Combating Ageism in The Workplace
As populations in the developed world are growing older and many countries are experiencing a crisis in the pension system, we are facing the prospect of having to work past the usual retirement age. However, many employers do not like employing older staff. If you are looking for a career change over the age of 40, people have reported a negative reaction from employers to this.
There are things that you can do which rely on experience which can only be gained through age which will make you a more attractive candidate during a job hunt.
When writing your CV be sure to target it for the job in question. Think about the skills you have gained throughout life and how these apply to the skills asked for in the job specification. Age and experience go hand in hand so you should come up with enough examples. Don’t worry if you are returning to work after bringing up children as soft skills, such as communication, time management and the ability to meet deadlines are crucial in the workplace today and all of those will be skills you have developed as a parent.
You do not have to put personal details like age, marital status and parenthood on your CV, it is not a legal requirement. You should either leave out your date of birth completely or put it at the end if you really want to include it.
It is unlikely that you will only be happy in one specific industry or job role. So make a list of all the skills you’d like to use or learn at work and what gives you job satisfaction. It may turn out that you will only be really happy if you do more than one job. You could freelance in your original industry for a couple of days a week and then do something totally different the rest of the time. You could teach or run workshops in one of the skills you have developed. This doesn’t have to be work-related, it could be a hobby you’ve been interested in for years, it could be an aspect of parenting or coping with a health issue. You might discover that something you have been doing all of your life makes you an expert and you can teach this.
Doing the things you enjoy and earning money for doing it should be your reward for years of hard work.