The recession might be over, but for most people the search for the right job is still on. The recession indeed affected many lives and one of its most apparent effects was the way senior people found themselves out of a job. Most however have not resigned themselves to their fates and immediately got onto the job search bandwagon. It’s not strange however that most of these people have not been successful in landing the kind of job they want. Why is this so? What mistakes are these people making and how can they be avoided?
- Outdated resumes – Despite the fact that most senior executives prepare new resumes when searching for a job, most of them tend to make some basic mistakes in them. As you’re probably older than even the interviewers, try not to highlight that aspect in your resume as it can work against you. So, don’t mention dates of graduation or even experience that goes beyond 12 years. Even when mentioning different jobs, try to avoid specific dates and just mention the number of years you’ve worked at a particular organization.
- Poor tech skills – As you’re probably aware, unless you have a basic level of ease with technology, you’re redundant in the workplace. So brush up your tech skills by opting for some courses and making sure that you make this apparent when searching for a job.
- Little or no research – Before you set out on a job hunt, you need to know exactly what you want to do. Most interviewers might consider you to be past your prime but that doesn’t have to be true, especially if you know what you want in life. Also, since you’ve gone past the age when you weren’t sure of what you wanted to do, this is the ideal time to look up the organization and see whether it meets your requirements and whether you can be an asset there.
- Taking experience for granted – Most seniors feel that their experience is like a feather on their cap, perfectly capable of taking them where others cannot go. However, this is not how things pan out in today’s job market. Experience is valued but not revered. Interviewers are looking for committed people who can promise to add value to the organization and not merely rest on past laurels.
- Confidence, over or under – Whether you’re over confident or under confident, it’s a situation that is guaranteed to make things worse for you. Over confidence sometimes stems from the feeling that since you’re so much older, you’ve seen a lot more of the world and the opposite is a result of the many changes that have occurred in the job world globally. Most senior executives feel they’re not equipped to handle these changes.
- Patronizing attitude – This could actually be the final nail in the coffin. It’s highly likely that you are much older than the person who is interviewing you. While you shouldn’t exactly get cowed down because of that fact, you shouldn’t behave in the opposite manner either by adopting a patronizing attitude towards your hiring managers just because they’re younger than you.
It might be a tough world out there, especially for people who’ve already been there and done that, but with the right kind of attitude and reasoning, you can still make a place for yourself in the job scene today.
