One Foot in the Grave or to Run a Marathon?
Turning 40 meant recovery from the night before took 2 days instead of a hearty breakfast and lots of water, late nights out on a school night were a no no. 40 and after meant not scoffing at the idea of the gym or exercise and needing to do it after an epiphany of the greater relationship we can have with our bodies and minds when we take care of ourselves. Self-care, a wonderful attribute to being older. Getting older has meant a lot of things that could’ve been scary but there was a flip side as there is with everything in life.
Ageing also meant a realisation of a new confidence, a comfort in my own skin that had come over the years and signalled maturity. It meant an age where I was more determined, more single minded and dare I say it, more patient. The older we get, the more we mature, the more we are able to reflect and surge forward into a new prime of life where our accomplishments and learning of the years culminates in a gentle and quiet strength where we know exactly who we are and furthermore we don’t apologise for it. We no longer need to be liked and we don’t search for friends and relationships out of need or for validation, we have already landed.
At 41 I don’t just dream of running a marathon, I own the training plan and now it’s a matter of time lines and schedules to fit in training and pick which country. What we do not expect as we age is for the job market, for hiring managers, for society to decide on our behalf that we are ‘out of date’, ‘past it’, ‘too old’, ‘too expensive to hire’, ‘over qualified’. If you are over 40, even if nothing else in this blog rang a bell with you, these last remarks will.
These are the current, unofficial thoughts and utterances of those on the hiring side of the desk. We have wonderful, energised, thoroughly efficient and consummate professionals in our candidate database who have literally apologised for their age or for simply leaving it off their CV for fear of not being given an interview even. One woman this year actually said sorry for being all of 52 years old and said she was sure she would never get an interview let alone the job as her experience on the job market since being made redundant some months ago had been one of an ageist, ignorant response to her age. I asked her never to mention her age to anyone in a job situation ever again, to literally ignore it and proceed ignoring it. We put her forward for the role she wanted and 3 weeks later she started work.
There is a veritable surplus of professionals across all sectors with packed CVs featuring rich career histories and accomplishments. All untouched and ignored. Younger candidates are deemed more tech friendly, more malleable and best of all…. cheaper. Our work places are now at grave risk of a gender imbalance but also an age imbalance. Instead of taking advantage of the older candidate with his/her extensive skill set, we allot them to an unemployable, unmarked pile of CVs.
What we miss of course is the opportunity to hire older candidates who can offer mentoring to younger ones, who can advise management teams and collaborate with evidence-based experience as opposed to the textbook response. It is short-sighted to keep payroll lower by hiring younger candidates and it is a false economy in the long run. Younger candidates are more likely to change jobs, such is the career stage they are in. They will require training and development. They will require more hand holding and overall will not have the benefit of years of experience and maturity.
Successful organisations need both. Both genders and both age ranges. Each compliments the other and to miss out on either is short sighted to say the least.
About the author: Katerina Andreou is the founder of HR Innovate an HR and Recruiting firm based in Nicosia, Cyprus.
