Surviving Your New Job: Tips for Older Workers

Older workers often face many myths and unique struggles while finding a new job. Upon arrival to their new workplace they may not see peers that resemble themselves age wise immediately. Working with their new team they may not feel the fit right away. Their peers may have some interesting pre-conceived notions about older workers that include lack of new skills or any “hip factor”. The fact of the matter is your new employer has hired you for a reason. Your employer believed in your ability to deliver on your skills, your experience as well as knowledge for this job.

Photo by Kyle Bondeson

Myths about Older Workers

We may have heard some interesting ideas about older workers. Things like “they are not technology savvy” or “older workers are not flexible”. The truth is older workers can be very up to date with technology; they are reliable, and bring a wealth of experience to the workplace. Older workers tend to have less sick days and tend to be more flexible with work schedules.

Team Fit

Some of the first things an older worker can do to fit into their team right away is to fully understand their role, the responsibilities, as well as expectations. Meet with your new manager and let them know about your strengths and discover what challenges may be present, as well as any initial priorities you will be required to deliver on. This is your roadmap to your success in this new career. When meeting with your peers or team, ask them what they feel the challenges have been for them working together on tasks. Initially you may want to avoid sharing too many stories of your past and overcoming similar issues. Instead work as a team to find the solutions together but do offer ideas or suggestions.

Culture Fit

Working in a diverse workplace means many things. This can be age diversity, cultural diversity, sexual orientation diversity, working with people who have disabilities, and single parents. There is a whole new workforce waiting to meet and work together so understanding the different groups that have come together in your new work environment is important. While it is natural to want to associate with peers that most closely resemble you, it is a good idea to also meet with different people at work. Get to know your younger colleagues and other people from diverse groups.

Life Long Learning

It is very important for everyone, not just older workers to maintain a philosophy and practice of life long learning. With our constantly changing workplaces, we need to keep up. Older workers need to stay current with computer skills and any other business skills they may use at work. Invest in yourself and take courses through work when possible as well as through resources you can find outside of work.

Surviving your first few weeks on the job can be challenging but the important fact to remember is that your employer has faith in you to deliver a job well done, regardless of age.

If you’re an older worker, what have been some of your greatest challenges when starting a new job?

Michele Matheson is a Career Coach and Corporate Recruiter who has spent the past 20 years connecting people to careers. Her passion is working with older workers and helping them navigate their job searches and find meaningful careers. She brings many years of experience from the staffing and recruiting industry as well as working as a case manager supporting clients with multiple barriers return to the workforce.  You can connect with Michele through LinkedIn at 
ca.linkedin.com/pub/michele-matheson-ccdp/14/712/3b8.

Exploring Career Engagement

Career engagement is defined as the emotional and cognitive connection to one’s career; it is a state where one is focused, energized, and able to derive pleasure from life’s activities. Career engagement focuses on the dynamic interaction between challenge (i.e., level of difficulty; stimulating, fascinating, and invigorating activities) and capacity (i.e., skills, resources, relationships, conflicts). Too much challenge for the available capacity and individuals move out of the zone of engagement towards overwhelmed. Conversely, too little challenge moves individuals towards underutilized. Without these two dimensions being in re-balanced individuals can become completely disengaged.

Within the career engagement model, the use of career, as opposed to work, employee, or even life engagement is intentional. The goal is to encourage you to consider your level of engagement across the broad meaning of career (i.e., “the interaction of work roles and other life roles over a person’s lifespan including both paid and unpaid work”; European Lifelong Guidance Partnership Network, 2012).

In my recent explorations into career engagement, work was having the biggest impact on whether or not individuals were able to be engaged. Take time to reflect on your work role. Do you feel engaged? Overwhelmed? Underutilized? Using the career engagement model, you can explore your level of engagement from the challenge component by reflecting on whether your current role is too difficult, or too easy; also consider whether you have opportunities to be stimulated and fascinated by the work you are doing.

In exploring your level of career engagement from the capacity component, reflect on whether you have the resources necessary to meet the challenges your job presents. Consider skills, knowledge/education, access to equipment, sufficient budget, supportive colleagues and supervisors, as well as supportive friends and family. Remember to look at your whole life, even when focusing on your work role – sometimes your energy is being consumed by challenges at home making work seem more difficult when, in reality, it is personal challenges that are reducing your overall capacity.

