Your age is a superpower
Learn to take advantage of it.
When Ronald Reagan was running against Walter Mondale for the presidency in 1984, he was faced with criticism that, at 73, he was too old to be President.
Reagan hit back in the second debate with his trademark humor.
“I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience,” he quipped.
In just this one way, we need to be more like Reagan.
If there’s anything I’ve learned writing this newsletter, it’s that job hunting is mostly about attitude. If you’re older and in the job market, it’s time to look at your age as an advantage, not as a handicap.
No one knows how difficult this can be more than I do. I live in a college town, stuffed to the gills with talented 25-year-olds. I’m trying to pivot back to something – writing and editing – that my resume says I haven’t done for a lot of years.
It’s easy to think that my age is weighing me down.
Let’s try to fight that. Here are some concrete ways you can look at your age as a positive:
You have stories to tell.
Now that job interviews are dominated by “tell us about a time when” behavioral questions, you have an advantage, because you have a lot of stories from a varied career.You know a lot of people.
You may not realize it, but you have a much bigger network than those 25-year-olds who are applying for jobs alongside you. This network can be leveraged in a host of different ways.You have emotional intelligence.
You have decades of experience dealing with people and challenging situations. You have gone through the fire and come out the other side. That is a great advantage.You are adaptable.
You have likely had multiple career paths through your life. You’re not fresh out of school looking for a way to apply what you learned in the classroom. You can roll with the punches, because you’ve weathered them for decades.You are stable.
Unlike younger people, you have likely reached a point where stability is both a goal and a reality for you. You’re not going to be job hopping. You know what you want and need in a job.You have deep knowledge.
You have had time to learn your field and develop real insights. The biggest challenge is learning to communicate that to your prospective employers.
As always, I would like to hear from you on this topic. How have you turned your age into an advantage in the job market? I’m sure there are a lot of aspects I haven’t covered here.
In terms of telling stories, don’t forget my “20 Questions To Answer (Before the Interview)” guide. I think it can be a great way to get your storytelling engine revved up.
See you next week.
Right! Let's also stipulate that we don't always
get wiser as we get older, but we do have more perspective. It's like climbing a tall hill; you can see so much further the higher you go.
Here's another benefit of being older and experienced: we can get things done faster and more efficiently. A while back, my husband and I set out to paint three rooms in our house. It took us about a week to do one, at which point we finally called in a professional. He painted two rooms in a day and did a better job that we did. Similarly, in my own work, I find I'm pretty quick at most things these days compared to when I was younger — and with good results.