Thanks so much for all of the feedback in response to our post from a few weeks ago, Use Your Age to Your Advantage.
Many of your comments had to do with age discrimination, lack of jobs for older workers and dealing with the “overqualified label.” At first, I thought, this is crazy — it’s hard for EVERYONE to find work, not just baby boomers.
Then I saw this statistic: According to the AARP, on average, laid off workers age 55 and over are now unemployed for 25.2 weeks versus 20.6 weeks for younger workers. Employers often worry about older workers learning new skills, their salaries and how long they’ll stay on the job.
It’s unfortunate and unfair that employers make assumptions about employees based on their age or experience. Unfortunately, such is the case and we can’t change it. You can only control your own actions and not the actions of others, so keep doing what your doing and keep faith that it will pay off soon.
In the meantime, here is an article about dealing with the overqualifed label.
May 6th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I have kept the faith now for 15 months. I did here a few times that I was over qualified but mostly I don’t even get a responce at all. I am 52 years old and I don’t have a criminal background to speak of. However, I did get hurt on my last job and had to file a workers comp. claim. Do you think that this is why I am not getting any where in my job search?
June 24th, 2009 at 8:32 am
I am 63 years old and was laid off in August of ’08. I have been doing technical work for over 20 years and now when I am looking for work, everyone wants a degree. I learned my craft on the job and have always been told that I have excellent skills. But, how can I compare favorably with the younger workers who have a degree, but don’t have any experience? I guess I somehow got dumbed down because of a lack of a degree.
June 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Same here, Mary B. I was “separated” two years ago after 30 years (two days before my 59th birthday [hmmmmmm]). I learned everything “in the trenches” (no degree). Unemployment ran out long ago, I’m living on what little I managed to save for retirement (and it’s dwindling fast!), and when I see a BACHELOR’S degree required for an Admin. Assistant (we used to call them Secretaries!), I could just SCREAM!
June 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Many of us boomers worked in technical and professional jobs in industries with little or no college degrees. That’s when compamnies actually trained people for/in their jobs.
Many of Those jobs/ companies/ industries have collapsed or disappeared to offshore sourcing and we find the current emloyers require a degree’s for entry level positions.
So we aren’t qualified for the jobs we were trained in as young adults and aren’t qualified for management jobs we recently were downsized out of?
Age Discrimination?
HMMM, with less than 27% of all working age people having a college degree where are all these “qualified people” coming from?
Immigration, work Visas??
It’s also weird that as hard as we worked to make sure our kids got better education and better futures than we did, many are out of school with their bachelors AND out of work. They say they now need a Masters or Phd?
I think the employers are making a serious mistake by not using the senior skills that are out there to help them succeed but it seems that’s the way it is for us in the over 50 crowd. Yet our politicians want to raise the retirement age?
A confusing world we live in and it gets tougher every day.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I am a 30 year veteran of being a hairstylist, the only other skills that I have was 30 years ago. I had alot of clerical knowledge, but I started applying for all types of Customer Service jobs, they required clerical and being able to attent to customers. I recieved several responses only because I wanted part-time positions. But, as a hairdresser in another state, my license is not valid, so I must take the test again, after 30 years, go figure, here I go again studying like a teenager. Wish me luck…
June 25th, 2009 at 9:20 am
I echo many of the thoughts that Jerry expressed. I have worked in IT
for over 25 years with a bachelors
degree plus a couple of Technical school programs. I have worked as a
Programmer with what the field calls
the legacy languages and have experienced 2 layoffs in last 18 months(from initially a permanent position as the downturn started and later a contract position as downturn
accelerated at the end of last year).
At nearly 55 years old, I am now back
in school yet again learning the newest and most popular software. I am
just hoping that when I get out of school, the economy will have started to turn around and that somebody will
give me a new opportunity.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I’m 47 with over 25 yrs experiance in almost every form of carpentry, very little managment work, always put on my tool belt instead. I’ve been called over qualified too many times. unemployment ran out this week, so i decited to start a handyman service which includes lawn service also (too bad its the dryest yr in south texas since 1925) but looking for a good company thats willing to give an old dog a chance.