Your goal should be to balance challenge and capacity in order to stay within the zone of engagement. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, strive to either increase your level of capacity or reduce the level of challenge. If you’re feeling underutilized, look for opportunities to increase your level of challenge . . . reducing level of capacity is also an option but likely much harder to do; after all, you can’t suddenly become less-skilled at your job.

If you are interested, I’m currently collecting data for my doctoral dissertation where the career engagement model is a focus of my research. Click here to review the official invitation to participate in the research study and access the link to the survey.

Recognizing the Multifaceted Nature of Diversity – Tips for CDPs

Career development practitioners (CDPs) regularly work within a fixed program/service mandate, typically stipulated by the funding source. For many, such a mandate often defines a very specific client group (e.g., immigrants). This approach tends to lump all clients from a particular group into one category, forgetting that diversity is far more complex.

At Life Strategies, we strive to take a broad definition of diversity, looking beyond visual clues (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity) to include a multitude of other factors (e.g., sexual orientation, religion, educational background, level of ability, communication style, speed of learning and comprehension). Although we recognize that focusing on one element of diversity can provide targeted initiatives to support the needs of specific groups, it is equally important to ensure assumptions about individuals aren’t made due to their inclusion in the broader group. 

For example, a client who is Aboriginal may be impacted by challenges related to that group; however, perhaps the client is also a woman, perhaps an older woman. In that instance, she can likely also identify with challenges related to sexism and ageism. To further complicate the matter, perhaps this particular client doesn’t identify with her Aboriginal culture – perhaps she’s worked outside of Canada for the past 10 years and is just returning to the Canadian workforce. Consequently, a program focussed on supporting Aboriginal clients may not fit her particular circumstances. Perhaps something targeted to repatriates would be a better fit.

As the case above illustrates, individuals are multifaceted; it would be easy to make assumptions about this client if she was only considered as Aboriginal. CDPs can better serve their clients if they recognize and appreciate a broader definition of diversity. We recommend taking a culturally-curious approach; don’t assume what you know about a specific group applies to an individual member of that group. Get to know your client; take time to listen to his/her story.

Interviewing the Interviewer

Katharine Hepburn once said, “Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.” As an actress Hepburn was probably referring to interviews about her work and life but, for many, this quote fits for the dreaded job interview.

Any Internet search will result in millions of hits offering advice on how to be successful in job interviews, explaining the types of interviews, and even the meaning of some of the strange questions interviewees may encounter such as “How would you get an elephant into a refrigerator?” asked by Horizon Group Properties or “If you could be a superhero, what power would you possess?” asked by Rain and Hail Insurance.

In any interview it is important to be yourself; there’s a saying in HR – “hire for skill and fire for fit.” Regardless of the question or the format, the interviewer is trying to get a sense of whether or not you’ll “fit” with the organization as well as whether or not you have the skills/expertise to do the job. However, job interviews are also a perfect time for you to interview the employer. It’s your chance to determine whether the job and organization is a good fit for you.

Do your research to learn as much about the organization and its culture before sending your resume. As you arrive to the interview, continue your research paying attention to the environment and the people. As your interview begins, strive to make it a two-way conversation. Be prepared for when it is your turn to ask questions. Strive to ask questions that will help you assess whether or not the job is a good fit for you. This is your chance to learn whether it is really the job you want.

---

Snapshot Of Diversity In The Workplace [Infographic]

The folks at Career Builder have put together this snapshot of diversity in the workforce.  Find the full infographic by clicking on the picture below.

Targeting Your Resume to Stand Out

 

To make your resume stand out from the crowd, don’t waste your time on fancy paper or fonts. Instead, take the time to target your resume to the specific job and organization you’re applying to. With only 20-30 seconds to impress the employer, you’ve got to demonstrate your fit fast. A targeted resume presents employers with content that clearly showcases your skills, knowledge, and experience in relation to the position; employers aren’t left “guessing.”

