Over-50

October 30, 2018 - GE Changed Forever Concept of Retirement

Retirees in general, those who had retired from GE, and those who were planning to retire from GE but can't afford to got the rug pulled from under them - the financial one.

To rebuild its balance sheet, GE slashed its more than century old quarterly dividend. It had been 12-cents a share. It will be a mere penny. That, reports CNN, will save the company about $3.9 billion annually.

Although Wall Street had been expecting GE to re-think the dividend few anticipated this kind of downsizing. 

This is yet another brutal example of the surprises which can undo even the most conservative retirement planning. To apply that crude saying: No retiree can ever assume he or she is sitting pretty in terms of funding the next 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years.

Already, found the Federal Reserve Board, about one third of retirees have already returned to the workforce.  With inflation back, there will probably be more.

But even before inflation returned, in what might be thought of as Retirement Paradise - southwestern Arizona - those who had been living the easy life scrambled to figure out how to get back in the labor market. I coached some of them in 2014, including creating the new kinds of resumes and cover letters. Both those had to shift from a laundry list of credentials to: Here is what I can do for you.

Also, many of them had that raw moment of clarity that they had to erase their dream of international travel and perhaps buying a second home in Mexico or Belize. 

The survival measure GE took could represent just the beginning of jolts for those in the retirement or pre-retirement box. Meanwhile, other cruel developments had bit them in their golden age dreams.

For example, with GE relocating from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston, employees and other aging professionals are discovering that they cannot sell their houses in CT. They are stuck with their property at a time when the population movement is out of high-tax CT. 

The old-line concept of retirement - never doing paid work again - may have died today with GE's announcement of the extreme dividend cut.

From the get-go, aging professionals have to wrap their heads around to embrace the earning power they have now, not what they used to have. And, must number-two is: No one wants to hear them grousing about it. The new ethos is to be realistic about the kind of work that can be gotten. 

The marketing communications experts who used to bill at $50 an hour may have to be grateful to pick up $19 hourly doing telecommuting assignments. No one might hire them if they show up in person. Major metro areas have become corridors of doors shut against the aging.

Yes, age bias is real. It happens to even big Brandnames in professional life. 

Here is my recent book on financial survival measures for those who start bouncing up against that kind of discrimination  Download Outwitting ageism.

Takeaway: The aging have to depend on themselves and their own wits to make ends meet. Not a supposed great corporation. Not a financial planner. Not a track record from the past. Not that gold-plated network. The latter will ditch them as soon as they displays signs of reduced marketability.

Career coaching and preparation of job search and small business promotional materials. Complimentary consultation. Sliding scale fees. You owe yourself the best shot at finding, holding, and moving on to better work. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Your Cover Letter - Your Me-To-You Communication with Employers, Temp Agencies, Customers/Clients

Employers, temp agencies, and prospective customers/clients pick up on "it" immediately.

That "it" is the stink of a generic pitch - or cover letter.

To them, a canned outreach represents disrespect. It is also a sign of a lack of authentic enthusiasm for the opportunity.

Sure, those searching for work have a pattern in mind for applying. Usually, that's in Word documents or the DropBox as a standard cover letter.

However, it should only be a guide. Also, it should contain the selling approaches which have proved effective. Those will change over time.

So, from the get-go in reading a help wanted or hearing about a job opening hunker down and create a fresh cover letter. It will contain material from other pitches. Essentially, though, it will deliver a me-to-you communication that will reach into the recipient's mind, heart, and pocketbook.

Yes, me-to-you pitches during the search for work do cast spells. The power is that of voodoo. The applicant made an investment of thought, energy, and time. That carries an aura.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Your Cover Letters - Pitch What You Can Accomplish for Employers/Clients, Not Your Credentials in Isolation

Cover letters are the most important sales pitch those searching for jobs, contract assignments, and clients will ever make.

Your living depends on their success.

That means that, just as high-producing professional salespeople do, you focus on what you can accomplish for the recipient. You spend very little time focusing on yourself as a person.

The context is not social. It's all about benefit to the recipient.

In addition, it's not about credentials, at least not in isolation. Employers value them less. That's one reason applications to the M.B.A. programs, even at elite institutions such as Harvard and Stanford, are in decline. 

