A headhunter called up a candidate. After a 15-minute conversation, the headhunter told the candidate, “Sir, at your age it is no longer easy to find a good corporate job.”
I hate it when people start addressing candidates by “sir” or “ma’am”. Why can’t people be addressed by their names?
If you have been told by people that your age makes it difficult, they are probably right. But you need not be told cause you already know it.
Age discrimination is fast becoming a habitual hiring criteria and it takes a lot to break out from this stereotype that corporations have. Discrimination of any kind is not right. Yet people just find themselves naturally drawn to such a practice because of personal preference. Even the job portals adopt the age range and display that in the shortlist for companies to filter. When you are the victim of such, the only way is to steer away from such employers. Don’t try to prove the world wrong. There are still a handful of organisations that are nice enough to hire older people for jobs that need the experience, the bandwidth and maturity. If you find a potential employer that short-changes you because of your age, it is highly likely you will not be happy working in that organisation.
Job seekers in their 40s and 50s just need to work a little harder at searching out good employers that are not age sensitive. Older industries like banking, manufacturing, consumer goods, energy, health and pharmaceutical are your better bets than IT, telecommunication, digital media and shared services.
Job Seekers Unanimous 