On Peter’s LinkedIn Profile there are two questions that have received some excellent answers:
At what age do you think age discrimination (for older workers) starts?
What should older workers do about age discrimination?
Age discrimination is TOUGH. When I started my job search I was 32. I felt OLD compared to the college kids that were getting interviews… I figured they had smaller families (we had 3.5 kids – yeah, pregnant wife and laid off – not cool), no mortgage (I had recently moved from small-town to real city and my house price doubled), etc.
All that meant they could work for less… maybe not happily, but for me I had a minimum that I could not go below (or else I’d have to work two+ jobs).
At the same time, I felt pretty young compared to others I was competing with. As I started networking I found out that others who were trying for the same jobs I was shooting for had about 20 years experience more than I had. Same credentials, same degrees, but they had many more years experience than I had. I was TOO YOUNG.
Talk about being between a rock and a hard spot.
Head on over to the two links above to check out over 50 comments about age discrimination, and suggestions and advice. If the questions are closed feel free to leave a comment here on this post.
Age discrimination = YUCK!
