Let the hiring age-bias continue -- Happy Birthday McCrabbyDear McCrabby,
I saw on your LinkedIn profile that today is your birthday; congratulations -- make it a great day.
I'm still looking for work, and have been for 19 months, and it seems to be getting tougher for someone my age (58). But, I've read the comments here and I'm keeping hope alive.
Hoping in Howell
__________________________________
Dear Howell Hoper:
Yep today is the day, and it's a big one. McCrabby turns 60 today. It seems like a good time to tell hiring managers why they shouldn't hire anyone over 40. Let me see.... Ah, here are the reasons:
- Someone McCrabby's age can't sleep; almost every day we're up at 6 (today it was 4:30 to write this post) and we're working at our home-office by 7 or 7:30; does your 35-year old hit those hours?
- We're looking for that one good company to go work 8-10 more years, and we know that's not long, but McCrabby knows a 32-year old that's on his fourth company in the past five years, and he's spent most of his working time trying to get to the next company -- McCrabby has liked the four companies he's worked at in the last 33 years; hmmmmm, let's consider that a moment. Loyalty and commitment seem like two things a hiring manager might want to consider.
McCrabby aches a little when he gets up (at 6:00), and he doesn't play golf (too boring. and it takes too long), but he does go to the gym four nights a week, and either works out or plays racquetball (and, by the way, he beat two 32-year olds two nights ago in a cutthroat racquetball game-- how embarrassing must that be for those guys??)- McCrabby started managing staff in his early-30s, too -- working for IBM on Madison Ave., in New York City. He's managed support staff, sales staff, marketing pros, and administrative groups for more than 25 years -- maybe he still remembers a thing or two, or could even mentor a younger manager going through that type of career growth -- or maybe he's forgotten it all.
- McCrabby has 18 years of entrepreneurial experience, and no one should want that; after all, entrepreneurs can't get along with anyone, can they? They simply ran every aspect of their company, handled profit and loss, created all vendor and supplier alliances, managed every department, hired/fired, and shoveled the snow before any of the 30-year-olds showed up for work, thinking "I wonder who shoveled the sidewalk." No, they really didn't think that, because it just automatically got done.
- McCrabby doesn't worry about how much vacation time he gets, because in the past 15 years he's taken about six or eight weeks off... TOTAL-- that's what entrepreneurs do; they like to work and they do what it takes to get the job done; how's that working for you, Mr. Hiring Manager, with your staff of 25-year olds?
- Yep, McCrabby is 60 today, which is pretty amazing when you consider that he just turned 40 last year; the time has flown by, but McCrabby still feels 40 and he thinks he can keep up with the 40-year-olds, even though you, Mr. Hiring Manager, know he can't..
- 60-year-olds should probably just get out of the way and let the Gen-Xers take over, don't you think Mr. Hiring Manager? Well, this boomer has lost a lot of his retirement money in the past four years, still loves to work, and intends to do so, in some form, for quite some time. Maybe he's worth a look.
So Howell Hoper and everyone else searching for work, whatever your age, here's hoping you're finding opportunity out there in the workplace. And, here are a few related posts, in case you missed some of these in the past few weeks:
- On February 18, we added The Hiring Manager had a brain fart
- On March 10, we got an HR response
Maybe they'd like to do an interview on the racquetball court. OK, we admit that we were probably a better racquetball player 20 years ago, at least physically, but we're a much smarter and more efficient racquetball player now. Maybe McCrabby's next interview ought to be on the court.
Good luck to you in your job search.
NOTE: Wanna connect??
See all contact info HERE