If you discuss credentials it should be in relation to how they help you generate results. For instance, after you received that certification in Google AdWords or Conversational Spanish, mobile traffic for the six accounts you manage increased an average of 23%.

The focus on what you can accomplish for the employer or prospective client essentially has two parts.

The first is what you have accomplished for others who are similar to them. Make that specific.

No, you don't say, "I have an excellent track record in increasing responses to Calls to Action."

Instead. you say, "For a 45-agent real estate firm I boosted responses to Calls to Action 35% in two months and for a 120-lawyer personal injury firm I increased Calls to Action 43% in four months."

Then, you briefly explain strategies and tactics in marketing communications you can introduce for them immediately and with low cost. However, you don't want to suggest that the organization isn't doing things right. You also don't want to sound unduly aggressive.

The way to reduce risk is to position and package your recommendations this way, "The most effective tactics, I have found, include tightening up the landing page, continually using A/B testing in e-mails, and graphically showing possible results through calculators."

Next, you ask for the opportunity to learn more about the details of their business by meeting with them. Provide your contact information. 

When applying for a broad range of work possibilities, of course, you will develop a broad range of different cover letters.

As with formal sales calls, if your specific approaches aren't generating interviews, then reverse engineer the entire process.

Examine:

• Kinds of work you're applying for. You may not have the experience needed or too much experience. Regarding the latter, more employers are imposing experience caps.
• Whom you're directly contacting. If sending unsolicited letters, find out from your network or human resources who does the hiring. 
• Opening two sentences - Cite specifically why you are excited about this particular opportunity. State you are the best professional to achieve the results needed.
• Examples provided for accomplishments. Are they recent? If not, because you have been unemployed, get new ones by doing unpaid assignments. Few will turn down free.
• Length of pitch? Is it too long or too short? There are no absolutes here. The help-wanted ad will guide you. A long detailed one usually means the expectation of a long detailed cover letter. Some ads state for you to stick with four sentences. 
• Tone? In selling, you mirror everything about whom you're pitching to. If it's a large brandname law firm, the tone will be formal. If it's a startup with two employees, the tone will be casual and to the point.
• Have you proofread? If you make changes in the cover you have to proofread the entire letter all over again. 
• Are you customizing for every pitch? Recipients hate generic letters.

Assistance with cover letters, resumes, interview personas, and approaches to a job search available. Sliding scale fees. For complimentary consultation, please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Stop Getting Labeled "Overqualified" - Cover Letters Which Bypass Ageism

The cover letter is how job hunters introduce themselves to potential employers.

Essentially, that means it's a sales pitch.

And, if the sales pitch is done effectively, the cover letter can prevent seasoned professionals from getting knocked out of the box as "overqualified."

That's because they leverage every word in the cover letter to promote what they can accomplish for that employer - better, faster, and less expensive that the 200 or 300 others applying for that job.

That's what matters to employers. If they have evidence you will produce what they need they are likely to overlook age per se. 

Nonono, never is a cover letter a nicely formatted laundry list of credentials. That's more resume territory. And, in this hyper competitive market for good jobs, even the resume focuses on accomplishments. For instance, the Summary section explicitly and briefly itemizes accomplishments, with one line stating what the job applicant can also accomplish for this specific employer.

The cover letter for older professionals, however, starts up in the usual manner.

There is an enthusiastic acknowledgement what an opportunity it would be to, for example, be part of the cloud team at IBM.

If the employer's identity is not provided, then talk generically about the contribution cloud is bringing to business and how you want to part of that disruption.

Yes, demonstrate in that first paragraph that you have done some research. That shows you are really interested, a natural hustler, and will pull out all stops performing on the actual job.

Then, state explicitly you are the best professional to generate the outcomes that employer needs.

Base that on what you have achieved for recent employers. As an older professional, you have to keep your work history short. A long one waves a red flag in front of employers that you expect high compensation for all that experience.

Incidentally, more employers are indicating experience caps in the help-wanted. That could be, for instance, two years.  That's all they are willing to pay for. 

The wrong tactic is to simply describe skills. Instead you have to make clear how those skills helped produce positive outcomes in the past. Then, you will indicate you can do the same or even better for this employer. 

