Looking for a Job When You're Over 55

The following article was posted on January 28, 2014 in The Wall Street Journal by Sue Shellenbarger.

I particularly liked her advice about some often-overlooked industries for the over 50 set:  health care,, education, government and nonprofits.  Quite often community colleges are seeking someone with very specific advice.  Don't hesitate to visit the career site of a local community college and see what they're looking for.

I also thought government is a great place to delve into a renewed career. There are many online places to find government jobs, and I've known several people who took this route.

 Another idea is to offer your service as an independent contractor, depending on what you do.  Quite often organizations like to try before they hire and this is an idea to help you get started working again.

Here is the WSJ post.

 

Q: I'm looking for a job at age 58, after 10 years out of the workforce caring for aged family members. I recently earned a two-year degree in accounting, and I have experience in sales and office administration. Any advice on getting interviews?

—P.M., Poulsbo, Wash.

A: The usual job-seeking rules apply, with a few added twists for a worker at your life stage. Networking is critical, and older workers shouldn't hesitate to reach back decades to high-school friends and former colleagues, plus their adult kids and their kids' friends, says Kerry Hannon, Washington, D.C., author of "Great Jobs for Everyone 50+." Tell them what you want and ask for advice on getting a face-to-face meeting, Ms. Hannon says. 

Focus on industries that welcome workers over age 50, including health care, education, government and nonprofits, Ms. Hannon says. A listing of the 50 best employers for older workers can be found via a Web search for "AARP best employers." Job boards can provide clues on who is hiring. "Never lose sight of the fact that you bring some valued assets, such as loyalty and reliability," that many younger workers lack, Ms. Hannon says. Many small businesses hire older workers because they can step into a new position without training.

Build the body of your resume on a concise description of current skills and outcomes. Organize it by functional area, such as "office management" or "accounting and bookkeeping," rather than by date, says Maria Escobar-Bordyn, an executive coach and co-owner of Bridgeway Career and Professional Development, Bellevue, Wash.

Include any skills used in caring for family members, such as budgeting or managing paid home-care workers. Make it easy for employees to see how you would fit by describing outcomes in language that matches the job description, Ms. Escobar-Bordyn says. 

Janice Litvin, Career Consultant and Resume Writer can be reached at JLitvin@MicroSearchSF.com

 

 

Open More Doors with Your Resume

The purpose of a resume is to secure you an interview or phone screen.  Period. That is it.  The resume is a marketing tool and as such, it has to have a few key ingredients to get the attention you need.

What can you do to ensure your resume rises to the top?

Besides the obvious categories, educational & experience, the resume has to quickly say, I am the resume you are looking  for, pick me.  How do you make that happen?

Accomplishments

First, your resume needs to be clear and concise.  Don't list every single job duty you've ever had.  Think in terms of major accomplishments.  What have you done to streamline a process or save your company time or money?  For example if you work at a fast-food restaurant, rather than saying, "Work as a cashier at a restaurant," you could say, "Provide fast, efficient, yet excellent customer service while taking orders..."   If you are a software engineer you can stress your technical abilities while showing that you are a team player.

Focus

With distinctive proficiencies in mind, you must focus the resume to increase its effectiveness. That is, tailor it for each opportunity. As arduous as that may seem, it really is quite simple if you organize your resume properly in the first place.

Keep several versions with optional skills and summary sections. Remember, the reader is seeing an average of 50-100 resumes at once and is looking for reasons to eliminate yours.

Below is a brief description of the sections that should be included in your resume. Remember, the reader's eye goes from top to bottom and left to right.

The Summary

The summary section is a quick and easy way to spark the reader's interest and make them want to go further. Whether you discover a job lead through a job board, a friend, or a recruiter, get a written or verbal job description. Then customize your summary section to that description.

This simple step will significantly increase your chances of landing an interview. Include your major marketable strengths and preferences, including your specific knowledge.

Objective

Use of the objective is completely a matter of taste. I prefer instead a title after the applicant's name. This should either be the title of the job as advertised or the title you really want -- "project manager," for instance, even though your current title may be "team leader."

Each company has their own way of delineating job titles, so try to use industry-standard titles.  Be clear about the job you want because resumes with vague objectives get put in the "maybe later" pile.

Technical Skills

You can design this section in any logical manner, as long as your most marketable or most recent skills are first.

Accomplishments And Experience

Now that you have the reader's attention, keep them interested. Your detailed list of accomplishments should be expressed in quantifiable results in order to demonstrate credibility. For example, "completed all projects on time and under budget" or "won team award for outstanding achievement."

