5 tips when looking for a new job over the age of 40

5 tips when looking for a new job over the age of 405 tips when looking for a new job over the age of 40When I look in the mirror, for the first 5 seconds I still see a twenty- year -old. Then the visible wrinkles around my eyes and jowls provide a friendly reminder that Im not twenty anymore. At that moment in the mirror, I challenge myself physically as I dont feel like Im over forty, and the face Im looking at cannot be accurate, but according to my birth certificate, it is. I mean, hell, I still feel young, so how can I look so different? Simply put, Im just a twenty-year-old that now has twenty-five years of work experience, a family, and has jurneyed through the ups and downs of life. Even though this is what I believe, I now know others dont feel the saatkorn, especially when it comes to the workplace.Here is my recent reality check. Last year I left my corporate job of 14 years. I was in a space where I had the opportunity to find a new job with a new company. I felt fresh, e xcited and limitless. Although it had been a while since I last interviewed, I thought, No problem. Ive got this. I used to any get any job I wanted, so finding a new one should pretty be easy. After a few interviews, good interviews I thought, I wasnt getting hired. Frustration set in because I could not figure out what was so different this time around. After all, my resume was stronger and more accomplished than in my younger years.But something had changed. I aged.Call me naive, but I did not think that my age would be an obstacle in the workplace. I had heard this from other women over the years, but I chose not to believe them because certainly, it would never happen to me.Here is a true storyA sales recruiter was helping a sales manager fill an open position. The recruiter sent her a resume of a female candidate with a college graduation date of 1998. The sales manager abruptly turned down the resume. In addition, she let the recruiter know that she didnt want to see any resu mes with college graduation dates prior to 2003. This was the sales managers criterion for what she deemed to be a viable candidate. notlage experience, not achievements, not abilities. Simply age.This true story was painful for me to hear. Here was a woman selling out other women and contributing to the stigma that we fight every day and sadly her perspective is a harsh reality. However, let this statistic give you another reality check and perspective. In 2024, women over 65 will make up roughly the same percentage of the female workforce as older men do of the male workforce. Additionally, twice as many women over 55 will be in the labor force as women ages 16-24.Knowing the stigma, knowing the numbers, and the reality, what is the best way to approach finding a new job later in life? Here are 5 tips when looking for a new job over the age of 401. Use your networkSending our resumes to career websites will do nothing for us. We get pushed aside as we are categorized. The tip here is to use our network of colleagues, former business associates, and friends to find companies who are hiring and will have a genuine interest in what we can do for their organizations. This method does work. Finding like-minded individuals with the same goals of working smart and getting stuff done will provide the best platform for finding a new working environment.2. Show off your skillsAt this point in our careers, we have a proven list of accomplishments and skillsets. We have navigated some of our toughest times and have already been through the learning. Because of this we require less training and possess the right skills, because yeah, we know how to do it. We need to show off our confidence and accolades to a potential employer. They need to know that our leadership skills and experience will fit in flawlessly with their company.3. Be boldWe can ask harder questions in the interview process and as an employee. Perhaps questions that challenge company methods or goals. If anything as women, unfortunately, we have been taught to be compliant and agreeable to get through the stepping -stones of our careers. We dont have to do that anymore. We have arrived. Work experience has taught us to think quickly, make decisions and share opinions. We have a lot to teach, and hiring companies need to appreciate this.4. Seek a mentor, be a mentorIn recent weeks I have had great women mentor me. Women of a certain age. Women who are drama free, make sh*t happen and dont sweat the small stuff. I appreciate them, have learned from them and have committed to do the same for others. This is important as this will help us change the tide and break the stigma.5. We are already tech-savvyMuch to the disbelief of others, age doesnt stifle our tech knowledge. Its who we are as a society. Most of us already use work-related apps like Zoom, Slack, Dropbox, and others. The point is, our tech knowledge isnt lacking, so that is no excuse for hiring companies or managers. We are already there. This is not a hindrance.The battle continues. In my earlier years as a woman in the corporate world, I fought to make a mark. Now, Im fighting the same female battle in addition to 20+ years of life and work experience. This should get easier, shouldnt it? It doesnt, so it is up to us to change it. We have to change the mindset by challenging the current stigma. Because we have arrived and we are not going anywhere.Holly Caplan is a workplace issues expert, award-winning manager and author of Surviving the D-ck Clique A Girls Guide to Surviving the Male Dominated Corporate World. For more information, please visit,www.hollycaplan.comand connect with her on Twitter, hollymcaplan.

