussions.

Identify others who are on a similar path to yours. Take time to categorise your areas of specialization and then, identify thought leaders in the space in which you play. You do not need to connect to all of them. You can also choose to ‘follow’ some of them.

Without a network, your profile does not exist and your work has no audience. Build this network and engage with them.  Start a conversation.

3. Build a body of work

Much like an artist has a portfolio of projects and work he can point to, building a body of work is about capturing the essence of your efforts and ideas in a multitude of repositories. These are tangible representations of your ideas which can be developed as articles, reports, infographics, videos, podcasts or slides.

This is what leaders do when they publish a book. This is what influencers do when they post the things they have created or developed.

It is far more about the act of creation than consumption.

You don’t need to be an artist to do this – that is a limiting belief.

Think of this body of work as your showcase – an opportunity for your work to speak for you 24/7, to show people who you are and what you’re about even before they meet you as well as to help educate, grow and inspire a community around the subject matter expertise you have.

The first piece of content is the hardest. But once you start, you can create a pipeline of content in the areas you specialise in and the areas where you want to get noticed. Here are some ways to generate ideas when you are struggling to write.

So, these are three things you can do right now. I believe these overarching activities create even more supporting activities and so, you have your work cut out. These are the activities I embraced and which generated positive results.  I’d love to hear from you once you’ve started to see how you are faring. Wishing you all the best, David.

Rowena

* I’m not on any affiliate programme or receiving any compensation from anyone for any of the external links shared – it is just what I know and products I have used.

 Mull over the idea that you are capable of significant influence. You can use your talent, leverage your experience and skill-set and put it to good use. You can make the changes you need to see happening within your circles of influence. Feel free to reach out if you're planning to write a book and need a ghostwriter, editor or just help to get started. Connect if you're looking for ways to broaden your network or need help to develop with your LinkedIn profile. You can find out more about me or sign up for my newsletter at rowenamorais.com.

I run Thrive Kuala Lumpur, a meetup for career women, the Kuala Lumpur Human Capital and Talent Professionals meetup and the Canberra HR meetup.