Start sentences with powerful action verbs: "designed," "developed," "wrote," "tested," "managed," "saved." Giving tangible examples that measure your accomplishments eliminates the impression that you're just bragging.

Education And Training

List your degree or degree candidacy, both bachelor's and master's. Many companies today still prefer degreed employees. Include any honors or awards earned, such as "Graduated with honors" or "GPA 4.0." It's a different way of saying, "I'm a hard worker."   Include recent training courses that relate to the job you are seeking.

Before mailing your resume, sleep on it. When you pick it up the next morning, think of the reader and ask yourself these three questions. Is my resume pleasing to the eye? Does it emphasize my pertinent skills? Does it present the benefits of hiring me?

---

By Janice Schooler Litvin
Litvin is a recruiter with a focus on resume writing and editing.  Located in the East Bay Area of San Francisco.  She can be contacted at jlitvin@microsearchsf.com and is available for Skype or FaceTime Resume consulting.  Reasonable Rates.

Knock em Dead Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World

GROW WITH CAREER BOOK OF THE YEAR  

By Joyce Lain Kennedy

Tribune Media Services

     DEAR JOYCE: Ten years as a retail pharmacist are enough. Maybe I’ll relocate and open a beach bar. Or teach school. Or start a business. Who knows? After I decide what it is that I want to do, the question becomes how do I make it happen? – H.B.

    Consider this unvarnished advice:  “If you are going to survive and prosper as a professional over the long haul, you have to pull your head out of the sand — or wherever else you had it stuck — and start getting actively involved in the management of your life.” Read that again.

    In these uncertain times, truer words were never spoken. They flow from the keyboard of one of the most influential authors in the career space: Martin Yate, creator of the popular Knock ‘em Dead books.

    New guide. In his savvy  new paperback, Knock ‘em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World, Yate — who knows the job-market playbook backwards and forwards — is aided by a star-studded panel of 42 senior recruitment experts.

     In an unusual appendix, Yate identifies the 42 experts by name, job title, company, specialization, accreditation, contact data and — drum roll — years of experience! That’s good information.

     Yate says the experts share three things in common: “They know what they’re talking about, they don’t pussyfoot around and they each genuinely care.”

    Jay Block, one of the expert panelists who also authors best-selling books, endorses Yate’s theme of paying attention to the direction you want your life to take. Block says:

    “Turn off the TV — and invest in improving your value to the marketplace. You can’t afford to go to bed as stupid as you woke up. If you do not learn something new every day to become more valuable to the marketplace tomorrow, you will become worth less (worthless).”

   Rock solid advice.  Whether your concerns are landing the job you want, choosing or changing careers, shoring up job security, climbing the professional ladder, or owning your own business, Martin Yate’s Knock ‘em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World is the career book of the year. Bet on yourself. — read it.

© 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Can Employers Really Fire over Facebook Comments?

Today the Wall Street Journal's Jeanette Borzo reports that next week a National Labor Relations Board judge will consider whether a medical-transportation company illegally fired a worker after she criticized her boss on Facebook, in the federal agency's first complaint linked to social media.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954004576089850685724570.html#ixzz1BhEN0YyZ

Employers Tread a Minefield

Firings for Alleged Social-Media Infractions Sometimes Backfire on Companies

Facebook gaffes that can cause trouble in the workplace aren't unique to drunken college students anymore. As more companies and their workers tap into the world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, employers are tripping over legal potholes in social media.

Next week a National Labor Relations Board judge will consider whether a medical-transportation company illegally fired a worker after she criticized her boss on Facebook, in the federal agency's first complaint linked to social media.

In another case, workers sued a restaurant company when they were dismissed after managers accessed a private Myspace page the employees set up to chat about work.

Ashley Payne

Ashley Payne claims she lost her job because of Facebook postings, such as this vacation photo.

Job seekers and employees have long been warned that risqué revelations on Facebook can jeopardize career prospects. But now companies are facing their own challenges for alleged blunders in dealing with social media.

"The intersection of social media and the office is a potential minefield,"”said Philip L. Gordon, the Denver-based chairman of the privacy and data-protection practice group at law firm Littler Mendelson PC. Even when a company prevails in such legal actions, "there are reputational risks,"”Mr. Gordon added. "The company can become a poster child for a particular type of employment claim."”

Part of the problem is that social networks are brimming over with personal information of employees and job applicants. Along with various suits that have grabbed media attention, the potential for further litigation is broad, lawyers caution. For example, a worker could file a sexual-harassment suit after a manager repeatedly tries to "friend"”her on Facebook. Or an applicant might accuse a hiring manager of reneging on a job offer after learning the candidate's religious affiliation on Twitter.

