How many of your coworkers, friends or family have postponed retirement plans because of demolished 401K or Individual Retirement Accounts? My parents’ 401K accounts – like most people’s – lost half of their value over the last few years. It’s doubtful the accounts will recoup those losses by the time my parents planned on retiring. One of my coworkers didn’t know that the age to qualify for full Social Security benefits now depends on the year of your birth. Government has progressively adjusted qualifying ages for the benefits to compensate for longer life spans and to keep the fund solvent (see info on the Social Security website).
Exchanging Retirement Plans for a Job Hunt
Companies – even the U.S. Postal Service – are pressuring senior employees to take less-than-adequate retirement packages to free up payroll and slash expenses. Many that expected to retire in the near future must perform retirement planning triage. Part of those emergency procedures include brushing up an archived resume and learning how to do online job searches.
These circumstances require senior employees to enter competition with younger potential employees for a limited number of open positions. Companies sometimes see younger employees as having more flexibility in work or travel requirements, having more technical savvy, and able/willing to work for less money than more experienced employees. Age discrimination is illegal, but it’s easy for recruiters to stealthily pass up more senior candidates in favor of some small line item of skill or ability listed on a younger applicant’s resume.
Competitive with a Younger Workforce
You’ll need to somehow communicate your work flexibility especially in comparison to younger workers, but in other respects generational advantages seem more balanced. From recent observation (I work in a large corporation’s HR department), I can say that companies are careful in these economic circumstances to hire more experienced, proven workers to mitigate risk. Companies are even willing to pay the higher salaries senior workers typically expect since they have demonstrable proof of their abilities. Don’t think that your higher salary expectations sacrifice competitiveness with a younger workforce.
Closing the Technology Gap
The technically-savvy divide between younger and more senior workers is one that you can bridge with some optimism and persistence. Here are some worthwhile things you can learn to stay conversant in ever-emerging technologies:
- Learn how to use Internet search engines effectively. These free tools offer a portal to learn just about anything. They’ll also help find job postings in your area, advice on job hunting or resumes and much more. Here’s a great resource to start learning how to use Google more effectively: googleguide.com
- Learn some of the new technical jargon. Especially in business settings, technical terms and acronyms pepper every conversation. Consumer Reports has a great online glossary of technical and computer terms which provides a great starting point.
- Learn about social media. These Internet applications aren’t just about socializing with other people. They’re finding their way into more and more business applications for productivity and collaboration. For starters, you’ll want to set up a profile on LinkedIn.
- Learn to create and regularly update your own weblog (blog). There are free services available at blogger.com and wordpress.com. These online tools have become a standard for web communication and even serve as online portfolios to secure new jobs or clients.
Learning the things mentioned above will give you an effective edge over other job competitors when combined with your proven experience.
