Finding Work After 50

Age is just a number, until it comes to finding a job.

Losing your job or changing careers later in life can be both terrifying and exciting. There are so many questions; Should I look for work in the same field or should I try something new? Are my tech skills adequate for today’s labour market? Will an employer hire someone like me who’s getting close to retirement age?

Keeping your cool and using some new strategies can make the experience fun and rewarding. You can get the foot in the door by making a few simple tweaks to your resume and modernizing your approach to job search.

Update your email address

If your email is one of the older domains from the 00’s like Yahoo or MSN, consider updating to Gmail or if you have a website, consider using an email address connected to your domain.

Remove years and stale info from your resume

If you graduated high school in ‘82 or college in ’89 you are giving away your age before prospective employers even get a chance to meet you. If you have post secondary education, remove the high school completely. If you only have high school, leave the info but remove the graduating year.

Remove any certificates or micro qualifications that are expired or more than 10 years old. If you are 52 years and your resume still has a babysitting certificate from when you were 15, remove it. Instead focus on courses or certificates that show you have been learning new skills. In fact, during your job search is a great time to update Foodsafe, Serving it Right, First Aid or other certificates that may have expired.

Make sure you exist online

If you haven’t already done it, create a profile somewhere on social media; Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or another platform and start creating a presence for yourself. If you already have an established profile, find a way to mention that in your resume or cover letter. If you admin community Facebook pages, or have a website or are active on Twitter, make sure to mention this too.

Don’t overlook references to webinars, resources, courses or training that you have accessed on the internet. If you did labour market research about the field you are entering, try to slide that into your cover letter or mention it in your interview. Doing so can be a good reflection of your technical skills and your ability to stay current. Employers are generally looking for people who know their way around the internet and social media.

Clean up your act

Employers will Google you and check out your Facebook profile. Remove any pictures and content from social media that reflect you in a unprofessional way This is also a fresh way to promote yourself in ways that a resume can’t. Your political views or comments on social issues can tip the scales in your favour if an employer likes what they see, and vice versa. This is also a good way to sneak in some indicators that you are active and healthy, by posting pics or posts talking about being active or engaged with your community.

Market your value

As soon as you walk into an interview the employer is going to recognize you as an older applicant. While age discrimination is illegal, employers will still sometimes dismiss older people due to prejudice and misconceptions about skill levels and health. Employers may have concerns about older workers’ ability to work long hours, or perform more labour-intensive tasks or their ability to gel with a young team.

Being aware of these potential concerns and turning them into a plus can really disarm a reluctant interviewer.  Think about how your maturity can be marketed. During your work life, you have undoubtedly developed a strong work ethic, reliability, the ability to prioritize tasks and manage your time. Yes, young workers might be adventurous, energetic and ambitious but many mature workers have transferrable skills they have gained through raising a family that those younger workers may not have developed yet; diplomacy, crisis management, team leadership, conflict intervention, budgeting. Consider also that now that you probably no longer have kids at home, your time is much more flexible than a young parent’s, your availability to work shifts or be on call could be very attractive to an employer.

Job search after 50 doesn’t have to be frightening and if you take into account the value of your experience and the wisdom you’ve gained along the way you should be able to find a perfect fit in no time.