With the new anti-discrimination requirements watching potential employers, the task becomes ever more challenging for the interviewer to determine exactly how old the well-coifed applicant is that sits across the table from them. We baby-boomers do not always look our age—to borrow a well worn cliché!
Let me set the stage, first, by letting you know that I dress well, don’t have any gray hairs showing, and am in physically good shape.
The first time it happened to me, I was disarmed by the friendly, easy-going manner of the interviewer. She started chatting about music and how so many of the people she works with were not able to identify a certain rock group. Eager to please her and make a person-to-person connection with her, I chimed in with complete recognition of the group and laughed along with her. Believing that hiring criteria sought experience and expertise (especially in hi-tech), I refused to make the connection.
Needless to say, I was never called back.
The ageist spotlight glared with the next incident. All went spectacularly well through 2 separate phone interviews and I was asked to come in for the “final round” and meet the person on the phone. During the face-to-face interview, she asked me to explain how I would handle “spinning multiple dishes” at once. So I proceeded to share my multi-tasking technique(s). My interviewer exclaimed that not everyone understood the terminology “spinning dishes” from the performers on "Ye Olde" Ed Sullivan show. Immediately, I realized that I had been set up! Talk about crafty techniques!
They hired the younger woman who had interviewed just before me!
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The most recent age defining interview was with a very large, international, well-known and respected company. They were thrilled with my credentials, on paper. They were excited by the phone interview, I got along wonderfully with all 4 people I met during the interview process and yet, they said I didn’t fit in with the “team’s” personality.
It seemed like a shoe-in, as they say—BUT, after the phone interview and before the ‘live’ interviews, the recruiter insisted that I complete the application, with references galore and fax it back to them-to EXPEDITE the hiring process. On the cover page of the fax I was asked for my Date of Birth. I did not fill it out.
Eventually, I did get a job—not the job of my dreams nor the pay of my dreams—but definitely a job. The ending is not completely without bias, though. I had not been at the new job very long, when I mentioned my 6-year-old grandson, beaming with pride.
My young 40-ish boss said, “I didn’t realize you had a grandson.” My response should have been, “and what difference would that have made?”
Have we Baby Boomers fizzled in the Job Market? Not all of us can afford not to work and I am not ready to bag groceries or double size that burger!
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