Over-50

Working When Near 70: Actually, we get better at presenting ourselves

Thanks to Facebook, everyone in the world seemed to know that one week ago I turned 68.  There was a pile-on of cliches about aging.  I buried myself in bed, trying to sleep through it all, the way I used to sleep through my clinical depression in graduate school. 

But, the reality has been that the older I am getting the more contract assignments I am getting in executive communications and at a higher rate than in my middle age.  My hunch is that it's because I have gotten much better at how I present myself to prospects and interact with clients.

The eagerness to please has been toned down.  That transmits a message that I really do know my stuff, at least enough so that I don't have to sell my personality so much.  Another change has been that as we age we need less of the status symbols so we're not desperate for money.  About 12 years ago I owned a house as a primary residence and a cottage down the Jersey shore. I felt then like I needed that.  Currently I rent in affordable housing established for senior citizens.  The savings on heat, hot water, and electricity are wonderful. So, when I pitch for an account I'm more relaxed.  No, I don't need the money. The money would only be nice. 

Another advantage coming with aging is a thicker skin.  When criticism comes, I absorb it.  Therefore, my cover letters and resumes have gotten better through feedback. 

The only regret I have, at least this week, about aging is the reduced energy level.  I could once work non-stop for days and nights.  Now I need my zzzzzzzs.

The Job Hunt: You're more effective taking breaks, says coach Roxanne Hori

Job hunting - or for us self employed, hunting for assignments - is like training to run a race. 

That's what executive coach Roaxanne Hori opines in BLOOMBERG BUSINESS WEEK.  When training, no one runs all the time.  Instead, they give their muscles time to regenerate through breaks.  Also, I would like to add, they think about how they are approaching the race.  That reflection can make all the difference.

A non-stop search for work will burn us out.  We have to step away and renew our spirits.  Also we consider what we are doing and it seems to be panning out or not.  During the breaks we might make a decision to change course.

A break can be as simple and short as going out to a movie.   In the darkened theatre, the stress of the hunt falls away.

Unsolicited Resumes Have 47% Success Rate - So says Richard Bolles of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" Fame

Those of us Baby Boomers between jobs or assignments or not liking the ones we have want results when we go out there looking.  After all, we are experienced in The Hunt since there were 76 million of us chasing professional success.

Well, some things never change about The Hunt.  In his latest book "Job-Hunting Online," Richard Nelson Bolles (along with Mark Emery Bolles) tells us that sending out unsolicited resumes has a 43% success rate.  Bolles told us just about the same thing in the 1970s when he published his now-famous "What Color Is Your Parachute?"  It was by following that advice and snail mailing a strong cover and resume to corporations that I was able to make the leap from nonprofit to profit in the late 1970. 

One reason this method is so effective is because you are not competing with all the others who answer an ad.  Your letter is the only one in front of the hiring manager or the person who can assign a project.

Today, thanks to email, that doesn't even cost you a dime to send out, only sweat equity.  First you have to research the organization to identify the person to address the letter to.  Yes, there must be a real name.  If you are premium member of LinkedIn you can get help there.  You might locate someone in that general function and then ask who is responsible for hiring.  Another source is to go to the organization's websites and study the names about who would be appropriate to contact.  You can also call the organization and ask to be connected to the department and then find out who's in charge. 

Snail mail doesn't work as well as email in The Hunt.  It could get lost.  It could prove a nuisance for the manager to open.  It could send the message that you're not aligned with the digital era.

In your cover letter, start out with a statement about the organization which demonstrates you have done your research.  That could be a sentence or two.  Then introduce yourself.  Indicate how you can benefit the organization through your experience and skills.  Be detailed but brief.  Highlight, preferably with numbers and percentages, your track record of what you have accomplished for other organizations.  Say you are attaching a resume.  Ask for an interview.  If you don't hear anything in about two weeks, you can follow up with a call, providing updated information about yourself such as winning an award or achieving a 34% increase in sales.

Baby Boomer Search for Work: Do we need a "Narratizer?"

One serious mistake we Baby Boomers have made in our search for work - both conventional jobs and contract assignments - is not being strategic.  We left too much to chance.  Yeah, I guess we could think of our approach was relying too much on hope and investing too little in fresh thinking. 

Well, a fresh thinker has entered the employment picture.  He is Lee Gutkind, called by VANITY FAIR as the godfather of creative nonfiction.

He asks each of us hunting for work or positioning ourselves for a promotion while working:  Why aren't we creating and broadcasting our own unique individual stories? Betty White keeps doing that in her continuing saga as the biggest comeback in the 80+ crowd. Sally Field managed that in nailing down a part in the new film about Abraham Lincoln. Business executives Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett keep updating their accomplishments. 

Let's hear a few words from Mr. Gutkind. “This November showed once again that leaders, be they simply heads of families, politicos, managing partners at law firms, executives, or scientists, need a ‘Narratizer,’” insists Lee Gutkind, a global author and communications professor. His latest book is “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up.”

That Narratizer shapes and distributes the leaders’ story as it will be told and retold by prospects, current clients, the media, followers, voters, investors, and funding sources. 

Instead of having his own story, Romney’s was crafted by his opponents as the out of touch rich guy. 

Brilliantly, by standing back, Hillary Clinton is having curious Americans be her Narratizers.  They are putting out there what her new story could be.

Hewlett-Packard is stuck without fresh material for a product story. 

Research programs can’t get funding because they don’t know how to capture and communicate the excitement in what they’re doing.

Mr. Gutkind is available for workshops for Baby Boomers searching for work.  You can schedule one with him at leegutkind@gmail.com.

