As a "woman of a certain age" in an undeniably sucky economy, it's tempting to lament about the lack of employment opportunities and employers' seeming preference for "interns," "recent college grads," and "young, energetic workers." Yes, I've seen the word "young" used in job postings, even though it is illegal. The thing is, lamenting doesn't get you anywhere. Because I've lived a few years, I know this! So here are my words of wisdom for the day:
Don't lament -- reinvent!
I'm not going to deny that you will encounter obstacles and that age prejudice exists. Lots of prejudice exists. But look at those things like spikes on a bumper pool table. Are you going to focus on the bumps or the path around them?
Look at Madonna. There were some unflattering cracks about her performance at the Super Bowl's halftime show. But she still did it, and did it well. She started in the 1980s with a certain style and then kept changing it up -- reinventing herself. Celebrities do it all the time. It's true that you can only be a wide-eyed ingenue for so long. You can't do the same thing for 20 years. So why do we expect that to be different in the job market?
I once interviewed specialty advertising vendors and wanted to pick the most innovative thinker. I awarded the job to a younger, entrepreneurial man instead of the person who "had been doing the job for 20 years." When I asked him what he planned to do for us going forward, he didn't have an answer. He wanted to win on his experience. He could have kept the relationship if he had been willing to look forward and evolve. That's not an age issue -- it is an attitude issue.
I've been working in advertising since the mid '80s. If I want to continue to work, I need to embrace new technologies and strategies. I need to keep learning. The good news is that I bring more than technical knowledge to the table. I bring experience in the strategic thinking behind the technology. I don't just know how to Tweet, I know what to Tweet. And I know how to spell it. This combination of old-school basics and new-age execution is an added value.
There are two ages -- alive and not. As long as I'm here, I'm going to live in the present and look to the future. Don't look back. You're not going there!
