5 Ways to Combat Age Discrimination in Hiring

The impact of ageism in the workplace environment is highly prevalent. People with the age range between 45-70 face significant discrimination when they go to find out a job or try to retain their place in their existing workplace. People often think the workers between the age gap of 50 or older are not suitable candidates to apply for a new job.

Also, most of the hirers assume that older ones are unable to continue with their work, similar to the zeal and zest of a younger person. However, ageism in hiring might be a very prevalent issue, but it can be fought off. Here are a few ways to deal with age discrimination during hiring to make your future production.

What is ageism in the hiring space?

Ageism is a form of discrimination against a person on the basis of their age. Ageists usually believe that older people lack interest in tech trends. Also, most of the time, ageists prefer to hire young professionals to practice various roles in client-handling.

On the other hand, older employees are usually the owner of better experiences. Hence, they have the potential to make more money with their sound knowledge and expertise. It can further make it tough to approach and sell themselves to a recruiter who is willing to pay less. Thus, the issue of ageism in the field of hiring is ever-growing, which is making things difficult for the older ones to bag a job.

Ways to deal with ageism during the hiring

Ageism might be a silent killer of job opportunities. But you can deal with it quite easily with a few useful considerations. Here is how do you combat age discrimination in hiring in a few impactful ways.

1. Go for the right company

Your efforts will go in vain if you opt for an improper company. Thus, you need to be very attentive and specific while you go to choose a company for you.

Also, there are places like new startups where most employees are millennials. As Peppercorn says, “there are companies [ that I know of] that won’t hire someone over 40.” Hence you must not want to be the oldest than anyone else in the company.

All you need to do is, opt for research on the internet before you approach. You can use the reviews for your decision-making. You can find out how a company behaves with its employees on the basis of these reviews before you apply.

Also, try to build networking, which will help you to find out your place of focus. It is better to pay attention to the age of other employees when you first visit an organization to submit your resume.

2. Work on your resume

Your resume says a lot of you in brief when you approach it in front of recruiters. There are plenty of things that you can do with your resume that can help the recruiters to know why they must hire you.

A stellar resume can help the recruiters to kick off their own prejudices. One of the best things you can do is, add a bit of a modern touch to your resume presentation. Doing little tweaks like changing the formatting, adding up fonts, and including a catchy bio can help you better. Before that, you need to decide which look of your resume suits best to your industry.

Further tips include:

• Make your resume fit on one page.

• Modernize your contact info by adding an email address, mobile number, full name, city, etc.

• It would be better to de-emphasize your education and eliminate your graduation dates.

• We recommend you create an ATS-friendly resume with keywords

• Enlist your recent professional experiences and impactful achievements

3. Be informative about the latest industry technologies

It is highly important that you are current with your industry technologies. The technologies are driving the path of various industries. Hence it is very important that you are aware of the new trends and techs.

As Nancy Halpern, an executive coach with KNH Associates in New York City, says, “You can’t try too hard. No one expects you to be the technology whiz, but nor do they want you to be a dinosaur.”

You can list up your social profiles on your resume. It will help your employers to know that you are quite comfortable with the latest technologies. You can take up a technology course to get some basic ideas about the latest technologies. It will further help you to assure your recruiters that you are flexible enough with the learning of new techs and trends.

4. Prepare for a professional approach during an interview

The final challenge that you will face prior to a job is opting for an interview. However, you need to carry forward a very professional attitude while approaching an interview to fight job search ageism. It is better to emphasize your excitement for your upcoming role rather than just flaunting your experience.

Also, it is better to show your willingness for a role where you can play both the lead and follower. Moreover, it is better to create a presence that reiterates that you are self-sufficient. Put the focus on your ability to work with a diverse range of people. You must show your genuine interest while opting for an interview.

5. Make considerations for flexible work

If you are experiencing ageism in your job search, then it would be better to consider flexible jobs. Part-time positions, along with alternative job schedules, can be good enough to consider.

It would be better for you to look for positions in smaller companies where the contractor project-specific positions or part-time jobs are much more viable options. You can also apply for remote jobs where you will not require much face time and can focus better on your work.

It will further make your challenges easier to work with younger associates when you do not require to think about your appearance.

Conclusion

Finding a job is simply possible regardless of your age if you possess good skills. However, ageism is prominent discrimination, which is eating up the opportunities for older ones. But it can be dealt with smartly if you know the right strategy.

Whether it is the resume distribution services or your approach technique, anything can land you a good job if you add value to it. Hence, work on it accordingly by following the above-mentioned tips.