Turning silver into gold - companies are finally wooing 55+ job seekers

Today's Career Journal (the on-line career pages of the Wall Street Journal) spotlights a growing number of job sites focusing on recruiting candidates over 55: Online Job Networks for the 55-Plus Crowd.

The tide is finally turning and companies are realizing that they are in jeopardy of losing institutional memory, innovation, and marketshare as their best workers begin to retire in droves. Well, duh! We could have told them that!

Comments

[Andrea Kay]

Whenever I see data such as the recently released “Best Careers” survey published by CareerJournal.com, I want to scream. They say the data is based on individual worker satisfaction and that most highly satisfied employees said their work gives them intellectual stimulation, strong job security, a high level of control and autonomy and extensive direct contact with customers or clients. No kidding. Other than extensive contact with customers, most everyone wants those things. It goes on to list the jobs where you are most likely to find them such as medical researcher, hospital and clinic managers, social workers and high school special-education teachers. This is what really irks me. What about your skills and interests and the many other factors that go into having a “best career”? What did these people mean when they said they were intellectually stimulated? A career in which you’re evaluating data all day could be intellectually stimulating to one person and a death sentence to someone else. Everyone is looking for a magic list of “Best Careers”. They think they’ll find it in a test, until it tells them to become a funeral director. Many miserable workers thought they’d found it when others told them the best field to go into is computers. Now they’re more miserable. Information like this is misleading and perpetuates the hope that the “best career” for you is on a list and guarantees career happiness and security. The question is, do you want to go after a career that others like for reasons that have nothing to do with you or do you want a satisfying and fulfilling career that is about who you are and what you really want? If it’s the latter, go beyond the list.