Ageless Careers

My 40-something client just pivoted back to technical work after 10 years in non-technical roles. Well-meaning people will tell you that you can't shift back. But, in this market, you've got to figure out your competitive advantage (which may happen to be in a few different areas if you are lucky). For my client, it made sense from a market standpoint to shift back to technical work. Even after he left technical work, my client was still solving complex problems - just in different contexts. He was analyzing large datasets and managing mission-critical projects in new ways. We didn't leave it to chance for the reader to figure out his next move. We literally spelled it out in his resume: * Utilize transferable and stackable skills of project management, problem solving, and critical thinking to move between industries and roles, building on 10+ years of technical experience. His entire resume summary shared his technical highlights and connected the dots for how he used his problem solving and analytical skills in various ways throughout his career, even after he shifted into non-technical roles. The result? He landed an offer in 5 months. Your past experience is still valuable, and yes, you can pivot back to past roles if you show the reader exactly how you are going to use your experience in your new role. Have you ever successfully returned to a field after years away? What made the difference? #careerchange #gethired #getahead ♻️ Repost if this helps someone 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless

"There is no amount of botox that will hide my age." I've heard 100s of stories of job seekers in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond who feel stuck. And the thing is: it doesn't feel fair. You worked hard for 20+ years. You were told the rules of the game were: * show up * deliver results * build expertise * solve problems But now, to find a job, you must: * network, network, network * build a strong LinkedIn profile * create a 2 page resume (3 at most) * quantify critical results and impacts * use executive summary to tell your story And different coaches give different tips. Should I show early career experience? Or should I pretend that I started work in 2010? So, I get why you are frustrated. Let's dig into the numbers a little bit. 7.6 million people are unemployed (1.8 million of these for 27+ weeks) + 4.6 million employed part-time for economic reasons + 5.9 million not counted in the labor force but want a job = 18.1 million who are unemployed or underemployed If this is you, I just want to say that I see you. You aren't alone. And we need your wisdom and experience (even if it doesn't feel like it today). #ageism ♻️ Repost to spread the word 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K going ageless

When you think "social media influencer," you're not thinking of a 50-year-old woman posting on LinkedIn, are you? I asked ChatGPT what the average age of an "influencer" was and it said the range was 18-35. That's interesting considering that the 50%+ of all US spending comes from people who are 50+. So, even though those of us who are 50+ are doing the majority of the spending, we aren't necessarily doing the influencing. My kids call me an "influencer" and I get where they are coming from: I have 87,000+ followers here and 40M impressions over the past 3 years. But I still feel weird about it. I didn't even start posting on LinkedIn until I was 46. In 2019, I had 270 connections and treated this place like a placeholder or digital resume. I really didn't think I had anything new to share. Here's what I've learned: You don't need to be an "influencer" to be influential. And posting here has given me a voice that I am just learning to lean into. I'm not being overdramatic to say that posting here on LinkedIn has transformed the influence of my one-person business. Here's just some of the folks I've talked with or visited in the past 6 months: * CNBC * Business Insider * Washington Post * AARP Headquarters * SHRM Executive Network Experience But here's what matters more for my business: 80% of my revenue now comes from people who I've never met in person but have been reading my posts for months or even years. I know why you resist LinkedIn. You don't want to be that person posting motivational quotes over sunset photos. You don't want to share weird selfies or tell people what you had for lunch. But visibility isn't vanity when you're over 50. It's survival. The world has changed since 1995 and we've all got to adapt. You have learned lots of new skills - this is another one that you can learn too. We need people of all ages represented here. Your decades of experience deserve to be heard. And there are people who need to hear it. So - let's spread the word. We're not "too old" to be men and women who influence - we're just getting started, my friends. #linkedin #socialmedia #ageism ♻️ Repost and share your story 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless

The September BLS jobs report just dropped this morning: 119,000 new jobs were created in September and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.4%. But those numbers don't tell the whole story. For the past few months, I’ve been watching what I’m calling the “real job market index," which includes the number of people who are underemployed along with those who are counted in the base unemployment numbers. Here’s where the “real job market index” is: 7.6M people are unemployed + 4.6M employed part-time for economic reasons + 5.9M not counted but want a job = 18.1M who are unemployed or underemployed With a total US labor force of roughly 170M workers, we’re looking at a 10.65% underemployment rate. I took a quick look at LinkedIn's November Workforce Report and the toplines are: overall hiring is down 5.8% from October 2024. Hiring has now slowed nearly 9% since the start of the year and is 20% below pre‑pandemic levels (October 2019). The only industry still hiring year-over-year? Accommodation and Food Services. Everything else is contracting. I've talked with 300+ executives this year, many of whole are struggling to find work. When LinkedIn job postings drop from 6 million to 4 million in two years, it's about math. There are just only so many roles to go around. So, what can you do now? My biggest tip comes from the August JOLTS data: Smaller companies are hiring at a rate 50 TIMES that of larger companies. Companies with 5,000+ employees = 82,000 hires Companies under 250 employees = 4,103,000 hires I'd start small and actively seek out opportunities at small businesses. What are you seeing right now? And what are your biggest tips for job seekers trying to stand out in a competitive market? ♻️ Repost if someone needs to hear this 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless

