The under-40’s: They ain’t got nothin’ on us

The under-40 set doesn’t have a thing on the 40+ group when it comes to getting the job done. Of course, there is that odd under-40 that can do something pretty spectacular in their career but they are few and far between. (My friend’s daughter, Andrea, in her 20’s, is one of those whiz kids; she can sell ice to Eskimos – I know, cliché, but hey, as I write, it’s not even 8 am on a Saturday so give me a break.) Yet, have you noticed in job postings, typically under “Requirements” or “Qualifications”, at the very bottom of the ads, where a company requests: “Minimum 3-5 years experience”, “B.A./B.S. plus 1 year experience”, or, my personal favorite: “1 year of successful sales (or marketing, finance, etc., etc.) experience”? Do I get to pick the year?

I am beginning to wonder if these job postings are not shills planted by the government to assure the 14.5 million+ unemployed that there are jobs out there – it’s just that you’re not getting yours. Probably because you have 6 years of experience.

I did a little research on ROI (for the under-40, that means “return-on-investment”; not to worry, this info comes with experience) when companies hired “seasoned” workers as opposed to those who still need to ripen. An interesting study on the aging workforce comes from the University of Vermont School of Business Administration (wait a minute, isn’t that where there are a lot of under-30’s?) where they examined the Days Inn hotel chain and their hiring practices. The hotel chain realized a much greater ROI from hiring older workers, those over 40, versus younger workers. They found that older workers were more accurate in their work, demonstrated greater loyalty, and had lower absenteeism rates. In fact, and according to the study, the cost to recruit and train an older worker was only 35% of that spent on younger workers, $618 vs. $1,752. Now that’s not small potatoes.

Alright, so self-justification and a buck thirty (or four bucks) will get you a cup of coffee, as they say. So, what to do if you’re over 40 and trying to position yourself for a new or existing career and you have more than 3 years experience (or, one terribly successful year as some employers want)? Start talking math. That’s right. Companies want to know what you can do for them that is going to make them a whole lot o’ money. And I don’t care how much you hated math in school. A sure-fire way for employers to sit up and take notice is when a job candidate can justify, in dollars, why they should be hired over someone who can’t.

There ain’t nothin’ like experience.

Is it a skill or a competency?

Do you know the difference? When we think of people closing a sale, digging a great ditch, or generating concise financial reports, we may believe these activities demonstrate an individual’s competency when, in actuality, these activities demonstrate a skill. Skills are typically the things we tend to focus on when writing resumes or during interviews. We do this with the belief that hiring managers are more interested in what we can do (the skills we offer) within a narrow scope (a specific job) as opposed to what we are capable of doing (our competencies) across the organization. However, if you’re wondering which is more important, the answer is: Both.

If you are good at sales, is this because you demonstrate initiative and have strong leadership skills? Are you able to dig great ditches because you have a penchant for getting things done the right way? When preparing financial reports, are they concise because you are unwavering in your diligence? All of these represent competencies that can be transferred to other areas within an organization.

Especially now, when organizations are cutting staff or not hiring, in order to keep pace, companies may be more apt to look inward at existing employees who possess competencies needed to achieve goals. And, for those organizations looking to bring on new employees from the outside, candidates who are able to showcase skills and competencies can gain a leg up on their competition.

The Psychological Contract: The Tool to Find the Right Fit

When working as a business coach, one issue employees would raise was that they did not feel like they quite fit with the organization. It wasn’t that they lacked the skills to perform the job but that they frequently felt at odds with their manager, team members, or the corporate culture. They wondered how they, or their employers, could have missed that they were not a good “fit” during the interview stage. These were bright, articulate, and experienced individuals with successful track records at other organizations. In their current position, however, they were suddenly like fish out of water, trying to find ways to fit in. This is a dangerous proposition for organizations and employees as the more time and energy an employee spends in trying to adapt, the less likely they are to align their activities with corporate objectives.

Bring in the psychological contract. The psychological contract serves as the foundation for what an employee and employer can expect from their relationship outside of the job description or stated duties. While the actual contents of a psychological contract may differ from company to company, it is a tool employers can use before an employment agreement is made. It addresses areas such as management’s expectation for employees to work overtime, how employee family matters during work hours will be tolerated, or how organizational communication is conducted. The areas to be considered can be exhaustive.

You can read more about psychological contracts in an article I wrote at: http://www.bocaratonchamber.com/clientuploads/pdfs/november.pdf

A more in-depth examination of psychological contracts can be found at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/psycntrct/psycontr.htm

Sometimes a road block is the universe's way of steering you in the right direction

I have a friend whose careers – plural – have consisted of being a professional baseball player, stock broker, and high school teacher. I find this relevant to intent as each of these careers necessitated the acquisition of specific education, skill sets, and certifications. Each career also required that he set his sites on a particular end result and devise a plan to achieve each one. More amazingly, each of these careers was borne out of desire. How many of us can say we have gone about our careers with such clarity and determination?

Businessweek online had an interesting article on how recent MBAs, unable to find a job, are starting their own business. (Find article at: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/ content/jun2009/ bs20090618_346720.htm?chan=bschools_bschool+index+ page_top+stories) The article profiled one student nearing graduation who had applied for multiple management positions ranging from not-for-profits to the music industry but without success. The student, however, according to the article’s author, Alison Damast (http://www.businessweek.com/ bios/Alison_Damast.htm), is an “aspiring singer and songwriter”. In the end, she opted for starting her own record label. What is intriguing about this is that the noted student obviously possessed, at the start, and before entry into any MBA program, an innate interest and skill in music. Without knowing entirely how this particular student went about her job hunt, and only with the information at hand, nonetheless it asks her motive for seeking out a career in an industry or with an organization that may not be in a position to foster her true self.

Believe me when I write that I am not blind to understanding the possible motives for wanting to find a job to earn a living or pay back student loans. I’ve done it, many of us have done it, and have done it to ensure our survival. Hey, paychecks are important. But, and this is a big one, each time I have set my intent on finding the right fit for my talents and abilities at that given moment, opportunities have appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere, and with little more than an intentional prompt. As for my friend who set his intent on becoming a baseball player/stock broker/school teacher, the student in the article, not finding a "job" may have actually led her to her intended career after all.

Job or Career: Do You Even Know What You Want?

If you're looking for advice or direction on finding a job, you won't find that here. Over the years, I've come to realize (sometimes personally and painfully) that the answer to our career dilemmas, frequently, if not always, has very little to do with the state of the economy, our education, or personal circumstances. Consider that as long as we're alive, we are always going to have personal circumstances, the economy will always boom and wane, and, quite frankly, we could always use more education. No, these are generally not the impediments to our landing that dream career opportunity. The problem is in the way we look at work, in general.

I don't know about you, but from an early age, work and earning my way was mandatory. Of course, at an early age, when you have little to offer except enthusiasm and the willingness to do a job a lot of people didn't want and for only a little money, the goal then was simply to get a job; it's only requirement is that it netted a paycheck. Thus, we began the cycle of looking for a job.

In some instances, the job we found turned into a career of sorts. A retail clerk advances into management, the guy in the mail room at the ad agency becomes an account executive, the front desk clerk becomes general manager of a hotel. Careers are born. In the absence of intent, however, are these careers just a matter of happenstance? This is not to say that employees who rose through the ranks did not work hard or strategize their way to the top but merely asks if the person who started out bagging groceries and later became store manager couldn't have just as easily been emptying wastebaskets at ABC Corporation and became the CEO. Where is the intent?

This is what this blog is all about. It is about discovering our personal intent and mindfully mapping a course to find the right career.

Let's begin the journey!