After you hit hard with accomplishments then you can describe other edges you have. For instance, you bring additional value to this tech employer because of your background in marketing.

Note, for instance, that you had been on the board of directors of the American Marketing Association, served on a multidisciplinary team which focused on marketing initiatives at your previous or current employer, and/or design marketing strategies as a consultant.

A line or two on community outreach? Sure, employers might want to see signs of good character.

Then, request an interview. Provide easy ways to be contacted. 

Keep fine-tuning your cover letter.

Everything changes, ranging from the dynamics of the job market in your niche to your accomplishments.

Even after being hired, keep bringing up to date your cover letter. Essentially jobs have become project assignments. Soon enough you could be searching for the next project.

Communications Strategy/Services and Career Coaching. Special areas of expertise include professionals over-50 and students applying to degree programs in higher education.

 

Complimentary initial consultation. Sliding scale fees. Contact Jane Genova for an appointment janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

“Over-50: Outsmarting Your Comfort Zone” http://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/05/outsmarting-your-comfort-zone-free-book.html

 “Over-50: The Four Monsters in the Mind” http://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/04/ageism-bites-.html

 

When Local News Had the Real Power

Like a dead fish, the newsroom of the New York Daily News was gutted. 

Now it's real: Local news is on the way to dead.

However, those of us from Hudson County, New Jersey hold out hope that our own little bit of a town crier - The Jersey Journal - can continue on and on. 

What The Wall Street Journal is to the global business community, The Jersey Journal had been to the densely populated Hudson County region. That area had been iconic for housing the Frank Hague political machine.

Whatever was needed by the residents usually went through the machine. Your cousin from Poland needed a job? See the parish priest who knew someone who knew someone in City Hall, in downtown Jersey City, NJ. 

That, of course, rarely made it into The Jersey Journal. It wasn't really news. It was mundane reality. What had been news was the unlucky black sheep of a family who got nabbed in a breaking and entering or a DUI.

Those tenements glued to one another and the duplexes in which the mother and the daughter's family bunked buzzed with gossip.

The biggest fear of my tribe was that I would do something outrageous which would get into The Jersey Journal.

I and a few classmates at Snyder High School were considering protesting that females were not allowed to sit at the bar in taverns in Hudson County. They were segregated to the tables part.

That reality and our agitation about it predated the second wave of women's liberation by several years. Our families' image was saved when we went off to college without changing the way the world worked in Hudson County. 

The power of The Jersey Journal was palpable.

Likely that's how I got the notion I could become a writer. And after being sidelined by the over-education which cast a spell on our generation, I did start to write.

That was 400+ miles away in an unheated basement in coal town Greensburg, Pennsylvania. I was over the moon happy. I still am happy, although writing currently is the smallest profit center in my enterprises. My passion is being on the front lines combatting ageism.

An irony is that my brother-in-law, whom I never met, had been a publisher at The Jersey Journal. That was Scott Ring.

But back then and right up to these disruptive times in life and business his wife - my sister Anne Murga-Ring - were and are estranged.

I love the drama of all that. I could put together a one-act play "Twisted Sisters."

And, that sense of theatre is vintage Jersey City. It had been embedded in the ethos of its media. That I haven't shaken and hope I never will.

I emote. I am. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

“Over-50: Outsmarting Your Comfort Zone” http://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/05/outsmarting-your-comfort-zone-free-book.html

 “Over-50: The Four Monsters in the Mind” http://over-50.typepad.com/over-50/2018/04/ageism-bites-.html

 

 

Financial Suicide: Operating W/O Side Hustles

The day job can go in a poof.

Whole industries are vanishing.

And you can be several years away from even filing early for Social Security. 

Obviously, it's financial recklessness to operate without side hustles. Yes, plural. In addition to my coaching over-50 service I have two other side hustles.

However, those side hustles have to be managed carefully so you don't put your day job at risk.

Here is the article I published today on O'Dwyer about positioning and packaging yourself as a "Mutt Brand."

Simplification - What Those Compound and Complex Sentences Could Be Saying About You

"Yes, compound and complex sentences are treasured by many constituencies in China."

