If you’re a mature worker, there are a few strategies you can employ to combat age discrimination during your job search.
The most widespread and socially accepted form of prejudice, ageism, is defined by the World Health Organization as “the stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age.” And because of this, we should be determined to explore cultural views on aging and portrayals of aging at the individual, community and national levels.
Ageism Awareness Day provides an opportunity to draw attention to the existence and impact of ageism in our society.
“Aging is not a problem,” says ASA President/CEO Peter Kaldes, “Ageism is.” And because it is part of all of our lives, ASA is determined to explore cultural views on aging and portrayals of aging at the individual, community and national levels. They want to reframe how we talk about aging as the natural process of life, shift representations of aging often portrayed in the media as being a period of decline and promote representation of older adults in the arts as the experienced and unique individuals they are, engaged with the well-being of their families, communities, and the world.
Getting older is generally associated with wisdom and experience. But when it comes to a job search, some employers see age as a disadvantage.
Ageism is illegal in the United States, and workers over the age of 40 are considered protected workers by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, older workers can face high hurdles in the competition for jobs.
For example, a survey by WerkLabs of over 700 working professionals over the age of 40 found that 75% said they had experienced ageism in their job search, citing examples like having to submit age-related information on an application like the year you graduated from college.
Ageism is a reality in today’s job market, and employers may not hire someone older, fearing they’d have one foot out the door to retirement. When companies spend money to bring a new hire on board, they want to believe that person will work there forever—even if objectively, hiring managers know that won’t happen, regardless of how old the candidate is.
If you’re a mature worker, there are a few strategies you can employ to combat age discrimination during your job search.
Be prepared to talk about how much longer you hope to work
Although it’s illegal for interviewers to directly ask how old you are, they can backchannel the question with remarks about how long you plan to keep working. The correct answer is always something like, I enjoy working and feel like I’m still learning, and intend to stay in the workforce as long as I can.
No matter what, express enthusiasm for your work. You need to reinforce the skills and experience you bring to an employer, and the fact that you want to keep using those skills and perhaps mentor younger people to teach them some of the things you know, as well as learning from younger employees.
In the end, people nowadays are healthier and living longer, and many either need to keep working for financial reasons or because they simply like what they do. For a significant number of employees, there’s no interest in not working.
A few things to be thinking about to be prepared as a mature job seeker:
- Make sure you’re up to speed on technology
- Find the right company
- Pay attention to the age of employees when you visit an organization for an interview
Ageism or not, not every employer is going to be a good fit for you. There are companies (that I know of) that won’t hire someone over 40. Please do your research.
You can sniff out possible instances of ageism in the workplace by reading online reviews at sites such as Kununu and Glassdoor, where current and past employees can rate their employers based on a variety of factors, including attitude toward older workers.
Obviously, the kind of job and the responsibilities will be important. If you can find the overlap between companies that are better for more senior workers and positions that match your skill set and passions, that would be the sweet spot.
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Let me give you a few strategies you can use to fight age discrimination during your job search.
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