Searching (and finding) a job at 57

Here’s the very short version: I was fired at 56 and found a new job after a sometimes challenging, funny, and frustrating journey.

If you’re interested, below is the longer version. For the complete story you need to reserve 3 hours and buy me a few beers or you book me as a motivational speaker at your local employment office…

A little bit of context: I was fired about a year ago, at the age of 56. I was put on garden leave the same day and registered with the employment office immediately as is required in Switzerland. One is also required to immediately start looking for a job – not much time to spend in the garden, actually.

So, back on the market, the main question was what kind of job I wanted to apply for. I’m one of those cases that you could call “jack of all trades – expert in none of them”. Except for a master’s degree in linguistics, a couple of certifications in IT, I don’t have too many marketable diplomas hanging on my wall. So, my main asset in the job market was going to be experience. Lots of it in many areas. This main asset, however, turned out to be directly connected with my main liability: age.

I don’t know how many jobs I ended up applying for – but I do know how few positive responses I got: 3 in 9 months. "Positive" in the sense that the company was willing to interview me. We’re not even talking about hiring me. Of course, none of those companies that didn’t want to meet me would ever tell me it was because of my age. And that might have even been true in many cases – but in some cases I was simply a perfect fit for the job based on the description in the ad. Some roles were so specific that there couldn’t have been more than 5 people in the country matching the criteria, let alone be on the job market at the same time as I was. But even then I rarely got a response, any response at all. So, I assumed that it was my age and not the missing qualifications (not least to protect my self-esteem).

But I learned that I had another thing going against me: a company I used to work for. What I once thought was a great reference to have in my CV turned out to be an obstacle for potential future employers. Here’s how I found out: After having been turned down yet again for a role that I thought I was a good match for, I called the hiring manager for feedback. We used to work together at that very company that now was deterring companies from even talking with me. He told me that my CV never even made it past HR (or whatever AI algorithm they were using) and he had to request it from them after I had left a message with him asking for a call. He gave me some good and constructive feedback and said that I wasn’t a great fit for role because I was over-qualified (which also became a phrase I learned to hate). But one thing that he said surprised me (but probably shouldn’t have): employers who read my CV just assumed that they couldn’t meet my salary expectations simply because I had worked for this one company for a long time that is known to pay very well. This, combined with the fact that pension plan contributions of companies increase with the age of an employee, meant that I was too expensive – even though I had never even mentioned my salary expectations in any of my applications (unless the hiring company explicitly asked for it).

So, I was too old, too experienced and too expensive for a job market that – according to numerous articles I had read – was suffering from “Fachkr?ftemangel” (skills shortage). It started to feel like I was stranded on this island called “too old to work, too young to retire”.

Since I couldn’t exactly lie about my age, I had to convey a message that neither was I looking for the biggest salary nor the biggest role of my career. At the same time I didn’t want to come across like I was looking for a few cozy years before retirement. How do I let employers know that I’m done with career-building and money-grabbing and simply looking for an interesting job where I can contribute – without sounding desperate? A perfect catch 22…

At this point I started to wonder why I should even bother. After all, I first needed to make it past some ChatGPT-based machine before I would get the chance to be dismissed by an HR staffer who was instructed to scan CVs for a few specific keywords to then be rejected by a hiring manager who assumed I cost too much without ever talking to me? This whole exercise was becoming quite frustrating.

At some point, though, after about six months of unsuccessfully trying to land an interview, I must have found the right words in my motivational letters – or I simply got lucky. I was invited to interview with three different companies at almost the same time. And in all three cases I made it past the first interview and was asked in for another round or an assessment. If nothing else, this confirmed that once I had cleared the “too old, too experienced, too expensive” hurdle, companies were able to see the benefits of working with someone like me. But none of these companies ended up making me an offer. This time, however, I at least got solid feedback that was relatable and credible. I’m still thankful to all of them to have spent the time and effort.

At this point, my garden was in great shape, all the little projects around the house were completed, and my friends were probably getting tired of all the coffee breaks with me. In the meantime I had turned 57 and was ready to consider not going back to work at all and to officially retire at the earliest opportunity, which in my case is 58, along with quite some financial cut-backs. But it didn’t come to that point.

I always liked working – I was fortunate enough to have had many interesting, challenging and very diverse jobs, in most cases surrounded by inspiring, talented and very smart people. So, retiring was not my favored option – even though I’m not short on ideas for what I’ll do when I do retire, as all my friends will confirm!

The way I did find my current job felt like pure luck at first. But the more I think of it, luck had nothing to do with it. And that’s the reason why I even considered writing about it here (I’m almost done, promise!).

The “lucky” or rather coincidental part of finding my job was that someone asked me to register an internet domain for them. So, I naturally went to the company that hosts my website and where I had registered domains before. On their website they had a job opening for a customer support agent. Not exactly my profile, so I didn’t think much of it. But having been a happy customer for a few years and knowing a little about the company culture, I thought what a cool organisation to work for it would be. So, I simply wrote to them that even though I wasn't formally applying for that job I still would love to have a chat to see if they could use a dinosaur like me in a different role. And we did have that chat, at first with a truly open-minded HR person and then with the owners and leaders of the company.

Initially, they struggled to fit me into their org chart – my profile or potential role simply didn’t exist. But what really made the difference was their willingness and interest to explore the opportunity together. But again, their main concern was that the tasks or projects they were thinking of for me wouldn’t be “big” or challenging enough – yet again, my past jobs seemed to get in my way. It felt almost impossible to convince people that even if you once managed multi-million dollar projects or lead a department you still could happily go back to your roots and enjoy contributing as a "regular" team member.

So, I made a proposal: Hire me as a contractor at first instead of a permanent employee. This way both parties can find out if we’re a match. Turns out that after the stint as a contractor they did find a permanent place for me in their org chart. And I can safely say that I never had a job in my career where I could put so many of my different experiences, talents and interests to work at the same time.

Finally, if there is a lesson or take-away in this story that might apply also to others, then I would say it is this: Only looking at jobs that are publicly advertised, narrowly defined and heavily profiled by random companies may work for most folks. But not for people that belong in my category: presumably over-qualified, too expensive, and too old. The minute I focused on what kind of company I would like to work for rather than who would consider hiring me, things changed completely. And that has to be the mindset for anyone past 50 looking for a job: You are of great value to any company – you just need to let them know you're available, you need to let them know what great asset someone with decades of experience is who at the same time no longer contends for promotions, big salaries, managing teams or becoming the next CEO. Who doesn't ask for expensive training programs, doesn't need micromanagement or lots of coaching. Someone who doesn't complain about tight deadlines or difficult clients - simply because they have been there and done that and survived it. Remind them of all that - then you have good chance of finding a job at 57.