Here are the top places people fall asleep on the job

Here are the top places people fall asleep on the jobHere are the top places people fall asleep on the jobHow many corners of the office is it possible to nap in? Recent research shows that people have gotten creative, whether they meant to or it happened accidentally.Amerisleep surveyed more than 1,000 people viaAmazons Mechanical Turk and revealed the most popular places respondents admitted theysleptat work, broken down by industry.Where people catch Zs on the jobDesks, offices, meeting rooms - and even cars - are among the most popular places where people say theyve caught up on their rest while at work.While offices and other seem to be the least appealing spots for sleeping employees, meeting rooms and desks/cubicles are the most popular, especially among employees in finance, technology, government, and education. The car seems to fall in the middle in terms of popularity, most-often used by people in the medical field, education, and government.But how do people feel about sleeping on the job overall?The research also shows that among people who say they have done so, 34% have deemed it unacceptable, versus 46.4% who think its ok. But among people who say they havent ventured there,79.3% think its unacceptable, while 11% think it isnt a problem.But while 21% of people said theyd been caught snoozing on the job, 49.7% said it went nowhere, compared to 11% who got a written warning and 35.3% who got a verbal warning. Just 4% said other.

Emma Stone on why your anxiety can actually be a super power

Emma Stone on why your anxiety can actually be a super powerEmma Stone on why your anxiety can actually be a super powerFor anyone who suffers from anxiety-and that is many of you asGeneralized Anxiety Disorder affects around6.8 millionpeople in the U.S. or mora than 3% of the countrys adults-you know it can be absolutely debilitating. But Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone, who had herbei first panic attack at age 7 points out, it can also be a great asset if you have the right tools.Stone, who started opening up about her anxiety in the last few years, spokewith Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz for the Child Mind Institute on Oct. 1 at Advertising Week. As a child, she loved learning and reading, but the summer after first grade everything changed. Before I went into second grade, I had my first panic attack. It was really, really terrifying and overwhelming, the 29-year-old said. I was at a friends house, and all of a sudden I was convinced the house was on fire and it was burning down obvio usly the house wasnt on fire, but there was notlagelagehing in me that didnt think we were going to die. She stopped being able to sleep over at friends houses and though she continued to attend school, she was often paralyzed by anxiety if she didnt know where her mother was at all hours of the day.She went into therapy which helped a lot as she learned that her anxiety was a monster that she could control. She even wrote a small paper book calledI Am Bigger Than My Anxiety. Stone spoke about it in another interview, I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that arent true. And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger. If I listen to it enough, it crushes me. But if I turn my head and keep doing what Im doing let it speak to me, but dont give it the credit it needs then it shrinks down and fades away.She also found solace by participating in community theater. Stone said she found her people there and found that her feelings could actually be really productive. Doing theater, specifically improv, was a great release from her usual state, even the antithesis of anxiety. Well, its presence. And for somebody that likes to perform that combined with absolute presence and needing to listen really intently works and I believe people who have anxiety and depression are very sensitive and very, very smart because the world is hard and scary and when you are really sensitive and attune to all of that it can be crippling, but if you dont let it cripple you and you use it for something positive or productive, its like a superpower.And so with improv, I learned that I could take all these big feelings and just really listen in the moment, and use all of my associative brain that wakes me up still in the middle of the night with stressful thoughts The thing that still haunts me to this day is useful in my job, and Im so grateful for it.When she performed she felt totally free from anxiety and the monster j ust disappeared.Now not all of us are actors for a living and are doing as something as creative and fun as improv but the emphasis here really needs to be on finding the right tools to help you manage your anxiety and channel it in useful ways.You dont have to be an actor to overcome anxiety, you dont have to be a writer to overcome it. You just have to find that thing within you that you are drawn to.Anxiety is essential to her careerAnxiety though, in particular, has helped Stone in her line of work.Absolutely. Its invaluable. Along with my belief that were smarter - were just so smart, us anxious people Just kidding. We are more sensitive. I also believe theres a lot of empathy when youve struggled a lot internally. Theres a tendency to want to understand how people around you work, or whats going on internally with them, which is great for characters. Its great to be able to kind of dig into who these people are, what their struggles are, what their secrets are, and how they p resent themselves is not always how they feel inside. And thats a great gift as an actor to be able to do that because you find so many parts of yourself that you basically get to explore and exercise on a daily basis at work.And though she said making mistakes is a huge trigger for her, Stone said she has learned to except failures.I also have gotten really good at letting things go. Thats probably maturity, whether its relationships or parts or certain attitudes or feelings within yourself, you learn to, I think, let it go and release it much better than you do when youre young and youre really holding onto, This is how its supposed to be. Stone, who currently stars in the Netflix series Maniac, the new filmThe Favourite, and is the new face of Louis Vuitton, says her packed schedule is definitely one of her tools.Staying busy definitely is helpful Otherwise I can spin. Its much better as time has gone on. Now that I have more tools, I dont need to be the punching bag. But I defi nitely find being busy with a creative endeavor, an outlet like that is when Im happiestIt can be exhausting. leid sleeping is my kryptonite, for sure. But thats gotta be anybody, right?And just because she is now able to talk about it in an intelligent and reflective manner doesnt mean that Stone still doesnt get a little nervous.I panicked this morning, yall, she said, with a laugh at the beginning of the event. I wasnt expecting to, but I definitely did.