Interested in your personal stories - please share!!
I read an article about the ageism involved with interviewing and job seeking - it was really discouraging to me that age is a factor. Do people feel that age is a large component in the job search? Does anyone have advice for how to dress in order to not be labeled based on wardrobe when you step into the interview or any other tips?
I have applied to jobs that require things that I have met and some and still the main concern was that I was not mature enough. I have employed all the guidelines I have learned in career readiness classes. Including all that Oscar mentioned too. But I would add avoid power colors (red and the deep gold colors) and animal prints as some men would see them as flirty or sexual. Still, it's crazy how i met both experience and education and still, nothing...
Yeah Youtube strong tho
Alyson, my personal opion and from my experiences as a career development specialist and a recruiter. I've always put forward the classic clean sharp look that reflects professionalism and confidence. Selecting a nice pair of top and bottom that is in fashion and in season along with a clean fresh hair cut even if that means tucking away some of the gray (to stay in the game) keeping a positive self-perseverance outlook is the best foot forward and the rest is paying close attention to what is being said in the interview and asking important questions that are reflecting of the position that your interviewing for. This has been my winning combination..! I've just begun career searching after enjoying lots of World travel to Europe and East Asia: China, Nice France, Italy, Rome, Capri, Italy, Sweden and headed to Puerto Rico. Best of Luck!
Oh boy, you are opening a can of worms! LOL
You can look through the posts here about age discrimination, they are bountiful! However, I am sure that within a few days/weeks this thread will be filled with personal stories and a lot of arguments!
I hope you like profanity. :)
You can look at hair color, dress like younger people, use more contemporary terms in interviews, but you can't fake out dates of employment, and dates of education. If I told you I started my first job was in 1980. You would know I was probably around twenty when I started to work. It has been thirty seven years since 1980, add that to twenty, and you would know I am around fifty seven, and you never had to ask my birth date. So you can look and dress more like today, but you can't fake out ageism. However, I have seen some really mean spirited talk by younger people defending their work ethic compared to older people. The reality is it depends on the companies priorities on how they look at experience or youth. What I would caution the younger people is that when you look at this working life as a competition the older group has the advantage. The older group (50's and 60's) knows about the younger people (20's and 30's), but the younger group has no way of knowing who they will compete against, as those people will not have been born for another 20 - 30 years. Add that America will be a much more global country, and competition for work will be crazy. I would not want to be in my 50's or 60's in the 2040' or 2050's, as competition for jobs will be fierce. Good Question...