To target your resume, first carefully review the job ad for clues as to what knowledge, skills, and abilities the organization is looking for. Identify any key words and, whenever possible, use those same terms in your resume. Keywords play an important role in the pre-screening process. Often only those resumes that successfully get past pre-screeners are reviewed by the HR department and/or managers. If you have some gaps in qualifications, don’t panic; gaps can be addressed in your targeted cover letter. Carefully consider how you’ll overcome these gaps and highlight what other value you bring to the position.

Don’t stop with qualifications. Investigate corporate culture and target your resume here as well. A company’s website can give your clues on the corporate culture. Take a look for a corporate mission statement or articles on the organization’s charitable endeavours. If you can make a link between your own values and the organization’s, you’ll be able to demonstrate a good corporate fit.

Ultimately, you want to make it as easy as possible for the organization to see your relevant qualifications and fit within the organization. And always remember, a clean, concise, and error-free resume is a must. For more tips on resume writing, see 10 Tips for Crafting a Compelling Resume.

The Logistics Of e-Coaching

Mention you're thinking about e-counselling or coaching, whether as a client or as a professional, and you'll almost certainly get mixed reactions. Some people embrace the idea; others will tell you it can’t be done. Most fall somewhere between those extremes. We've chosen to co-author this article from a middle ground perspective; having experienced e-counselling/coaching as clients, professionals, students, and instructors, we see this in multiple shades of grey.

Naysayers express concerns that effective counselling/coaching requires access to body language and tone of voice; however, working online doesn't preclude that. Effective e-counselling/coaching can happen via email, phone, Skype, e-chat, and even texting. Contextual cues can be provided through emoticons (e.g., “smileys”) or bracketed statements (e.g., [huge sigh . . . wow, that's so hard to think about]); this, of course, requires effective modelling and teaching/coaching your clients how to communicate in this medium. Professionals can explore missing details through questioning (e.g., “You’re writing hints that this may be a difficult subject to discuss; what are you feeling when you write about this?”)

Even easier and more natural is to use technologies that effectively transmit video and voice (e.g., Skype with webcams). For example, once Roberta was using Skype to counsel a Canadian client working abroad in a remote community. At one point in their conversation, Roberta noticed her client reach for a Kleenex and wipe her eyes. Although Roberta had missed the emotion in her voice - she didn't sound particularly upset at that point - because of the webcam, she was able to observe and comment on the client’s body language, resulting in a very powerful counselling moment that helped the client turn a significant corner.

Identifying the most appropriate technology for each client, and equipping the client to use it effectively, is another logistical challenge; in our experience, employing a mix of platforms works best. Being comfortable with the technology you choose is essential; you’ll need to troubleshoot when problems arise. For example, Miranda was working through Skype with someone overseas but the connection continually dropped the calls. They then moved to a Skype text chat to continue the momentum of the session. After a few calls they realized that the call connection was stronger at certain times of day and adjusted their schedules accordingly. Technology is simply the channel to reaching goals; if it isn’t working, try another channel.

To become a competent e-counsellor or coach, we encourage you to access relevant professional development. When Roberta first began teaching online, she chose to take one online course to experience it from the students' perspective – she went on to complete three full certificate programs in e-teaching, e-course development, and e-coaching. When Miranda began to teach e-coaching, she volunteered as a client for several coaches - learning much in the process.

Working online can expand your practice, offer a convenient alternative to some of your current clients, and help you and your clients balance complex life roles and demands. We encourage you to explore the potential for e-counselling and e-coaching and, if you decide to proceed, to engage in the research, professional development, and technologies that will ensure your new services are effective.

Also visit our article about e-Coaching Ethics on the Contact Point wesite: http://contactpoint.ca/the-ethics-of-e-counselling/

Roberta Neault, president of Life Strategies Ltd., is an award-winning career counsellor, published author, and international speaker, serving as consulting editor of the Journal of Employment Counseling and past president of CCPA's Career Counsellors Chapter.

Miranda Vande Kuyt is an associate with Life Strategies and an experienced e-coach and consultant.  You can join Miranda in an upcoming e-coaching course http://lifestrategies.ca/services/courses/short-courses.cfm.