In terms of the media, Mr. Gutkind welcomes providing on- and off-the-record background information and quotes, exclusive interviews, wraparound stories including access to sources, bylined op-eds, and meetings with editorial boards.

Among the topics the media might be interested are:

Chris Christie. Can he put together the kind of story which makes him the conservative must-run for 2016?

Comeback narratives.  What about those for struggling companies like Hewlett-Packard, fallen leaders like David Petraeus, and doomed research areas like alcoholism?

Boring.  Why that has become an international crime against humanity.

The media can reach Mr. Gutkind through his public relations agent Jane Genova, 203-468-8579, mgenova981@aol.com.  Complimentary copy of “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” available upon request.

 
 
 

 

 

50ish, 3 Decades with AT&T, Friday Was Last Day

Everyone in line in the drug store this morning buying newspapers was, of course, over-50.  We never shook that Sunday habit. 

Two neighbors chatted amiably.  One had just been laid off from AT&T after more than three decades.  Friday had been her last day.  I have to assume she was in shock because she doesn't sound like she was in crisis.  Twice, though, she mentioned that she would be receiving unemployment and was glad about that since she had been working since age 15.  Then, as the other neighbor was leaving the store, her voice trailed after him, "I don't even know where to look.  I don't have a resume."

I interjected some guidance but she wasn't ready to hear it.  The shift from working for a single employer to not working and then having to find a job somewhere else (she mentioned she had college to pay for) hadn't become real to her yet.  The collapse of my communications boutique when I was 58 took me about six months to emotionally embrace (Download Geezerguts).  Today, at age 67 I am just starting to heal.  Along the way I learned plenty and had become stronger and wiser but the ordeal, so unexpected, was something I don't wish on anyone over-50.

Scott Thompson: As we age we (usually) become more cautious

Why would a man who was successful like Scott Thompson feel the need to play cute with his credentials?  Because he did he is now out as Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo.

Usually as we achieve professionally and become more filled in as a human being, we don't embellish.  It's sad that this man felt his authentic story wasn't good enough for public consumption.

DIY: Over-50 & you are your own executive coach

In the spirit of DYI, more of the over-50 are taking on the role of being their own executive coach.  They save thousands of dollars and derive the unique satisfaction of knowing they have the insight, courage, and capacity for change to reset themselves for a marketplace which is continually changing.

Here are the five steps they usually take.

One, they accept themselves as they are and where they are.  That's exactly where they can then make modifications, with gentleness and self-love.  A useful book on that is "Radical Acceptance."

Two, they analyse the winners in a range of fields and make a list of the traits they all seem to have in common.  Then they decide which of those traits they can add to or increase in their own way of presenting themselves to the world - and to themselves.

Three, they research the marketplace.  Once they identify growth areas they do an inventory of what skills and experience they can leverage to fit that.  They continue to do that.  No career path is ever done. 

Four, they reach out and help others reset themselves, pro bono.  We learn the most when we teach it. 

Five, they read or view inspirational material.  That provides the platform on reframing thought patterns.  We are what we think.

Regret Not Getting Harvard Business School MBA?

There are those among us Baby Boomers who still regret not getting that Harvard Business School MBA.  Had we done that, goes the fantasy about a choice we didn't make, we coulda done this or been that or not been laid off or had the confidence to start our own business.

Well, Bloomberg Business Week reports that the average salary HBS MBAs receive if they go into finance or consulting is $125,000.  During more affluent times some of us made much more than that and without Ivy decorating our resume.  As the recovery picks up a bit of momentum we could return to making some serious money.

 

Read Help-Wanted Carefully, Twice: Then you'll know whether to send a resume

Of course, we all want to stand apart from the competition when we apply for a job or assignment.  However, there is no one unambiguous way to do that.  With so much change in the work world and so much new technology going mainstream, we have to figure out how to present ourselves so that we are communicating: hire me, I am the best fit for your needs.

The first clue for that is in the tone and content of the help-wanted ad.  We have to read that carefully, probably twice, including between the lines.  Of course it will spell out some things such as whether to send a resume or not.  In THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, there's an article about alternate ways employers and prospects for our business want us to present ourselves.  Instead of the old-fashioned resume, it could be through a video we make of ourselves, what's in our social media, ranging from our blogs to our LinkedIn account, and the passion we transmit in the transmittal.

More often, they want both - the resume and all the rest, especially the enthusiasm for the mission, vision, and actual job tasks.  The challenge is to be concise.  A laundry list of credentials and accomplishments - that's boring and no one has time for it.  What might help us to develop the art of brevity that packs a punch is the book "Made To Stick" by the Heath Brothers. 

And way back in the 1970s, when "What Color Is Your Parachute" first came out, the reality was outed that the person who gets the job is not necessarily the best fit or the most talented.  It's the person who's best at applying for jobs.  The game is to speedread what's needed and then present that, no more and no less.  With practice, most of us can get better at being the best presenter for the job or assignment.

Resumes: Many still want them, including the paper kind on interviews

Those in the hiring chair determine how we should apply for work.  Most of them still want the traditional resume, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.  In addition, if they invite us for an interview in person, they expect us to have in-hand a copy of the resume.  And, yes, it's wise that the copy should be printed out on decent stock paper.  That shows we want to make a good impression and know how to that.

But there is also a growing trend in which those hiring tell the applicant to forget the resume and just write a few paragraphs why they are the best suited for the job or assignment.  And they mean that.  They will toss our application if it doesn't get to the point immediately and present our credentials concisely but passionately.