By Neil Patrick
If you read this blog, you’ll know that I think there’s a lot of nonsense talked about by HR types , recruiters and government agencies about how mature professionals can land a job. It always seems to boil down to saying if you sell your benefits to your prospective employers and persist, you will succeed. But it might take a while.
Hmmm. Well I’m not sure about that. Ageism is rife and I don’t think following the advice above will get you very far. Plus in the process, even the most self motivated individual is likely to succumb to debilitating self doubt, eventually.
So it was refreshing to watch this short film featuring Patra Frame’s advice. I think her tips actually do make sense. Moreover following these will ensure you build on your key strengths and address your weaknesses. And even if you don’t land the job you are after, you’ll be steadily increasing your skills which you could utilise to build your own income streams through self employment.
What do you think? Please post any comments and reactions
below.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis is really helpful generally.
As a recruter it helps me get into the mindset of the mature job seeker. They would do well in my business maybe they are just lacking the confidence, skills can be learnt.
Bestwishes
Alison
Hi Alison,
DeleteThanks so much for your comments. I think that confidence is part of the story, but poor tech skills, out of date strategies and some employers' preconceptions are the other.
There's little that can be done about negative employer attitudes - despite stories I have posted about facelifts and wardrobe revamps - but the other two barriers can be addressed. Mature applicants must ensure they not only know how to use Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ etc, they must know how to deploy these tools efffectively for their job search. It's active rather than passive use of these tools which counts. The world has changed drastically in the last two or three years and having a weak Linkedin profile, or a facebook page full of holiday pictures (or worse!), does nothing to help.
I don't need to tell you this since you are a recruiter, but I do not believe that the mass circulation of a CV to employers is a sensible strategy or use of job hunters' time. The internet has changed everything - those that understand what this means will win, those that don't will sadly struggle even more.
Stay tuned for much more to come!
Kind regards
Neil
Google +? A strategic error I believe. Even google have abandoned it.
ReplyDeleteI know what you are saying Nigel. Until the 2015 rehash, I found Google+ an absolute bear. It's still an also ran I think but I have chosen not to bet against the big G. It might be flawed and unpopular, but there's no downside I can see.
ReplyDelete