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Maybe your mom made people feel like she was their mother (evidently that's
possible even without trying).
Considering the economy as well as your experience, I think it's a smart
idea to start developing a free-lancing/consulting company. Unless you're in
a very stable sector, you might also expand your skill-set.
Re too old, aside from perceptions by a possible employer/manager, I agree
with what Suzette said. [Re age discrimination, pointless topic so far as I
can tell. Absolutely no one is going to have a leg to stand on these days,
unless there is some incredibly blatant evidence. Even then ...]
Regards,
Kathleen
On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Sarah Stegall <sstegall -at- bivio -dot- net> wrote:
> Dunno about Canada, but about the worst thing you can do in Northern
> California is brag about (or even mention) being "long-in-the-tooth".
> Kiss of death out here.
>
> I watched my highly competent, smart, professional mother, with years of
> experience and business savvy, get involuntarily "retired" from
> technical writing for the sin of being older than the people she was
> interviewing with for a job. The last job she had, she was actually told
> by her manager that if he'd known her age he would never have considered
> her for the job. She did all the usual--wrote her resume to eliminate
> about ten years of experience, concealed the date of her graduation
> (even dropped a degree), dyed her hair, dressed younger. None of it
> worked. After she got laid off, she never again got past an initial
> interview.
>
> I figure I'm in my last or next to last job as an employee; if and when
> I leave this one, I have at best a 50/50 chance of being hired full time
> somewhere because I am too old. I'm keeping my freelance skills up, and
> hoping my husband keeps his job so that his benefits can cover us.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: McLauchlan, Kevin
> Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 1:13 PM
> Subject: RE: job-hunt weirdness
>
> I would think that somebody like me, skilled and capable, but not
> corporately ambitious, and getting a little long-of-tooth, would be a
> coup to snap up at a bargain price. Being a bit older, I'm less likely
> to be driven-to-advance (and leave you high and dry... or threaten your
> job...) than I might have been ten or fifteen years ago. There are lots
> of me out there, except that they're currently unemployed.
>
>
--
Kathleen MacDowell
www.writefortheuser.com
kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com
kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com
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2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
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