Intrepid Miami journalist

Introduction: You'd have to be literally living under a rock, in a cave or otherwise completely off the grid to not realize the subject of age, and what constitutes too old for respectable job performance, has been the hottest of summer hot topics.

Of course, this seemingly endless national conversation has focused on President Joe Biden looking and sounding every bit his 81 years, during a June 27 live presidential debate against his 2024 challenger Donald Trump, 78.

While Biden's running for reelection in November to remain the leader of the free world -- arguably the most important occupation on the globe -- many workers eventually face the same age-old question of are you still sharp enough to handle your management job, or another job, or any job?

Lifelong learning, key equalizer: In today's hypercompetitive world of business and commerce, it might come as a surprise to some of you that employers can be as enthused, or perhaps more, about candidates with a college degree and 5 years of experience, as those with the degree and 15 or more hard-earned years of professional work. Furthermore, plenty of lesser-experienced candidates who demonstrate the determination to continue learning and getting better are landing stellar job offers over their older rivals.

As you might know, I'm a free agent and in what I'll call the seasoned category of professionals seeking to start my next career chapter, after leaving the Miami Herald as business editor almost nine months ago. I've been documenting my journey here on LinkedIn and on Substack , aiming to pay it forward and help anyone searching for another position with some career management takeaways.

If you're in the second half of your career, there's no reason to be alarmed because like me you've got a lot left in the tank to accomplish in the workplace. However, to stay competitive in most industries, job seekers 45 and older need to improve how they market themselves on resumes and during job interviews with hiring managers, so their age doesn't become a liability or deterrent.

They have the added challenge of enticing companies to want to pay for their wisdom, knowledge and general know-how. Not only are they more expensive to hire, they often come with baked-in approaches to work and greater risk of health issues, among other things, that can be disadvantages or perceived that way.

Focusing on your value: Most workers in the 45-and-older age bracket have been taught or encouraged to tout their work experiences and key professional responsibilities, when they seek a new position. To be sure, these two things matter. However, the older and more experienced a person becomes, hiring managers want to be convinced how and why this candidate stands out, what makes he or she worth more and, therefore, the better hire than younger highly qualified applicants. That means you must explain succinctly the performance results for colleagues and customers that you and your team achieved and what particular contributions you made.

Primed for growth: I'm going to zero in on two things older workers, and really workers at any level, should put front and center when it comes to career management, in particular when vying for the next highly competitive post on their career paths. They are impact, meaning what value and/or results you've achieved and/or led a team to attain, and a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.

It's always a good time to give your resume another update and upgrade, looking to trim some of the secondary experiences and responsibilities and replace them with projects and your major accomplishments that really moved the needle for your employers.

Now some of you might be thinking, I'd rather not take the time to rewrite a lot of my resume. Rather I'll articulate my high impact in interviews with hiring managers. You can take that chance, of course, just realize in this ultracompetitive labor market your resume replete with responsibilities could preclude you from getting many interviews -- or even getting beyond the AI screening more and more companies use to make the first big cut to the resume pile.

High-impact career story: When you earn interviews, be ready to talk about pertinent examples in which you can break down ideas you had that led to actions you and colleagues took that resulted in delivering excellent, tangible results for customers and investors. This career storytelling approach enables you to highlight your impact on organizations.

Taking it a step further to make you even more impressive, you can weave into your narrative to a hiring manager how you can make an impact to a company through the particular position for which you are interviewing and seeking a job offer.

Having a growth mindset is the key soft skill today career management experts cite that can mean the difference between scoring offers for the most coveted jobs you're seeking -- and losing out to somebody else who can be your junior, but likely has and demonstrates a growth mindset.

Taking smart risks: Simply put, this mindset means you are committed to continuous learning and development in your career to sharpen your talents and performance. You set challenging professional goals for yourself, are willing to take smart risks to reach them and welcome coaching and feedback from managers.

No matter from which institution of higher learning you've earned a bachelor's or master's degree, or perhaps a doctorate, hiring managers often will be persuaded to hire people who express and show they prioritize consistently keeping pace with the latest intelligence and technology in their fields and a willingness to take risks to learn new experiences and acquire additional knowledge.

Aptitude for advancement: One of the reasons companies prize people focused on consistent incremental growth is hiring managers think they have the aptitude to adapt and develop, then be ready to take advancing positions with greater responsibilities within organizations.

There are many ways workers can put their penchant for growth and accepting change on display. These include: volunteering to be trained in house to handle additional key tasks; mentoring a colleague; accepting a job transfer within a company to another state or country; engaging in continuous outside education to learn new methods and approaches to gain a competitive edge; consistently reading and networking to stay abreast of breakthroughs and pivotal advances/changes in your industry; and expressing in writing or verbally key information to help your colleagues improve and for you to show your high value.

Today, what usually matters most in any career is what can you bring to the table to enhance the corporate brand and grow the financial balance sheet? Your accomplishments, targeted job experience and awards noted on your resume will get you interviews with hiring managers. But you have to be able to look forward and articulate in the interviews the key high-impact differentiators you have that will convince hiring managers of your future value.

Vacation on my agenda: My immediate future will consist of time away from the home office next week for vacation fun and adventure. Kathy and I are going north to eastern North Carolina to chill along the Bath Creek and Pamlico River in the state's oldest town, Bath.

Won't have time to write a dispatch from Bath, although I'll have my laptop to occasionally check email. I'll be too busy swimming, kayaking, drinking craft beer, enjoying conversations and precious time with my daughter Laney and her husband Dave ... and the most exciting part: playing with, keeping up with and otherwise spoiling my beautiful twin granddaughters Daphne and Diana, nearly 16 months old.

Look for me again the week of July 22. By then, we'll see if the fixation on age and trying to beat Father Time has been overtaken by something else in the news cycle.

Thank you for reading. Hope you'll continue this journey with me to my next career destination. Please feel free to connect on LinkedIn or on Substack , or at [email protected] to offer your thoughts, suggestions and job leads.