If you want to find a job during your golden years, keep
your résumé to a reasonable length while highlighting your strengths, make sure
you polish your professional and social skills, and consider temporary work
that could lead to permanent employment, say two national hiring experts. Working
for pay in retirement is a goal for many people, research shows. About 65%
of workers plan to work in retirement, but only 27% of retirees say they are
employed, one survey found. Among the top reasons retirees give for
continuing to work: They want to stay active and involved, they enjoy working,
and they need the money.
Jennifer Sullivan Grasz, vice president of corporate communications
for CareerBuilder, and Cash Nickerson, the author of BOOMERang, offer these
tips to increase your chances of getting a job:
• Evaluate your
professional skills. List the three to five top skills you needed for
each position you have had and look for patterns. This can help you pinpoint
what you're really good at.
• Limit your
résumé to no more than two pages, and your cover letter should be one
page. If the résumé is too long, you look overqualified and too expensive.
• Spell out your
skills in both the résumé and cover letter. Make it clear what tasks you
can do and what contribution you can make for the new company.
• Make sure your
résumé matches the job description. Be truthful, concise and emphasize
your work skills, not your life accomplishments or your life history.
• Post different
versions of your résumé online. Mature workers often have a broader range
of experience and skill sets, so write different versions of your résumé to
appeal to a wider cast of employers. Search job boards, talk to staffing firms
and check with professional organizations.
• Highlight your
strengths. Emphasize the unique advantages you bring because of your
tenure in the workforce, she says. Mature workers not only offer a wealth of
professional experience, they also offer a wealth of life experience. Mature
workers have been through the ups and downs of economic cycles, have overcome
major obstacles, driven innovation and mentored new generations of workers.
• Keep up your
social skills. If you are going to interview well, you'll do better if
you've been out socializing with a wide range of people. Your social skills
deteriorate or atrophy if all you do is sit around the house.
• Stay positive
in job interviews. If asked about something that didn't go well, be
brief about it. If you are being interviewed by someone who is younger than
you, don't act like you know it all or be smug or parental.
• Ask and
listen. When you are in an interview situation, don't just talk about
yourself. Think of it as a sales call. Successful sales calls involve 80%
asking and listening, and only 20% talking about your product or service. In an
interview, you are the product.
• Couch your
words carefully if you were laid off or let go from your last position. Don't
say anything negative about the previous company. Put yourself in the
employer's shoes. They don't want to hear what was wrong with your last employer.
Employers want people who are easy to deal with.
• Consider
temporary work. A lot of temporary jobs lead to permanent employment.
It's a way to get your foot in the door, and it's a way for you to try
something new and learn how your skills are perceived by others.
• Volunteer for
charitable groups. This allows you to meet new groups of people, he
says. People who hire other people go to charitable events. The more you
engage, the better off you are. Don't sit at home, send out résumés and do
nothing else.
• Be open to
taking some steps backward. If you were managing teams and staffs of
engineers, you may have to go back and do engineering work. This is important,
because you've got to start somewhere.
• Make sure you
network. You likely have an extensive professional network that you
can tap into for referrals or information on job openings. Keep in touch with
former co-workers, vendors and clients and reach out to family and friends.
Chances are someone knows someone who can help you get your foot in the door.
• Continue to
learn. The one thing employers love to see is that you stayed active
and continued to learn, she says. Whether you take a one-off college course,
get certified in a new line of work or simply volunteer, any efforts to build
up new skill sets will leave a positive impression on hiring managers.
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