Confronting Aging and Work-Related Issues

Asked to leave or fired: it really doesn’t matter what you call it. Come Monday morning, and there’s no place to go to work. Many people face that predicament, and the first thing that comes to their mind—for some at least—is that the culprit is their age. A new and younger generation is pushing them out the door.

True or false, whichever the case may be, there are indeed a few facts behind the notion: Some longer-tenured folks exhibit less energy, lose the ability to learn, and lack the agility to deal with new technology. They resist change, relying more and more on others rather than being hands-on. Their relationship with the current, younger boss might not be what it was in past with the previous boss. And less and less are they being asked to participate and contribute in teams. In many cases, their physical appearance, clothing, and eyeglasses might be pointing to their age as continuous reminders. You as a reader know precisely whom I’m describing. And if you happen to be inching toward becoming this type of hypothetical individual, I suggest you take action now! So, what to do?

First, never give up. Keep your eyes open for other opportunities. In days gone by, working for the same company for a long time was viewed favorably. Nowadays, employers are looking for people experienced in a number of industries and who have wide varieties of experience. Keep in shape physically and mentally. Replace your wardrobe if that’s what it might take. Include physical fitness in your daily routine. And read a lot on a variety of subjects; you want people to admire you for your knowledge and expertise. Plus, nowadays there are opportunities everywhere to take a variety of free classes for enriching your knowledge of new technologies, software, and the like.

While in transition, you should volunteer not only to get out of the house but also to mingle with people, demonstrate your flexibility, and show you’re still capable of making quick decisions. Never talk about retirement. Don’t give people the idea that retirement is something you’re thinking about. Whenever you can, demonstrate your problem-solving ability; employers are always looking for problem solvers. If you have noncorporate experience in leadership, you should surface that in your communications and interactions with others.

People more advanced in age have at least two advantages over younger people: their very age and their professional experience. Make those into differentiators and turn them into assets.

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Does anybody know her?

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What the Interviewer Wants to Know about You

Interviewers have a specific function to perform. They need to go through a selection process that identifies which one of the candidates called in for interviewing is the best one. But what does best mean in this context? What are the criteria involved in making this complex evaluation? After all, people are complex too, and decoding and interpreting all the input and evaluating it through interviewers’ own prejudices and biases make this task even more compound. So, here are several general needs the interviewer is trying to satisfy via the job interview process.

·         Basics: By means of basic types of questions an interviewer wants to ensure that you have the minimum standard for using sound judgment and that you have key skills being looked for. A typical question might be, What can you tell me about yourself?

·         Broad-brush issues: Here you’re being tested for self-awareness, character, integrity, honesty, and values. In other words, you’re being tested for your fit into what the interviewer deems normal, such as via your appearance, attire, demeanor, rapport building, attitude, and behavior? A sample question might be, What are your strengths or weaknesses?

·         The next area the interviewer will want to explore is whether you have talent. That means innate ability, aptitude, flair, and capacity for achievement. A question for testing this particular trait might be, Do you see yourself as a winner? Do others?

·         The interviewer may want to test your competence by evaluating how you think and perform, the quality of your answers versus those of other applicants, and whether you exhibit growth potential. A typical question might be, What was the best decision you’ve made?

·         The interviewer might ask about your accomplishments. This isn’t a question about what you did but what you achieved. And it’s asked in order to determine whether you have a desire to plan, execute, and win; whether you have potential for significant results; and whether you have the ability to overcome challenges. Such a question might be, What would you do in the first 90 days after hire?

·         It is known that for the hiring manager, one of the most important factors is the determination of whether you’d fit into that manager’s department and the organization. That means would you adapt to the company culture, would you integrate and assimilate into a certain management style, would you be a good team member, and what your personal work style is. The hiring manager might ask a question such as, What is your management style? Or what do you know about our company?

·         And last, the interviewer wants to evaluate whether you’re an enthusiastic person? That means can you show authentic excitement about the opportunity? Do you have a fire in your belly? Do you have the passion of a winner and the ability to energize the team? A typical question might be, Why are you interested in this job?

As you can see, a job interview is identical to any competition. In this case, the person who’s best prepared to answer such questions is going to end up being the best candidate and the one who crosses the finish line first. Congratulations!

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No MBA? No Problem

Once upon a time, a high school diploma was enough to get a good executive job. Today, the quality of the MBA degree itself has become determinative. Current expectation is that a high-level manager demonstrate strong technical skills, mastery of soft skills, and extensive abilities to manage, influence, interface with, and negotiate with a wide variety of people both within and outside the company as well as—at the same time—manage a personal career. Today’s MBA programs teach things that cannot commonly be mastered on the job, such as statistics, finance, marketing, and managerial economics.