"Social media is about communicating all the no-nos"”of office life, such as political views, says Shanti Atkins, an attorney who is chief executive of ELT Inc., a San Francisco firm selling online training services in workplace-compliance areas such as social media.

Certainly, many of these types of disputes may never get far, and new laws may arise that change the landscape. Still, numerous cases have made it to court—or are on their way.
Cisco Systems Inc. has been sued twice for comments an anonymous blogger (who was at the time a Cisco attorney) made about two Texas lawyers and their patent-infringement suit against Cisco. Both suits were resolved—one in 2009 after the trial began, and the other in 2010 before the issue got to court—but the terms of the settlements weren't revealed. Cisco declined to comment.

In Georgia, former high school teacher Ashley Payne sued the local school district in the Superior Court of Barrow County, claiming she was essentially forced to resign over Facebook photos that showed her drinking alcohol during a European vacation, said her attorney, Richard J. Storrs. 

"What Ashley was doing was extremely innocent,"” Mr. Storrs said. "She was on vacation and holding a glass of wine."”   Noting that the case is still pending, the school district declined to comment.

In a case settled in 2009, two restaurant workers sued their employer in federal court in New Jersey after they were fired for violating the company's core values. According to court documents, their supervisors gained access to postings on a password-protected Myspace page meant for employees—but not managers. (Myspace is a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal.)

The jury found that the employer, Hillstone Restaurant Group,—had violated the federal Stored Communications Act and the equivalent New Jersey law, and awarded the employees $3,403 in back pay and $13,600 in punitive damages.

The restaurant company appealed before the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement, said Fred J. Pisani, the workers' attorney. Hillstone said, "We're pleased that the matter was resolved and the plaintiffs have gone their separate way."”

In next week's Facebook case, the employer, American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc., which operates ambulances and medical-transportation service, disagrees with the NLRB over whether the employee's postings were "concerted activity" or just online bad-mouthing, which is against the company's policy. Concerted activity refers to communication among employees seeking to improve work conditions, an activity federal law protects.

In a statement, American Medical Response denied allegations that it maintained and enforced an overly broad blogging and Internet policy with unlawful provisions, and said the employee in question was discharged "based on multiple, serious complaints about her behavior."”

Experts say an employer's’best defense against legal action is to establish a social-media policy that outlines what is and isn't appropriate in social media, and then to train employees about the policy.

Brian D. Hall, an employment-law partner at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP in Columbus, Ohio, estimates that fewer than half of U.S. companies have a social-media policy.

Mr. Hall and others say the amount of legal action resulting from employer missteps in social media is likely to rise at least until more case law is established.

"The NLRB case won't be the last word" on employer matters in social media, said Jeffrey S. Klein, who heads the employment-litigation practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York. "For people who are ignoring this and don't think it's a prevalent issue in the workplace, they need to stop being naïve."

Keeping 'Overqualifieds' on Board: What Do Gen Y'rs Really Think

Today the Wall Street Journal's Careers journalist, Joe Light, reported that now that the economy is picking up, recruiters warn of impending defections.  The entire article is below.

Keeping 'Overqualifieds' on Board

Recruiters Say Desperate Workers in a Down Economy Now Seek Greener Pastures

Employers who snapped up top talent on the cheap in the depth of the recession should start worrying about defections, recruiters and management watchers say.

Companies that continued to hire during the slump found they were able to nab talented but recently laid-off workers at bargain salaries, or into jobs for which they were overqualified. Now, as the job market slowly loosens up—and those overqualified hires become more frustrated—some of them are considering greener pastures.

"Last year, the focus was getting a job, period. Now those who had no choice before are regretting it," says Russ Riendeau, senior partner of Barrington, Ill., recruitment firm East Wing Group Inc.

More broadly, Google Inc.'s move last week to give all employees a 10% raise underscored the risk of defections among highly sought-after talent even in a weak overall job market.

Overall, turnover remains low but is inching up. When adjusted for seasonality, the percentage of total employees who voluntarily quit their jobs in September was 1.6%, up from 1.3% in September last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Management watchers say those low rates mask a risk of future defections, and that many companies may be caught off guard when the labor market improves more robustly.

"They'll be surprised when these overqualified folks get up and leave," says Peter Cappelli, management professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Mr. Riendeau, the recruiter, says about one in five candidates who call him now say that they are trying to get back to their previous salary after having been in their current job for a year or less. Last year, fewer than one in 10 candidates said that, he says.

Over the past six months, recruiter Nick Corcodilos, who also publishes jobs advice site AsktheHeadhunter.com, has seen a "significant increase" in chatter among headhunters on his site about overqualified hires looking to improve their situations. "Employees try first to pitch for higher-level roles within their companies, but if they can't get that, they're looking elsewhere," he said. Some companies are taking pre-emptive steps.

