In most countries, it’s illegal for employers to discriminate based on age, but any older job-seeker will tell you it happens every day and anywhere in the world.

Reality is that people need to keep working past traditional retirement age, so getting bitter and discouraged is not recommended. Instead “over 50” job seekers, as others, need to plan their approach to job finding. Here are some clues to help adjust our way of thinking:

1. It’s not about you: You need to understand why someone would hire you. Or what is the employer’s need and expectation from someone who will perform the tasks that are required by the position.
2. Don’t complain about your last company, your financial situation, your health, your children…etc. The employer really doesn’t care. They are interested in earning more revenue, not in providing you with counseling. Company’s may have a mission statement that says employees are their most important assets, but in reality, the bottom line is how they determine if they are a successful company or not.
3. Forget the past for now: Leave any bitterness or unfair treatment behind and don’t even mention anything negative about past employers or colleagues.
4. Show you are up to date: Keeping up with technology, management systems, and quality programs etc…
5. Make the human connection: Prove that age is really no object and that you will be able to integrate the company culture.
6. Network... Network… Network… Don’t be ashamed, ask people to let you know when they hear about a job opening. Get in touch with your colleagues at a previous employer; Join an employment / recruitment website.
7. Age is a state of mind: Unless you’re going for a top executive level position, do not ‘brag’ that you have “over 30 years” of experience on your resume or in a cover letter. Remove the year you graduated from your resume. Remove the first 10 or more years of jobs, if you can, from your resume. Do not give anyone with a predisposition to ageism a reason to put your resume in the ‘circular file.’ Remember, the purpose of a resume is to get you an interview - not get you the job. Therefore you do NOT have to put everything on the resume.
8. Don’t assume that, because you are older than your peers, you know more than your peers. Everybody brings something of value to the table.
9. Focus on what problems you can solve for the employer, not on how much vacation you want or the size of the office that you “deserve”. If there wasn’t a problem, the company wouldn’t be spending money to hire a new employee.
10. When you get the interview, watch how you dress and even how you wear your hair. Some (far too many) people make snap judgments based on how you look, and if (in their eyes) you look old-fashioned, you may lose the job on that basis alone. Go out and buy a new dress or suit, get a new hairstyle, cover that gray, and invest in new, stylish eyeglasses. Perception is often everything and you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.
11. You need to appear excited about work, no matter that you’ve been doing it for 30 years and can now do it with your eyes closed.
12. Be brutally honest with yourself. Understand how you are perceived by others - the way you look, the words you use, the attitudes you hold (too tightly). Bottom line - clean up your act before you enter the market.
13. Don’t be hurt when you don’t get a response. Most companies and recruiters receive many more overtures than they can handle. The responses you receive will be important so treat them as such and with urgency.
14. Everything changes fast these days so be open to keep up to date by learning new skills.
15. This is war. Your mission is to get hired. Weapons: Your vast experience! How to do it: Put them at ease. They get credit for a good job hiring the right person. Show them that you will make them look good.
16. Become a freelancer: Many local, regional, and international companies could benefit from your expertise. Publish a Freelancer profile and show them what you can accomplish. We are truly a benefit to many companies, and the person that needs to know this most of all is…ourselves.

Good luck, and remember luck favors prepared spirits