"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Mark Twain spoke precisely when he made this statement. So, why is it so many companies believe that they can hire someone who has never walked in the stream, and expect them to know if the bottom is muddy or stony?
But, in my years in both nuclear power and IT, that is what I see. If a man of 60 submits his resume for a position that a man of 30 has also applied for, and considering both their resumes to be equivalent - except of course for the experience that the oldster brings to the table, you can pretty much be sure, the youngster will get the first interview.
But, you say, the "Age Discrimination Act of 1975" prohibits this very thing. To which I say, bullshit. There are all sorts of laws out there that are ignored, bypassed, or just plain not cared about in the big ole world of business. And you can bet the bank, Age Discrimination is NOT on every HR rep or hiring managers lips.
So, how does an HR rep or hiring manager get around actually asking a potential employee how old they are? By asking some other simple questions, e.g., "High School attended: Graduate; yes or no; Year graduated?" or "University or College attended - and the same thing. "Year graduated?"
It does not take a rocket scientist at this point to determine, "graduated college, 1969, probably at age of 24 so this person has to be around 62!" And if, as they usually are, the HR rep or hiring manager is less than 40, then this person is about equivalent to a dinosaur.
With this said, I offer this: "The years teach much which the days never knew." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson. Not just in a specific field of endeavor, but in the real world. I am at that wonderful age where I don't quite qualify for Social Security or Medicare, but I remember when Medicare did not exist. I also remember when the light dimmer on a car was a button on the floor; records were made of vinyl and at one point turned at 78 RPM; McDonald's was still in the distant future, and if you wanted a good hamburger, you went to Beulah's or Strazi's; dances were held in the gym and you took your shoes off at the door (which would not work today, because other kids would steal the newest $300 tennis shoes and leave their outdated, last week $290 tennis shoes); coke came in bottles; gas costs $0.22 a gallon; you had to go to the Paramount theater and pay a quarter to see a John Wayne movie; and men had not walked on the moon.
My kids grew up in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. They know CDs, DVDs, home theater systems where they can ask who John Wayne is; there is a Mickey D's every 5 miles on the interstate system; gas costs more then $3.00 a gallon depending on what faction in the middle-east is kicking what other factions ass; a movie costs $7.00 and that's for the matinee, and don't even think about asking what a box of popcorn, which costs about $0.07 to make costs. Coke can be drank or snorted and comes in cans or plastic bottles, is calorie free, caffeine free, or contains extra caffeine. Kids can now go to school on-line, never attend a classroom, which means they have never met up with the school bully by the swings, ate a lunch with the lunch lady putting spaghetti and collard greens on your plate, had to drink white milk only, or have "that girl" pass you a note asking if you want to be "friends".
Today, there are four times more people between the ages of 30-40 than there are between 60-80. But hiring of these age brackets are more than 20 times more likely to occur for the 30-40 bunch.
I start my resume and my cover letters with a simple statement: "I am a seasoned, experienced project management professional offering more than 17 years of project and program management experience." I probably shoot myself in the foot right off the bat.
But, if the HR rep or hiring manager takes a minute to read my resume, they will see I have been a project manager in the nuclear power venue, environmental remediation world, and now the computer software development and hardware (infrastructure) environment.
I guess I am lucky in one way. After a long dry spell of no work, I am finally going back to work for Bank of America. And do you know how this happened?
I applied for the position, was interviewed 3 times, and was accepted BECAUSE I had the exoerience the hiring manager was looking for.
I leave this blog with just a couple of thoughts. One - do you prefer to drink a nicely aged red wine or Beaujolais Nouveau or eat a nicely aged cheddar over farm cheese; two - ever try to start a fire with green wood? Old wood burns cleanly and provides a nice heat; three - "We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us." ~Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu.
All said, where would you put your money?
Next blog - starting the new job - did they make the right decision? Did I?
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