I gravitate towards blog posts from recruiters, and on age discrimination. I was delighted to find this one on Recruiting Blogs: Do You Know the Signs of Age Discrimination at Work?
The post is pretty good. The issue I have with some of the advice, like “document any discriminatory practices” and “document your work record” is that you would later have to do something with that documentation. I find that many people move on (get laid off, fired, etc.) and then sink into depression, blame themselves, focus on their next job, or anything other than pursue legal action.
I’m not saying don’t do it, I’m just saying it is such a daunting concept, and maybe the wrong place to focus.
Here’s the most profound part of that page… in the comment from Randall, the fourth paragraph starts:
I’ll say that too many older jobseekers fixate of age discrimination.
I totally agree!
I’m definitely not saying that age discrimination doesn’t exist, because it is abundant. What I’m saying is, I agree with Randall. TOO MANY people FIXATE on the issue.
Don’t become obsessed with all the reasons why you aren’t seeing success… stop FIXATING on this one issue.
If it is an issue, figure out how to get around it. How do you deal with it? Do you ignore it? Do you tackle it head on?
Fixating on this will not help you resolve it. No, you won’t get younger, but you will be able to identify the issue and use the right language to perhaps defuse any issues.
Here are some other age discrimination in the job search posts I’ve written.
A very good point made here. It is a problem and one with which our President is going to have to be keenly aware as we approach the election. None of us is going to get a sympathetic ear or eye from the 20 something recruiters manning the recruiting desks on 100% commission.