One way of differentiating between the various types of MBAs is by the kinds of programs they offer. There’s the executive MBA, or EMBA, program, which accepts experienced and accomplished managers as students. There are the top-tier MBA programs, such as those offered by Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, and the Wharton School. And there are the rest, which is not to say that some of them are not offering excellent programs, but they’re simply not considered among the well-recognized top-tier ones.

So, from the employer’s point of view, how important is an MBA? The answer is, it depends. A client of mine in the late 20s and a recent Wharton MBA graduate in marketing was offered a starting annual salary of $145,000. In that case, the hiring company considered this individual a high-potential candidate—if for nothing else but just judging by that starting salary. Other clients of mine—also top-tier MBAs with several years of experience—are struggling to find jobs. The MBA degree is more important (1) soon after graduation and (2) when the individual is seeking promotion or different employment with a current employer. Later on, what becomes important is the significance of the person’s accomplishments.

Certainly, an MBA is a positive discriminator, but those considering enrolling in an MBA program should clearly understand what it takes. Consideration should be given to reputations of school and professors, school location and size, school mission, program length, class sizes, student-faculty ratio, and, ultimately, the school’s graduates’ levels of success in terms of getting jobs both upon graduation and afterward.

Note that an MBA can also be considered a liability: First of all, by having an MBA, one automatically belongs to a different class of employees. Next, fewer jobs are available when an MBA is a prerequisite. And the impression in the eyes of employers is that job applicants with MBAs require higher pay. Despite all of those potential negatives, though, I recommend getting an advanced degree if at all possible. More often than not, it will ultimately pay handsome dividends.

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You Would Expect Executives to Know

In America, people are generally very busy—especially higher-ups—and many of them are good at what they’re doing. You might expect they’d continue being good at it even after losing their jobs—that is, in terms of finding the next assignment. But as a career coach who deals with them daily, I find that my expectations are by far not met. Many of the job seekers I coach remind me of the overused expression “deer in the headlights.” They seem to be caught off guard and can’t or don’t know how to take the next step. This despite the fact that while working, they were making ongoing major decisions all the time. It is just amazing!

Many of them react (mistakenly) to their intuition. They’re not taking into consideration, though, that the business world has changed significantly and that the competition for openings is unprecedented. Many start out with old-style résumés, and it takes them weeks if not months to realize that such résumés no longer work to get them hired the way they did in the past. Today, only outstanding résumés are generating employers’ reactions. The business connections today’s job seekers used to feel good about have fizzled out because those job seekers are no longer decision makers, and the authority and power they once wielded have disappeared with the loss of their jobs.

The American job market is changing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in America, 120 million employees work for 8 million employers. Lots of jobs, right? Well, 60% of all of those employers have fewer than 10 employees each. But new jobs are being created all the time: 32% are new ones, and 68% are replacement jobs for employees who died, moved, got promoted, or retired. Approximately 40% of job openings are filled by selecting from internal candidates. On top of all that, some jobs just plain fade away, while others are being newly created. Technological innovations change job demands; and skills that were very useful in the past have migrated to different sets of skills, yet people are not prepared for the situation.

For example, in the future there will be great demand for management analysts and medical secretaries, while file clerk and payroll clerk jobs will diminish in demand. In the fields of science and engineering, we will see decreased demand for mechanical and electrical engineers, while the need for network system administrators and network system analysts will grow rapidly. All of those changes will require retooling not only of employees’ and job seekers’ skills but also in the education and selection of job candidates.

Most people I talk to indicate they’re looking for jobs at large companies. The companies with 500 or more employees employ only 19% of the workforce. Better job-landing chances lie with the 26% of companies that employ 100 to 499 employees. And the best chances are at the 55% with fewer than 100 employees.

It’s clear that in today’s job market, finding a suitable job is extremely challenging. The guidance I provide for my clients is based on several principles.

• Create an outstanding résumé.
• Develop a doable and achievable job search plan.
• Network ad infinitum, since 60 to 80% of job placements result from connections.
• Practice answering interview questions with someone—preferably a professional career coach.
• Learn the tools of social media, and use them to your advantage.
• Be dedicated and relentless about the job search. There are very few miracles happening nowadays in this regard.

When all is said and done, most people will find jobs. When, where, and in what capacities still remain, unfortunately, unanswered.

