Job Seeking When You're Over 50

I recently read a blog by Priscilla Claman who runs a career coaching firm in Boston.
In the article, she described her conversations with some recently laid off engineers who voiced their frustration about the job market and hearing the frequent comment from companies “Overqualified.”
She made some excellent points. If you are over 50 and looking for a job or a promotion consider these
Are you energized and excited about what you are doing?
It is easy to lose your excitement about your work when the company is constantly downsizing , when you have been recently downsized, or when you haven't had a raise in a while, or when you feel overworked. Not only is it easy to lose your excitement but it's easy to get negative. A negative attitude at work causes people to avoid you that often puts a target on your back during layoffs. People prefer to work with positive, upbeat colleagues.
During the interview process people are looking for energy and enthusiasm in your voice and in your step. In the interview process the last thing they want to hear is dull recitation about your past and complaints about your last boss.
Are you wearing to work what you wore fifteen years ago? Upgrade your clothing and appearance to perk up your presentation and your self-confidence. You may not have to wear your son or daughters cloths but you might want to get some advice from them. And The search process is completely different than 15 years ago. Get familiar with some new places such as Linked In.com or networking.
Are you fooling yourself about your skills and experience?
Take a peak at what skills and experiences they are looking for in the positions that interest you and take an honest assessment of where you are. Now might be a great time to pick up some skills and training you have avoided and polish up those skills that have gotten rusty. Just how good are those computer skills?
Even senior managers need to maintain some technical expertise to be viable professionally. You will find that there are plenty of online courses, seminars, and professional organizations who are willing to help keep you up to date. I have a number of friends working on their six sigma black belt while searching for a job.
How is age an advantage in your industry? Expert are needed in every industry and often those experts have been around the block a few times. But, every position you are applying for does not need “an expert” they need someone with a certain level of experience. I think one of the greatest resources you have is your wealth of contacts both social and professional. Get busy contacting them.


Priscilla Claman is President of Career Strategies, Inc., a Boston-based firm offering career coaching to individuals and career management services to organizations. Priscilla is a former corporate Human Resources executive and author of the book, ASK: How to Get What You Want and Need at Work

Handling Criticism

I you work in a business you are sure to receive “advice” from all quarters. This “advice” or criticism is tough to take when you are expecting it, but, it is especially hard on us when it is unexpected. This unforeseen negative feedback can be unsettling and difficult to swallow, but can also be incredibly valuable. Here is a little pointer I read a few weeks ago, the next time you are blindsided by what someone has to say about your behavior, take a deep breath and try doing these three things:
1. Move beyond your feelings. You're likely to feel hurt and angry. Recognize those feelings and then put them aside so they don't negatively influence your reaction to this “advice”.
2. Look beyond the specific comments. Few people are good at giving negative feedback , it is really hard. In fact, I suspect that some people you know can hurt your feelings when they give a compliment. But, don't dismiss the feedback just because it wasn't delivered well.
3. Collect information. Don't respond right away. If you do, you'll likely regret how defensive and angry you sound. Instead, listen. Take in the criticism. Once you've had time and space, you can decide how to react and whether to change.

What is the STAR interview process? Or Behavioral Interviews

I believe the star interview process you are talking about an interviewing style called a behavioral interview. In these interviews the interviewer asks questions relating to 4 STAR Areas

Situation – TASK You are asked to describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.

A – Action you took - in this step you describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell what you did.

R – Results you achieved What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What

did you learn?

How to be successful in this type of interview. To prepare for the interview.

Think of a number of situations from your past work experience that show you accomplishing something positive. (For example, how you negotiated with a supplier for a lower price, or how you mentored a co-worker on a difficult subject, how you handled a difficult employee performance issue). The stories should cover a broad range of your abilities.

In preparation for your interview write the down these situations in the STAR format (which stands for Situation/Task, Action, Result).
example Situation/Task: An employee I supervised performance was not up to par and below the performance of the group. Action: I had a meeting with the employees to discuss his performance and how it was effecting the group and asked if there was some issues that were causing these performance issues. We discussed a couple of problem areas and the correct methods to handle the job. (you might even be more specific about the steps) We set a follow up interview in a week and two weeks Result: The performance improved 20% over the past 3 months and we discussed a couple of improvement area to try during the following week. In our second interview performance improved again.

Review the situations and list the effects (positive or negative) each one had on the following:
-Yourself or Your co-workers or Your boss or maybe Your customers and of course your company and department

When you are on a behavioral interview you will be asked to give specific examples of how you demonstrated certain traits. For example, a question might be "tell me about a time when you worked under pressure to meet a deadline" or "tell me about a time when you had to communicate something difficult to a co-worker".

Each of your 10 situations can potentially be the answer to many behavioral questions. Based on the information you prepared in steps 1, 2 and 3 you need to be able to think on your feet and use any of your stories to answer a behavioral question.

Killing that face to face interview

Getting a face to face interview these days is hugs. There are so many candidates for so few jobs so if you get your foot in the door you better make effective us of it. I would like to offer a couple of pointers that might make a difference.

• Find out about the company

It is crucial that you learn s much as you can about the company and the people you will be interviewing with to help you determine what has been the track record of the company and what is the future, who are thier competitors, who are the key players in organization, how will t he position you are interviewing fdor fit with these individuals.

• Find out who you are replacing

If the job opening is because the previous person was terminated, you can bet that there were probably some major performance or personality issues the resulted in the termination. And you can be that the people who will be interviewing you will focus their questions to you based on the previous employee's shortcomings in the job. If the last person had deadline issues, you are going to hear all kinds of questions about deadlines.

Using a Google search or Linked In you might find someone you know who works for the company interviewing you or know the previous position holder. Talk to people who wok for your potential employer. The more you can find out about those who were in the job before, the more insight you'll have into what's important to the interviewer.

• Refine your story

If you had a bad situation in a previous job that resulted in your termination, find a good way to explain it honestly. IF you make something up, a good interviewer will figure it out right away. Likewise don't take credit for something if it was team effort, give credit to the team and stress you role on the team. We have a natural tendency to want to embellish our achievements to help us get a job, but there of many examples of people who stretched the truth a bit and were caught and lost the opportunity.

Honestly has become very important so the interviewer will weigh negatively any suggestion that you're
covering up something or stretching the truth.

• Be Prepared

It is important to have a short list of strengths that you want the interviewer to know about you. Many interviewers often end by saying, "do you have anything else to tell me, or is there anything we didn't cover?"
this is a great place to use your prepared few sentences highlighting your strengths and covering why you believe you would be a great fit for t he job and the new organization. Don't miss this opportunity.