That's how I started out my manifesto to the head of a enterprise editing written material by those in China for whom English is a second language.

"And when the audiences for the material are those kinds of audiences in China, then, certainly, we primarily use compound and complex sentence structures. But when the 'target markets' are in America, standard should be short simple sentences.

"Along with that, of course, should be sentence variation. That's the element of style. So, here and there, yes, we would include compound and complex sentences.

"Even the newspaper of record - The New York Times - has stylistically shifted to fewer convoluted sentences."

The specific target market I was referring to was an elite university in the U.S. The business owner in China and I were going back and forth editing the draft of a Chinese student's personal statement on an application for that institution of higher learning. 

My point was that the admissions committee, seeing all those run-on sentences, would assume the applicant in China would have difficulty with both classroom and everyday communications in the U.S. That could knock him out of the box in being admitted. 

For years I had ghostwritten articles for experts in teaching English as a Second Language. The topic of several of them was this: Too many students from foreign nations attending American schools failed academically and were isolated socially because they were illiterate in how English is actually used in daily life. That was even though they had passed examinations given to test English language proficiency. 

I won most of the argument. Simplification it would be. 

Meanwhile, I wonder what other hopeful strivers around the world are not achieving their goals because of editing based on anachronistic stylistics. In addition to school admissions offices turning them down, there could be publishers of English-language journals and recruiters for jobs who are tossing their written material. 

However, this is a problem not only for those who are not native speakers of English. In my career coaching of the over-50, I have also found that outmoded styles in written material and interviews can also knock them out of the box. Essentially, they come across as "out of touch." The "tells" include those same kinds of long-winded sentences. The hiring folk roll their eyes.

There used to be the saying: Style is the man. In 2018, style is a competitive weapon. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

  

Positioning and Packaging Your Professional Services - "Mutt Branding"

The old career thinking used to be to keep professional services brands separate.

A book ghostwriter for celebrities had to get a pen name to publish his own books and articles on history. His agent mandated two different brands. The thinking was that those buying his ghostwriting services would be confused by his identity as an author in his own right. And the whole point of branding is to make selection easier for buyers.

That was then. 

Currently, if positioned and packaged well, what I call "mutt branding" can actually increase sales of professional services. Both of them.

For example, in the past six months I have fused my identity as a ghostwriter/scriptwriter and a career coach for the over-50. That includes the all-important content of my LinkedIn Profile, pitch letters, and backgrounders or resumes. On interviews, I discuss both. 

I had assumed that unmasking my coaching niche would kill off the content-creation assignments. 

Absolutely wrong.

For some types of assignments at the high end, such as creating material for online instruction and editing content, the coaching background closed the deal.

Of course, some brands can't be fused. Prospects would be turned off if I had combined ghostwriting/speechwriting with long-distance truck-driving. 

In addition, it has to be made explicit how the brands reinforce each other. For example, I recently nailed an assignment editing promotional material for businesses in China by discussing how my coaching material helped me empathize with the owners of the enterprise. The relationships, I documented, had less conflict.

Which brand do I invest the most marketing in? At the present time, it's coaching. The ageism niche is a high-growth one. The content-creation one is glutted. 

When not to introduce the multiple branding? In pitching to coach for an outplacement firm, it was a mistake to also explain that I could handle its promotional material. That, yes, confused those interviewing me. I have a sense that I also threw shade on how the firm was putting itself out there. The implication might have been that I could do better. I never heard from them again.

Takeaway: "Mutt branding" now can open new doors and close deals. But, as with all branding, it has to be orchestrated carefully. In addition, the marketplace continually changes. So how "mutt branding" is promoted also has to change. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Nostalgia = Career-Killer

Corporations' "golden ages" can limit the careers of their leadership and even rank and file employees. 

Those players tend to get stuck in time. Or, as it is now labeled "trapped in a comfort zone." Free to click open, is my new book on outsmarting that monster which destroys careers - Download Over50OutsmartingYourComfortZoneeamp

Sadly, examples of nostalgia looping are plentiful. Right now, former employees of troubled GE gush about the era of Jack Welch. The smart move would be to develop an elevator speech devoid of the GE branding. That was then. Their goal is to sell themselves now to employers, clients, and customers.

