Age discrimination is real. I would never encourage anyone to forego a job search and start a business. But sometimes starting your own business is faster than pounding on pavements and mailing out resumes. When you have downtime during a job search, I would say, Investigate the Internet.
- Nobody cares what you look like. And if you do need a picture…well, let’s just say that one prominent Internet marketer is using a 20-year-old photo. Everybody knows. It’s not a big deal. You can even use a caricature.
- You don’t have to tolerate intrusive questions about your life, snippy colleagues half your age or face time. You do need discipline, motivation and focus.
- You do have to beware a lot of false promises and fake gurus. Start with these two guides:
Internet Marketing over 50 by established copywriter Bob Bly
I agree. Age discrimination is real. Proving it is another matter. After 17 months of submitting job applications and receiving a big stack of rejection letters, I’m convinced that being 56 years old gets your application a quick toss into the “round file”.
Hi Melanie,
I was the caller last week on Cathy’s show and we share the same birth year. I, too, feel the crunch now with age as I have gone back to grad school to become a social worker thinking it will be less discriminatory with age. Most students are 23. My fears were expressed on the show that I’ll be competing with 25 year-olds when I finally get my LICSW at 60. But as Cathy said, I would need to talk to the right people to find out about opportunities for me. And I think that’s true not just in Social work but in any field. There’s not much we can do about ageism except find opportunities for ourselves wherever. If you’d like to stay in touch, please feel free to email any time. And Best of Luck. Lacy