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How an Informational Interview Can Lead to a Job

The real danger hovering over the heads of some people in transition is the fact that they’re headed toward a cul-de-sac and don’t even know it. More and more articles point out that the business world is changing rapidly; new jobs are being created; and some old jobs are fading away. Regrettably, the jobs being eliminated do not appear on major publications’ front pages to announce that fact. The elimination of jobs does not happen universally everywhere at the same time. The symptoms that such a thing is happening get validated via an endless job search. And that’s where the danger comes in.

For people who experience long job searches, it’s good practice to (1) keep their eyes open for opportunities for related careers that would use their transferable skills or (2) look in a new direction all together. To facilitate that, they can consider searching for new venues via informational interviews. They shouldn’t make the mistake of asking for an informational interview only as an excuse to get in while in reality looking for a position that may be open. While the objective of a candidate in a job interview is to sell himself, the primary objective of an informational interview is to explore opportunities for a change in career. Via an informational interview, one can learn about the pros and the cons of that job, find out what skills are mandatory in order to be successful, what kind of training is required, what is the typical career path and what kind of compensation ranges are customary for a debutant.

If you’re interested in having an informational interview, you should try to schedule it during the day at a mutually convenient time. Most often, you’ll be invited to the organization’s office. Make sure you’re attired properly for the occasion. And remember that this is not a job interview. Forget the suit with the white shirt and tie. Make sure from the get-go that you’re not sending the wrong message. It would look very professional if you come prepared with questions and, possibly, an agenda that you prepared ahead of time. Feel free to take notes to the extent that that’s helpful to you. It is expected that you’ll of course be courteous toward your host, so to begin with, turn off your mobile phone!

You should set a time frame for this informational interview, and when the time is up, you should prepare to leave. An informational interview should be a dialogue wherein you’re mainly listening and the other party is talking. After all, that’s the whole purpose. And of course, a nice thank-you letter following the meeting is more than appropriate: it’s a must.

An informational interview can provide a wealth of knowledge for someone who wants to migrate to a different field. And oftentimes, a host can become so impressed with the candidate that eventually such a meeting could evolve into a full-time position. Go for it. Don’t expect that someone will drop a wonderful position in your lap.

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The Anatomy of the Job Interview

There are a few basics that every person who’s preparing for or facing a job interview should know. A job interview is not an interrogation or an investigation. You are not guilty and you are not on trial. In fact, you have a great opportunity to get an exciting job. But before that, let’s understand the job of the interviewer. The interviewer’s objective is to make a selection. You’ve already been screened and preselected from many candidates because your résumé appears to document the skills necessary for success if you were hired. That’s the reason you were called in for a face-to-face interview. At this point, the interviewer determines whether you’d fit into the culture of his organization. To do that, he’s going to ask a variety of questions and will then make a decision based on a number of things. Some are objective; others are subjective. So, what are the types of questions the interviewer might ask? Here are a few examples.

• The common interview questions. There are probably 20 or 30 common questions typically asked in interviews. They’re easily found because most books or articles about job interviewing list many of them.
• The behavioral or situational questions. These questions start with “Tell me about a time when . . . ” or “What’s been your experience with such and such a situation?” Most of these questions pigeonhole you into a situation from your past, and the interviewer wants to hear how you handled it. The intent is to predict your future based on past behavior.
• The creativity questions. Yes, some interviewers get pleasure from asking such questions. For example, “What would you do if one morning you woke up and found out you’re a frog?” Here they’re checking on your creativity, on the ways you deal with ambiguity, how well you communicate ideas, and so on.
• The high-tech questions. These types of questions are industry specific. For example, “How many jelly beans can fit into a one-gallon jar?” These types of questions are checking on your logic, your ability to estimate, your intuition, your mathematical ability, and your ability to make assumptions. These questions are common at Microsoft, Apple, Google, and the like.

From the outset, the interviewer is approaching the interview with an open mind. He wants to find out your particular strengths that the company can use as well as your weaknesses. If he finds the weaknesses critical, you’ll lose the competition.

The best way to prepare for an interview is to make a list of, say, 20 potential questions and then answer them in a simple format by starting with a brief description of the background and situation, followed by what your contribution was and ending with the results and benefit to the company. The caveat here is to make the telling succinct and eloquent. Most people ramble on and on instead of giving a brief and pertinent answer. And that’s a sign that you’re not fully prepared. To be able to recite your answers in the best form possible, it’s wise to sound them out with a professional career coach or someone else who’s well experienced in this area. Good luck! You’ll need it!

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