This Domain For Sale. Contact us for more information.

Alert! An Over-50 Jobseeker Has Just Entered the Building

Interviewing Tips for the Older Job-seeking Population

A red alert is probably melodramatic, but I'm sure jobseekers in this age bracket probably feel there is one. The bulk of the job-seeking population is currently facing job-search woes that the elderly population has been experiencing for years.

In recent years, I've seen that over-50 jobseekers have wised up to the fact that age bias is still existent in America's workforce. Armed with this information, these jobseekers are redesigning their résumés so that obvious red flags are no longer present. Employers are finding it more difficult to "guesstimate" someone's age because these individuals are eliminating older positions, degree dates, and shaving information from the backend of their career; information that generally makes a résumé lengthy and less focused. With a targeted and lean résumé, an over-50 jobseeker is likely to obtain more interviews than with a heavy, all-telling version.

Other factors older jobseekers should consider are personal hygiene, attire, and language skills. A person who takes the time to adequately prepare a résumé should also take enough time to work on personal appearance and traits too.

Certainly I'm not recommending that an individual run out and get thousands of dollars worth of plastic surgery, or spend an insane amount of money on a new wardrobe. I am, however, recommending that you take a good look at your appearance. Ask yourself, could a new hairstyle or an attractive new business suit provide an added edge? Willingness to change your appearance is solely up to you. Keep in mind that you'll likely be interviewed by someone younger, so trimming a mustache, wearing a new pair of shoes or shirt, and using ageless words during the interview, will likely make a substantial difference.

Interviewers will ask loaded questions if he or she wants to determine your age. Watch out for questions, covering age of grandchildren, possible retirement date, or health status. These questions are considered illegal; and although they're not jail-worthy, they will give him or her the ammunition to make a tainted employment selection. Contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), if you suspect a company of being age-biased.

Staying ahead of the technological curve, and representing this in the résumé and during the interview, will allow you to speak to the interviewer using acronyms and jargon that's familiar to that person. A knowledgeable individual, regardless of age, will impress an interviewer and leave a positive impression.

Keep a positive mindset and you'll appear young and lively. An optimistic outlook is not always easy, particularly when you've gone on several interviews that don't result to job offers. Support and golden age groups -- provided by county career centers and sponsored by colleges -- will provide support, a networking forum, and employment contacts that will make your job search flow smoothly.

An over 50 jobseeker can also benefit from the help of a career coach. A coach can help identify and resolve employment concerns, as well as, personal and life issues that may be hindering personal development. Filling a much-needed gap, career coaching is becoming a crucial tool for those seeking to career transition and advance -- even at the youthful age of 50 or more.

About The Author

Written by Teena Rose of Résumé to Referral http://www.resumebycprw.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Careers & Employment Information:

Dissatisfied With Your Job? Stop Putting Your Attention on What You Dont Want!
If I were to ask you the percentage of time you spend thinking about what you don't want, what would it be? And the percentage of time thinking about what you do want?Experience with my clients has shown me that most of us spend a lot more time thinking about what we don't want. Some examples when it comes to our job include:-I hate my commute.

Job Interviews -- The Four Worst Objections You'll Face and How to Deal with Them
Dealing with tough questions and objections is an essential part of job interviews. Here are four common ones that derail many candidates.

Job Interviews: How to Answer the How Do You Handle Stressful Situations? Question
When answering the "How do you handle stressful situations?" question during an interview, the best strategy is to give some examples of stressful situations you've dealt successfully with in the past.Everyone faces some form of stress on the job now and then.

How to Create a Great Electronic Resume
After creating the perfect resume, you then need todistribute it. You'll likely be sending some professionallyprinted hard copies, especially to "A list" companies ororganizations you've set your sights on.

Employment Law: Attendance Rewards - Legal Ramifications
If you were thinking of offering your employees special rewards as incentives for having good attendance records, then you must read on. In fact, employers that offer attendance bonuses may find themselves falling foul of the law.

How to Change Careers and Still Pay the Bills - 5 Key Steps
Studies show that more than 50% of people are unhappy in their jobs yet few will actually make a career change in 2005. Why? Most people let fear stop them yet successful career changers know that fear is simply a sign that you are headed in the right direction!Follow the 5 key steps that successful career changers actually take to overcome their fears and make a sustainable change.

Tips To Survive A Layoff
The following eight tips will help make sure that recover from alayoff sooner than you think.#1 - DON'T PANIC: You may have lost your job but you have not lost everything.

Goal Setting - Road Map To Achieving Your Career Goals
Goal Setting & ResearchYou can only set informed career goals if you acquire plenty of information about the career choices open to you. This will require research which can be conducted online or through a local library.

Why You Only Really Need Four Sample Resumes
Any job seeker looking for sample resumes usually doesn't have to look very far.A multitude of sites today are offering free sample resumes on the internet in addition to the avalanche of books that are released each year touting resume examples.

Whats Stopping You from Getting Your Next, Good Job?
This question comes up often when I'm working with someone to help them move forward in finding their next job.What is it that compels people to stay "stuck"?1.

Resume Writing - Get That Job
Looking for a new job, whether it is with a new company or a promotion within your own organisation, requires time and effort. To make your job search more effective you need to take five fundamental steps on the road to success:

How to Manage Your Career Like a Business
Look upon yourself as a company with a product or service to sell. Understand your market and devise a dynamic marketing campaign, remembering that companies hire employees who offer them the best results and the best value for money.

Resumes That Work: 3 Steps to More and Better Interviews
All of us involved with helping you get a new job, whether as third party recruiters or as representatives of a company, are evaluating you for employment are all receiving hundreds of emailed resumes a day. Having done professional search work for more than thirty years, I have seen both resumes change and how they are delivered change.

The Big Mo : Momentum and the Hiring Process
Momentum as defined by Webster's is: strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events. For our purposes, the interview process is a "development of events".

Stacking The Deck In Your Favor
Many people do not bother to look at their own magnificence and without that view it is not likely that we will recognize the need for strategies to maximize our strengths. When we buy an outfit for a special affair, we automatically try to coordinate each piece so that they enhance one another and amplify our sense of "looking good" from head to toe.

Factual Employment Screening Part 2
An Employment Screening OutlinePolicy DevelopmentA policy of Factual Employment Screening; Personality Evaluation/testing; and/or Drug Testing should be developed and embedded into the core policy manual rather than exist as a supplement or bulletin policy. This avoids any "after the fact" ramifications, should the policy be challenged under discriminatory theories.

The Not-So-Effective Cover Letter
Here's a newsflash: Cover letters work, plain and simple. This is why I'm intrigued by the fact that a) jobseekers rarely submit them and b) hiring managers seldom read them.

Hiring the OverQualified Employee or Mining for Gold
I am having a hard time understanding why a valuable resource such as the "over qualified employee is having such a hard time getting a job. Something seems to be out of whack here.

What Can I Do To Improve My Job-Interviewing Skills?
Whether you're a student job seeker or a polished and proven executive, the first thing you must come to terms with is, "Regardless of the position you seek, you are now in sales!" The product you are selling is YOU! The interview is your opportunity to differentiate yourself in the eyes of your customer [the interviewer] when compared to your competitors [other job applicants].Successful companies today are focused on building what's known as, corporate "Unique Value-Add Propositions.

Interview Preparation Made Easy: Create An Interview Preparation List
Here's a quick way to compare your own job experience and qualifications with those that your prospective employer is looking for in a specific job position. Make an "Interview Preparation List".