Interview Chatter

Baby Boomers Face Hiring Hurdles

by Darlene McDaniel on June 20th, 2008

Scot Herrick is Founder and Publisher of Cube Rules: Career Management for Cubicle Warriors. Scot provides online career management training for knowledge workers who typically work in a corporate cubicle. Scot is joining Gina and I as we participate in the The Great Blog Off. Enjoy!

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Baby Boomers Face Hiring Hurdles

by: Scot Herrick

When Baby Boomers claim “experience” and “reliability” in interviews, they are reinforcing the hiring hurdles faced by older workers. There, instead, needs to be a new focus to interviews.

Outlining these hurdles is Older Staffers Get Uneasy Embrace:

Employers fear older workers “cost too much, lack current skills and don’t stick around long,” Ms. Munnell and co-author Steven Sass write. Wages tend to rise with seniority. Health costs for older workers are higher. Older workers are viewed, rightly or not, as less supple in dealing with new technologies.

Claiming experience and reliability in the interview misses the mark. There are three real issues in an interview and Baby Boomers need to nail each one to get over these hiring hurdles.

Job Skills

Identifying and showing current job skills are critical. Attacking the job skill hurdle early on is necessary to get the position. Addressing your current job skills, including technical skills, for the position will get you over one of the hurdles.

Job Performance

Saying you have current job skills is one thing, showing what you did with them is another. Tally your measurable accomplishments about the business need before going on the interview. Once in the interview, weave these accomplishments into your story during the interview.

Your “fit” with the group

Business is social. You have a manager. You have a team, whether for a special purpose or formal. Having the social skills to work with your prospective manager and team is critical to hiring you. This is especially true if there are multiple candidates with the skills and performance necessary for the position. Interestingly, the higher you go in an organization, the more critical the need for good social skills.

Baby Boomers should focus on these three areas to overcome the stereotypes that too often prevent getting the next job.

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