Be a student again

There are some changes afoot here at Mighty Forces. One of those is a change in focus. Rather than talking about all the problems older people face when job hunting, I want to transition into talking about mindset. Specifically, how adopting a student mindset later in life can transform your job search from a stressful slog to a world of possibilities.

To that end, I’m reprinting my first issue of Mighty Forces, “What my grandmother taught me about ageism.” It fits beautifully into this new focus. Hope you enjoy.

This is my grandmother, Pauline Zoerb Blust Montgomery, AKA Nana.

In the late 70s, she was a travel agent in Flagstaff, Arizona. At that time, the industry was transitioning to computers and away from the giant phonebook-sized flight guides printed once a month.

In the early days, those flight reservation computer systems were owned by the individual airlines themselves. American Airlines’ system was called SABRE. That was the one my grandmother, who grew up in the 20s and 30s, had to learn in order to keep doing her job.

So she went to a week-long “training camp” American set up to teach the travel agents the new system. Her fellow students were mostly half her age (or younger).

Everything points to this being a potential disaster. Up until then, the most complex technology she had used was a pushbutton corded phone. She was in her early 60s, an age when other people might be starting to consider retiring. And what did she have in common with all these young women she was studying with?

She crushed it.

She threw herself wholeheartedly into learning the new system. She was diligent with the homework every night. And she bonded with the other women over their shared status as newbies to the system and their frustrations when something didn’t work. She was open and friendly with everyone she met.

By the end of the training, she was the unofficial leader of the group, and the other young women were her charges, rather than her competitors.

What did I learn from her experience?

• Attitude is everything. She didn’t grumble. She didn’t complain that she was too old. She barreled in and grabbed the challenge by the throat.

• Everyone, at any age, can learn new things. Yes, it’s more challenging, and it can be slower. But motivation matters. And there are resources available to help you learn any technology out there.

• You can always find common ground. Generation gaps are real, but they also can be bridged. Focus on what unites you with younger people, not what sets you apart.

My grandmother was so much more than the sweet old lady pictured above. As proof, here’s my favorite photo of her, playing bingo at the retirement home:

I’m finding a lot of challenges as I navigate the job market in my late 50s. But they are the same sorts of things she faced back then: motivation, technology, relating to younger people. And I get great inspiration from how she took on those challenges and turned them to her advantage.

I love you and miss you, Nana.

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I will be writing more in the future about where this newsletter and my intended book are going. But until then, thanks again for reading and sharing. See you next week.