During the downturn, Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp. was able to recruit candidates from the coastal banking centers, which had been difficult before, says Connie Linardakis, the company's chief human resources officer.

Now, the company is exploring the expansion of flexible work arrangements and extra time off, in part to retain those employees, she says. It also gave employees a 2.5% average merit raise this year after two years of spotty or no raises, she said.

In the last six months, officials at New York-based consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP have seen some of their clients become concerned about overqualified hires looking to move to higher-paid positions, says principal Sayed Sadjady, who runs the company's talent management practice.

Generation Gap: On Their Bosses, Millennials Happier Than Boomers

What do twenty-somethings like? Their bosses, it turns out.  In a recent study, members of the so-called Millennial generation rated their managers more highly than did Generation Xers or baby boomers. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed Millennials, born between 1982 and 1996, rated their managers' overall performance "good" or "very good."

Their older colleagues weren't nearly as impressed with their bosses' skills. Fifty-nine percent of Generation Xers rated their bosses' overall performance favorably, while only 55% of baby boomers did. Only 51% of boomers said their company values their contribution, while 60% of Millennials did.
In other measures, such as their boss's ability to manage people and keep commitments, respondents fell into in similar age-group patterns.

The survey, from human resources firm Kenexa, was conducted in February and March this year and included 11,000 respondents.

Brenda Kowske, research manager at Kenexa, says younger people may be more open to being managed.
"Millennials are more willing to take direction and accept authority," she says. "As we grow older, our ideas become more concrete and less flexible."

David Lewis, president and chief executive officer of OperationsInc LLC, an human resources consulting firm, says baby boomers' muted praise may also stem from being "traumatized" by the soft job market and having endured several economic downturns.
Younger employees may not be as embittered about stripped benefits or frozen salaries, he says.
The downturn also displaced many more-experienced workers, forcing some to take jobs for which they feel overqualified, he says.

"Now that companies can get seasoned, skilled workers at a fraction of the cost, many boomers are reporting to people they don't respect or who are less experienced," Mr. Lewis says. "That builds a level of anxiousness and resentment."

Janice Litvin is an executive search consultant and recruits in the social networking and online marketing space.
She can be reached at JLitvin@MicroSearchSF.com

Facebook Posts Can Get You Fired

Hi Everyone
Found this article today on Career Builder and found it very interesting. I personally know a lot of people who go to Facebook first thing every morning and post all day.  This article will open your eyes to the risks, especially for young people applying to college or any of us applying for jobs.

12 Ways to Get Fired for Facebook

By Kaitlin Madden, CareerBuilder.com Writer

According to a 2009 study by Internet security firm Proofpoint, 8 percent of companies with more than 1,000 employees have fired someone for social media actions -- a figure that is double what was reported in 2008. Yet it probably comes as no surprise that Facebook firings are on the rise. Cases of employers firing employees for social media slip-ups have been consistent in the news over the past few years.
Just in case you need a refresher of what not to say online, here's a timeline of 12 ridiculous examples of how Facebook can get you fired.

1. Nov. 4, 2008:  New England Patriots cheerleader Caitlin Davis was cut from the squad over controversial pictures that were posted on her Facebook page. Davis, then 18, was at a Halloween party when she posed for photos with a passed-out man who was covered in graffiti, including swastikas, anti-Semitic remarks and profanity. Davis was fired from the squad after the pictures appeared on various websites and caught the attention of the Patriots' management team. She had been the youngest cheerleader ever to make an NFL squad.

2. Feb. 26, 2009: A U.K. teenager was fired for calling her job "boring." According to The Daily Mail, Kimberley Swann posted comments such as, "First day at work. Omg (oh my god)!! So dull!!" and "All I do is shred holepunch and scan paper!!!" [sic]. Swann was canned after her boss discovered the comments.

3. March 9, 2009: Dan Leone, a stadium operations employee for the Philadelphia Eagles, was fired for voicing his opinion on the team's trading practices via Facebook. Leone reportedly updated his Facebook status with, "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver ... Dam Eagles R Retarted!!" [sic].

4. April 27, 2009: A Swiss woman was fired after calling in sick and then logging into Facebook on her "sick day." Apparently the woman had a migraine and called out of work because she thought the light from a computer would bother her and she needed to lie in a dark room. When her employer caught her surfing Facebook, it was presumed that she was indeed well enough to sit in front of a computer, and she was let go.

5. April 28, 2009:  A Minnesota nursing home employee was fired after rumors spread that she had posted photos of herself with nude patients on her Facebook page. Though no nude pictures were found, the employee did have pictures of herself with clothed patients, which violated the home's privacy policy and led to her termination.

