My Fifties, My Sixties...My Super New Job!
Research shows age can help us be creative in our job searches.
In my last blog, “Out of Work…at My Age,” I highlighted some ways you
can think about age that make unemployment easier. Although none of
these ways will solve your financial problems when you’re out of a job,
they can temporarily help: they can keep your identity
from feeling threatened (which often happens after losing a job). And
they can help to boost your identity’s stability, which gives you more
emotional strength.
When I did the research for my book (Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health), people talked about ways they thought about identity that helped them navigate the process of losing their jobs. And it sometimes helped them find another job. That’s the focus of today’s installment of this blog.
Finding New “Age-Appropriate” Job Identities or Employment Options
Usually, I’m not a big fan of claiming that we should act certain ways at certain ages. In fact, a lot of my research explores what it’s like to do things at non-standard ages, like becoming a college student in your forties (or starting a career in your fifties). I strongly support challenging age stereotypes.
However, I also have to take seriously what unemployed job seekers told me, and that was that trying to stay “age-appropriate” in their job search actually helped them. Specifically, it helped them:
1) stabilize their identities while they looked for work;
2) feel better emotionally; and
3) come up with new job options they may not have thought of before.
For example, Paul, a 56-year-old former publishing manager, told me “At 56, you’re closer to accepting those lesser roles anyway and society’s going to say that you end your career . . . It’s the retired guy that goes and works at Home Depot. So that’s actually somewhat acceptable.”
I think that Paul is jumping the gun a little bit on how early people retire; most people simply can’t afford to retire at that age. (By the way, neither could Paul.) But the point is that Paul recognized a common belief – that people often link being in one’s fifties or sixties with upcoming retirement, as well as lower-level jobs - or what some people call “retirement jobs.”
On the other end of the spectrum, other job seekers interpreted being in one’s fifties as connected to higher-level jobs. Skip, a 53-year-old former vice president in banking, told me “What [older workers] have to do is sell ourselves as ‘the sage’ . . . Chief administrative officer, CFO, vice president of administration . . . Those type of things.”
Skip had previously looked for mid-level and lower-level jobs, but no one hired him for those. He believed the reason was that others thought it was odd that a college-educated man in his fifties was applying for mid-level or even lower-level jobs.
So think about what your age might line up with in the eyes of other people. It may help you find work, and it may spark ideas that you had not previously considered.
All this being said, if you truly identify with an age group other than your own – if you feel much younger or much older than your actual age – you may want to consider identifying with (and perhaps applying for) a job that “matches” that age.
When I did the research for my book (Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health), people talked about ways they thought about identity that helped them navigate the process of losing their jobs. And it sometimes helped them find another job. That’s the focus of today’s installment of this blog.
Finding New “Age-Appropriate” Job Identities or Employment Options
Usually, I’m not a big fan of claiming that we should act certain ways at certain ages. In fact, a lot of my research explores what it’s like to do things at non-standard ages, like becoming a college student in your forties (or starting a career in your fifties). I strongly support challenging age stereotypes.
However, I also have to take seriously what unemployed job seekers told me, and that was that trying to stay “age-appropriate” in their job search actually helped them. Specifically, it helped them:
1) stabilize their identities while they looked for work;
2) feel better emotionally; and
3) come up with new job options they may not have thought of before.
For example, Paul, a 56-year-old former publishing manager, told me “At 56, you’re closer to accepting those lesser roles anyway and society’s going to say that you end your career . . . It’s the retired guy that goes and works at Home Depot. So that’s actually somewhat acceptable.”
I think that Paul is jumping the gun a little bit on how early people retire; most people simply can’t afford to retire at that age. (By the way, neither could Paul.) But the point is that Paul recognized a common belief – that people often link being in one’s fifties or sixties with upcoming retirement, as well as lower-level jobs - or what some people call “retirement jobs.”
On the other end of the spectrum, other job seekers interpreted being in one’s fifties as connected to higher-level jobs. Skip, a 53-year-old former vice president in banking, told me “What [older workers] have to do is sell ourselves as ‘the sage’ . . . Chief administrative officer, CFO, vice president of administration . . . Those type of things.”
Skip had previously looked for mid-level and lower-level jobs, but no one hired him for those. He believed the reason was that others thought it was odd that a college-educated man in his fifties was applying for mid-level or even lower-level jobs.
So think about what your age might line up with in the eyes of other people. It may help you find work, and it may spark ideas that you had not previously considered.
All this being said, if you truly identify with an age group other than your own – if you feel much younger or much older than your actual age – you may want to consider identifying with (and perhaps applying for) a job that “matches” that age.
Of course the challenge there would be that some other people, including
potential hiring personnel, may make assumptions about who you “should”
be according to your age. That could lead to age discrimination in hiring, which I’ll be covering in a future blog. Until then, good luck with your job search!