I officially made it onto the dark web. Okay… fine. It was Reddit. 😄 But someone I've never met referred to me by name and wrote: "She puts out a lot of good info for free for us older people in the job market." I'm a Reddit, Inc. lurker, and like my early days on LinkedIn, I've never posted there once. I love consuming the content, but just haven't felt the need to share ... until now, maybe. Being mentioned in r/GenXWomen truly made my day, so thank you, whoever you are, for your support. Do you post on Reddit? What subreddits do you follow? What am I missing out on over there? #reddit #genx #careeradvice ♻️ Repost if you're a fellow lurker 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless

"Sorry, we're looking for an 'it girl.'" That's the feedback a Gen X woman with major industry awards got after recently interviewing for a role. She's in advertising and had been laid off a year and a half ago along with every other woman over 50 in her department. She's been freelancing successfully since then, paying the bills and staying on-trend. But she wants what we all want - stability, benefits, a place to belong and contribute. Instead, she's removing graduation dates from her resume and willing to take less than she's worth. She's not alone in removing dates from her profile. I ran a poll here last week asking folks if they share their year of college graduation on LinkedIn. With 2400+ votes, only 19% said that they share it and I completely get why: people are afraid that it's going to be used against them. The data backs this up. AARP found that 64% of workers have seen or experienced age discrimination. For women, it's compounded by gender bias that says we lose value as we age. And here's what is so difficult about all of this: there aren't any "right" answers. When I ran my poll last week, there were folks who said that removing graduation dates felt deceptive, like you have something to hide. Others said keeping them just didn't feel like an option when ageism is so blatant. We're stuck choosing between transparency and survival, and in a market like this, let's not kid ourselves, people are just trying to survive. I've been doing this work for 18+ years and the best practice has consistently been to present candidates in a way that didn't give their age away. We've just accepted ageism as is. But what if we pushed back? What if we said: "I graduated in 1979 and I am proud of my 46 years of experience." I know exactly what happens when you're this transparent. My 67-year-old client took 18 months to land during his 2022 job search (with all dates back through the 1970s). Earlier this year, we updated his resume and LinkedIn profile (scrubbing dates before 2000) - within 3 weeks, he made it to 4 final interviews and received 3 offers. I hate that this is my advice. I hate that hiding your experience is a career strategy. But as long as ageism is a thing, this is where we are. If you are hiring, you've got to ask yourself: Are you hiring candidates over the age of 60? How about candidates over the age of 50? If not, why? #ageism ♻️ Repost to spread the word 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless

Is 20% unemployment on the horizon due to AI? (Interestingly, the algorithm hates it when I talk about AI - I'm just hoping that it won't try to threaten or blackmail me by bringing this up.) After all, that's exactly what Claude AI tools did - it threatened to blackmail a tech team member when it sensed a shutdown was coming, according to last night's report from Anderson Cooper and 60 Minutes. Anderson talked at length to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who believes that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% within the next 5 years. Considering where the job market is right now, that's beyond scary. I just saw a report that the unemployment rate for those just graduating from college is 9.3% right now - if that's where we are now, then the 50% reduction of entry-level jobs isn't so far-fetched after all. As a career strategist and mom of 4 (with 2 of those kids in college), it's staggering to think about where things are going, both for early career and late career workers. Bill Gates says we can all "retire early" when AI takes our jobs, but that's easy to say with $100+ billion in the bank. What about the 90% of us who plan to work into our 60s just to survive? It's amazing that the discussion around ethics and guardrails has become a complete afterthought to profits. The time for guardrails is now. #ai #futureofwork #ageism https://lnkd.in/dKtiz8fa

"Take the job + keep looking. In this market, you've got to look out for yourself." I received this note last week from an executive who has been job searching for almost a year. He is in the later stages of interviewing with a company that he likes for a job that would pay him less than half of what he previously made. If he is offered the job, he isn't sure if it's "ethical" to continue looking for new jobs and wanted to know my thoughts. I would not say this is an ethical question at this point. With this market being what it is, I would take the role if offered and continue looking for new roles without thinking twice about it. I see too many folks who are in an extended job search and we don't know where things will go. You are going to do the best that you can for the organization - that's a given - so I wouldn't worry about the rest. You're going to bring a ton of value to that role - more than you will be compensated for. Those of us who have been working for 25+ years remember a time when loyalty was a thing - I vividly remember my Director at Procter & Gamble proudly showing me what my retirement would look like when I received my offer as a 21-year-old engineer. Unfortunately, the days of corporate loyalty are gone for many companies, so we've got to adjust accordingly. A few years back, I probably would have given slightly different advice, but this market is just so challenging that I do think that you need to take a good opportunity with good people when it comes along and not feel bad about it. Have you ever found yourself in this situation? What would your advice be here? Is there ever a time that you wouldn't just take the role and keep looking? I'm genuinely curious if anyone still believes the old rules apply. ♻️ Repost if this resonates 🔔 Follow Colleen | 87K+ going ageless