Job Hunting After 50: Winning Job Search Strategies!

Recently in a discussion with a friend, who took early retirement at age 58, and Wanted to go back to work, posed the question, “Why am I not getting interviews and job offers?” After over six months of hard work and applying for well over 100 positions he’s still waiting for his first job interview.
He was frustrated, no one seemed interested in his skills and he was convinced his age may be holding him back. His other concern was his prior executive position, are prospective employers not interested because he was over qualified for many positions? Clearly, job hunting after 50 can pose some difficulties, but could it be the problem was something he was doing or not doing.
Not getting job interviews could be two things: his resume combined with the way he was conducting his job search. Having applied for over 100 possible jobs we learned that his resume was more like an autobiography than a focused resume. Here was his other error; he sent basically the same resume to every employer. This you cannot do if you expect to get called in for an interview.
A prospective employer is only searching for someone with exactly the needs for the job. No more and no less. It’s rare for an employer to take the time to drill down through an applicant’s qualifications and find where the possible match might be. This job is up to the applicant to strongly communicate in their resume and cover letter submissions.
An additional problem was he thought his experience and achievements alone would sell his possible value to an employer. SO he neglected to conduct an aggressive networking campaign.
Here’s how we got this after 50 job hunter back on track.
1. We streamlined his resume. It was focused on achievements over the last fifteen years. All dates were removed which may have given the reader an indication of his age. He created a powerful summary statement of skills to headline the resume. Actually he crafted a number of summary statements so they could be tailored to meet the needs of the prospective employer. He wrote an impressive list of accomplishments.
2. His marketing message could now be individualized to meet the needs of the employer. No more one size fits all. Each resume and cover letter would be tailored to the requirements of the employer.
3. His social foot print was enlarged. His LinkedIn profile was expanded. He wrote several recommendations on former co-workers and several responded by writing recommendations on him. He became more visible on other social networking sites. An added benefit it shows as an over 50 job hunter he was not out of date and is current with the latest job hunting techniques.
4. He built a networking plan to take advantage of his many contacts. He joined a job search after 50 group. He became more active in industry related associations, and volunteered to help in organizing area meetings, seminars and workshops. At several he acted as host and gave several speeches. (Of course he published a press release before each event.)
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