Forbes' recent article on ageism in the jobs market triggered recognition among over 45s (hands up). And trepidation among those approaching the big 4-oh.
But I think a lot of that reaction is confirmation bias. If you've been seeking a new role in this toughest of times, the anecdotes of the Forbes article - and of many folks experiences - confirm the age paranoia that besets a society which often appears to bow to the alter of youth.
But I want to offer a little reassurance and a little less fatalism.
Let's consider where we are. In simple terms the jobs market can be split into three broad parts.
1. Those that make things.
In the digital realm I have made my career in, that's the coders and engineers.
2. Those that work out what we should make.
Call that strategy and innovation. Product, service and experience design.
3. Those that sell the things that have been made.
Sales teams of every hue, from BDMs to consultative client partners.
As I outlined in The Great Backlog Clearance - many a panicked organisation has been caught with its pants down by Covid-19. Finally waking to the urgency of digital transformation, the first thing they have done is got on with the seriously overdue and overlong to-do list they have built up in back-log over a decade or more.
They know what they want to make. So they need people to make it.
If they were smart they would revalidate desirability, feasibility and viability with the strategy and innovation folk. But many have just 'gone-for-it!'.
This 'making it' market is mostly served by younger people. Get good at coding or engineering and (way too often) you get promoted into the kind of VP roles that move you out of doing and into thinking. And in the current climate - priced out of a job.
Those in the third part of my break-down, the sellers, they are in demand. They will be in increasing demand. Mostly because when you just crack through your backlog without engaging the strategy and innovation folk, you end up making things people don't want. That gets increasingly hard to sell. The first response is to throw more money at the sell-it part. In time this fails too - and we will see a return to demand for the strategy and innovation folks.
The sales roles are often seen as for the under 45s, too. But there are sales roles in which experience, subject matter expertise and the connections of a lifetime in the world of work, really do count. I'm talking consultative selling. Selling big ideas to bigco.
And these thoughts about the value of experience suggest that instead of seeing our age as a barrier to winning that next role, we should position it as a value proposition. Borrowing from Marcus Aurelius, what is in the way, becomes the way.
So if your age is the barrier (and forgiving that legally, it cannot be) - make it a value proposition. Your age is a powerful thing:
Other companies have had to invest millions of dollars/pounds/euros in creating the person you are today. They invested to enable your experience, skills, extensive network of valuable connections, resilience - and wisdom.
Now A.N Other business can acquire all that for a fraction of the money previously invested in you. They even get to pay for it in monthly instalments!
Over 45s are an absolute bargain: They (ok, we) represent an acquisition opportunity it would be foolhardy to pass over in favour of a 'cheaper' investment.
There is a reason newer job market entrants cost less to acquire.
I can't leave without resharing this: (3 professional footballers vs 100 kids).
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