Even if GE were still a success model, "alumni," as they call themselves, lock themselves into the past. Yet those doing the hiring and buying demand to know: What can you do for me today? Not what you did for GE in a very different time.

Many of us are determined to continue to work into our 80s and beyond. We shouldn't be spotted lugging around a former professional identity, like a sack of rotting vegetables.

In fact, as career guide "What Color Is Your Parachute? 2018" hammers, the language of the job search has all changed. In interviews, cover letters, and resumes, the lexicon is all results-oriented. Here is an excerpt from a resume's "Summary" section"

"During the past 18 months, I achieved 34 percent increase in sales, with a 23 percent reduction of cost per sale, for X (name of company). The primary strategies include micro-targeting and proprietary screening to qualify prospects. My mission is: Making the sales process more successful and cost-efficient …"

The tragic reality is that many businesses enjoy a "Camelot." But, that, like the Kennedy Administration, is over.

It was the late 1970s when Gulf Oil Company had its moment. That was cut short when Chevron took it over.

Smart players immediately identified themselves as having worked for Chevron, not Gulf.

Those caught in the loop of the past clung to Gulf branding. Many of them struggled to land new jobs. An equal number who were hired lost jobs - yes, multiple ones. 

What is puzzling is that the nostalgia persists.

This week I received an email from a Gulf Oil "alumnus." The content included a notice that another alumnus had died (no real news since so much time has gone by that many have passed on from the oil patch). Attached was a photo of the deceased with the former head of public affairs, also dead.

That was the third time I sent back an email requesting my name to be removed from the master list.

From the get-go when that ritual of Gulf alumni news announcements started, there was no ambiguity: These professionals were emotionally stuck - and in a fiction.

The reality was and is: Their company had been conquered. They were set loose in a diaspora of a glut of talent in the energy industry. Too many suffered long periods of joblessness and involuntary terminations. The memory should not have been happy clappy.

In my coaching of those over-50 I am alert to any sign that nostalgia, particularly the misplaced kind, is blocking a career path. 

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Job Search/New Business Development - "Experience" Has Become Dirty Word

In business, as well as other professions such as law, the term "experience" had been sacred.

Now, it carries negative connotations. That's exactly why on job applications it has become a kind of trick question.

The iconic career guide - "What Color Is Your Parachute -2018" - documents how the language of job search is in play.

Many job applicants assume they should tout their years of experience.

Yet, what employers want to hear is talk about what that particular applicant can get done - and better than all the others wanting that opportunity.  In coaching, I hammer that the displaced older professional frame a job search search with "Here's what I can do for you." A mistake is to go out there with the elevator speech, "I have X years of experience in media."

The bottom line is that employers don't want to pay for more experience than is needed to get the job done. The game is cost-control and manpower is a major expense.

In addition, everything is changing. That ranges from business models to technology. A cover letter or resume indicating years of experience raises red flags. Employers wonder: Are these applicants set in their way? Also, lots of experience can scream "older." Yes, there is age-bias in the work world.

However, not only employers are reluctant to buy what they consider "too much" experience. So are clients. 

That's why it's puzzling that public affairs agency - The Dilenschneider Group - explicitly lists on the website the decades of experience of its principals and counselors. Here, prospects find out that, for example:

• Stuart Pinkerton has 40 years experience
• Jonathan Dedmon has 27
• Leo Murray has 35.

And the agency head - Bob Dilenschneider - has 35 years.

The same default is evident in the legal sector. Years of experience are promoted.

What prospects want to see is evidence of wins. What should be highlighted on websites is what the lawyers have achieved for clients.

Sure, with superlawyers such as Ted Olson and David Boies, years of experience might be relevant. But, as the business of law also keeps changing, don't bet on experience automatically transmitting a value message.

Meanwhile, seasoned professionals can read about how to outsmart their comfort zones. Here is a free book Download Over50OutsmartingYourComfortZone.

Coaching, auditing, lecturing, and writing/ghostwriting thought leadership content on ageism.  

 

For individual coaching – sliding scale fees. Complimentary initial consultation. The displaced over-50 get back to work. Mature professionals who are working advance their careers. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.