Five times in the last few weeks age has entered my conversations.
“I am too old,” Fazio, a 40 year-old career transition client told me, lamenting the fact that 20-somethings can programme so much faster and (allegedly) “know so much more.” Hmm…
I wasn’t convinced.
I take Fazio´s point but rather than thinking he’s too old, I asked him to focus instead on what these 20-somethings are too young to know.
It started slowly but as Fazio grew comfortable with the idea, a long list emerged. It seems that, being older and more experienced, Fazio could manage a team, direct a project, get stakeholders onboard by looking at technical issues in the context of what’s good for business. He can do lots of other, arguably better things. OK, maybe he can't programme as effortlessly as some of his younger colleagues, but, being honest with himself, that’s not the job for him at this stage in his career.
We have some very interesting perceptions about age.
The second time it came up last week I was talking about my nephew. My neighbour quite wrongly assumed that my nephew is a child. In fact, he’s 36. When I told her that, she said, “Really? I always think of nephews as being so much younger… about 9 or 10 years old.” I’m not sure what that said about her perceptions of him – or me – but it made me smile.
We can also cheat with age and manipulate perceptions. The third conversation was about CVs. Lara, a CV client, went to university later than most at age 28. She talked about leaving the graduation date in so it shaves 7-8 years off her perceived age (as it’s natural to assume someone graduated university at 21 or 22).
She was delighted that it would help with her target role search in a so-called ´youthful´ industry. But another client wanted to leave her dates off as her degree was 30 years ago and she feels that age discrimination is holding her back in her job search. It can be helpful here to round down numbers at the top of the CV in the profile, using '15+' not '22 years of experience', or even to leave them out and use 'significant' or 'extensive' in their place.
We can feel offended by age and age brackets. When I turned 50, I was horrified at the change in speculative marketing that appeared. The pinnacle of my despair came in the form of an offer of property in a retirement village for the over 50s.
It begs the question: who is ready for retirement at 50 these days? (Actually, the better question is perhaps who would want to live in a retirement village aged 50?!)
Age is relative. Conversation number five had the comment, “But, you see, you are still so young…” Am I? 53 doesn’t feel young to me but then the speaker is approaching 83. As a twist, he’s often mistaken for 70 because he’s so ‘young’ looking and active.
Age is fluid now. More so than 10 years ago and much more so than 20 years ago. Do we need to care about it? Probably less than we do. Should we stop judging people by our perceptions of what certain ages should be like? Yes, definitely. But -
Age discrimination in the job market is very real – and very damaging. It equates agility and entrepreneurship with youth, not mindset or skill.
Age is relevant to where you are – and which direction you are looking in, to the past or the future. We might not be as fast at 50 as we were at 25 but we are much richer in experience and able to see broader perspectives. We need to celebrate that. And push for employers to see the value that experience brings. In our CVs we can focus on having been there and done it - and not being fazed by challenges because we've seen enough to know how to navigate them.
As Fazio concluded, a Fiat 500 cannot compete with a Ferrari, but not every journey is about cost and speed!
If you’re feeling challenged by your age or perceptions about what you offer, why not get in touch and see where a session of Career Therapy could take you?
Introductory calls are always free if you’re curious to find out more about coaching and working with me. Click on Book a call anywhere on the website or email me louise@careertherapy.co.uk
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