6. August 27, 2009:  Ashley Payne, a Georgia high school teacher, was forced to resign after the local school board came across pictures of her sipping beer and wine. The pictures, which appeared on Payne's Facebook page, were from a vacation she had taken that summer, which included a trip to the Guinness Brewery in Ireland. Payne was quoted as saying "I did not think that any of this could jeopardize my job because I was just doing what adults do and have drinks on vacation and being responsible about it." She sued the school district last November. The case is expected to go to trial this fall.

7. Feb. 11, 2010: South Carolina firefighter and paramedic Jason Brown was fired for creating a three-minute-long animated video and posting it on Facebook. The video, which showed a cartoon doctor and paramedic responding to an emergency in a hospital, was meant to be a spoof, Brown said. However, his department didn't find the video funny, calling it "an embarrassment," and Brown was fired.

8. March 3, 2010: Gloria Gadsden, a professor at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, was fired after updating her Facebook status with things such as, "Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete hitman? Yes, it's been that kind of day." [sic] The school said it was being overcautious because of the Feb. 12 shootings at the University of Alabama, in which professor Amy Bishop was charged with killing three fellow professors.

9. May 17, 2010: North Carolina waitress Ashley Johnson was fired from her job at a Brixx pizzeria after posting a negative comment about two of her customers. Johnson called the customers -- who left her a $5 tip after sitting at their table for three hours -- "cheap." Though she did not mention the names of the customers, Johnson did include the name of the pizzeria in her post. A few days later, management called her to tell her she was fired for violating the restaurant's social media policy.

10. May 24, 2010: The city of West Allis, Wis. fired a veteran police dispatcher of 21 years over a status update. Dana Kuchler was terminated after posting that she was "addicted to vicodin, adderall, quality marijuana, MD 20/20 grape and absinthe," on her Facebook page. Despite saying the post was a joke, Kuchler was terminated by the city. Her union then filed an appeal, claiming the punishment was too harsh for the crime. The arbitrator agreed, instead sentencing Kuchler to a 30-day suspension without pay. The city is currently in the process of appealing the new decision in an attempt to have Kuchler's termination reinstated.

11. June 10, 2010: Five California nurses were terminated after it was discovered that they were discussing patient cases on the site. The situation was investigated for weeks by both the nurses' employer, Tri City Medical Center in San Diego, and the California Department of Health before the nurses were fired for allegedly violating privacy laws.

12. June 21, 2010:  A Pittsburgh Pirates' mascot was fired earlier this summer, after posting a comment about the team's choice to extend the contracts of two of its managers. Andrew Kurtz, 24, was fired within hours of posting the comment "Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates," to his Facebook page.
Whether you think the above are examples of employees exercising free speech or simple stupidity, it seems as if Facebook postings are fair grounds for termination at many companies. With that in mind, post at your own risk.



Kaitlin Madden is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues. Follow @CBForJobSeekers on Twitter. 

Where Tech Hiring Is Hottest

Where Tech Hiring Is Hottest

In last Friday's Wall St. Journal, Career Strategies column, journalist, Joe Light reports via an interview with a recruiter, David White, that tech hiring is up, albeit in several key niches:  social networking and gaming, not surprisingly, as well as clean technology and medical software companies are having spikes in technology hiring.  Mr. White goes on to illuminate the needed skills, saying that engineers who can hit the ground running with PHP, ActionScript 3, and J2EE are the most in demand.  Of course, having the latest version of these languages & tools is critical.

Furthermore if your resume lists many languages and has the most desired ones listed at the bottom, the company will think those are your weakest links. So be sure to put those on the top and omit out-of-date or unnecessary items. 

Mr. White reminds jobs seekers to research companies and be well versed in what they're business model and plans are.  " You need to show a real passion for whatever the company does," he says.

For recent grads Mr. White advises to include your GPA on your resume if it's a 3.0 or higher.

Also he wisely suggests that if you have a choice between an unpaid internship at a really innovative company vs. a paid internship at a so-so firm, take the unpaid one if you can afford it.  "Getting the real programming experience will set you apart from your peers, even if they have a higher GPA."

Also "top schools resonate well," he adds, but "if you're not in one of those schools, starting at a well-known company that trains programmers well, like Google, Facebook or Yahoo, will also give you credibility when it's time to take a larger role at a smaller company."

The entire article can be found online at: 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304510004575186401030589086.html?mod=WSJ_Careers_CareerJournal_4

Janice Litvin recruits in the social networking and online direct marketing space and can be reached at JLitvin@MicroSearchSF.com