Dealing With Age Discrimination - Coaching Moment

Welcome to Coaching Moment. This is a series where the Work It Daily team will sit down and give you some straight-talk advice on comments we're getting here on YouTube.

In today's episode, JT O'Donnell addresses age discrimination and how to deal with it when it happens during your job search. There are two ways to approach it - and she will explain why one is better than the other.

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[RunOs]

Age discrimination is illegal. If a company decides to discriminate based on age it is a violation of the person's civil rights. You are not the bigger person because you decide to overlook that and allow them to continue to break the law. And there is a difference between discriminating between who's qualified and who's not for a position and breaking the law. I would never advise anyone to work for a company that has no decent moral standard and breaks the law. And they should be called out for unethical hiring practices.

[pk]

Sweeping this discrimination under the rug and pretending it isn't a problem isn't helping anyone, it's enabling the discrimination.

[christeveva]

Great idea & humanitarian... you're right, I choose to build a network with people in that company so everybody is happy :). Thanks for this great advise...

[annadaloisio]

HI! With the help of Linkedin I have gotten in touch with employees of a company where I wanted to work. Guess what ?? no one got back to me. I thought I was very polite in asking for feedback but guess people are busy during the day. Just thought I would share. Thanks for all your great videos.

[DebraFeldman]

Sometimes when you know you are right, you still must pick your battles and keep focused on the long game. However, in the heat of the moment, it's not always easy to remember that you should be strategic and can wait and see what happens before taking action. In my experience, few have the patience to overlook age discrimination. Fewer hold back and invest in developing a relationship. Most will just scratch a company off as a target employer and concentrate their search on lower-hanging fruit.

[spburrows]

In my opinion, the problem of age discrimination in hiring decisions is an unwinnable dilemma for job seekers. As I stated in an earlier posting, even if you can navigate your application and resume past an ATS filter, the employer can always cite some miniscule difference between your experience, education, and other qualifications and the job description and they are shielded from negative consequences for selecting against you. Telling the older applicant that they are 'overly sensitive' or 'a poor fit' is nonsense. When a company doesn't want you (for whatever reason, fair and legal, or otherwise) they are simply not going to hire you. Coming up with some HR doublespeak excuse like 'poor fit' or 'overqualified' doesn't make it justifiable.

When I first personally encountered this problem two years ago (at age 56) while applying for the few chemist jobs in my region of the country, I was at first completely ignored. Later I optimized my resume for ATS systems and took steps to make it harder to determine my age from it. I got some interest, but most of the companies or recruiters eventually got around to demanding to know when I graduated high school, which makes no sense in considering somebody with multiple college degrees, other than for the sole purpose of estimating applicant age.

Telling me to 'network' with the company before applying for their jobs is a non-starter. As another poster commented, "I need a job now, not six months or two years from now...". Also, most employers are closed entities. I can't just drop by their office to chat or seek inside information for future use. Maybe 'stalking' the company on LinkedIn or Facebook, with frequent 'likes' will get a little attention, ultimately you always end up in the same place. Your application or an interview reveals your age and you are politely labeled 'overqualified', 'a poor fit...', or just simply ignored. Also, employers are probably well aware of internet stalking and schmoozing strategies to bypass their HR filters. If we can think of these 'unconventional' approaches, so can the employers.

Throughout my life I have heard politicians and industry leaders complain about an insatiable demand for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers. Well, if that 'need' is even remotely true, here I am and it shouldn't matter how old I am. I have an interview in about one day for a QA technician job at a local paint manufacturing facility for which I am uniquely qualified, based upon my technical expertise. The resume that a recruiter forwarded to this company should have made my age (+/- 5 to 10 years) abundantly clear. However, I am steeling myself for the 'Oh, you're older than we thought...' look from their manager and HR staff. It seems that most of the local chemical employers in my region (and there aren't many) would rather hire nobody at all rather than give me a chance. I can't simply relocate on a whim; I am married, own a home, and help take care of an elderly parent. No matter how employers and recruiters try to excuse or rationalize widespread age discrimination, it is out there and it is just plain wrong!

[chantelledesouza]

I definitely have gone through age discrimination. I've continuously been told I'm still young or I'm too young. Thank you so much for this video. It's important to network with the people there and understand their values and their personal values.

[Dream-bebe]

It’s happening to me. I am so disappointed and frustrated.

[BonTronAutomatic]

Great video! I would also love to add on here a snapshot in a correlation between age discrimination and a few communication glitches between a few generations. Baby boomers, Gen X, Millennial, ect. Each generation is known to communicate differently though common words, phrases and through the use of technology visual ques. Sometimes if were not able to communicate effectively during an interview we miss the common ground which makes the interviewer feel we would "Fit In/ be an effective communicator." Getting to know your interviewer/others who work for the company is a great way to see if you would even find that company to be a good fit for you, and how you communicate. Connection and communication is key.

[rachelthompson]

Can you do a video or series on how to deal with being hunted via linkedin for a great new job while working at one you love and how to deal with that whole process?

[kepstein]

Why would you want to work for an organization that discriminates?

[canlorlopes]

Age discrimination is real, what is even worse is race discrimination, it rips your heart everytime you lose a job or an opportunity to somebody less qualified, less experienced and less motivated for a vacancy, all in the guise of culture

[kathychase]

J.T., in general I find your advice helpful and informative. Elsewhere you have given some good suggestions about how to minimize the chance of age discrimination. But in this case I think you have missed the mark. Would you recommend that someone who thinks they have been discriminated against for other reasons (for example, because they are gay, unmarried, a pregnant woman, a single parent, disabled or a certain race or religion) just "be the bigger person"...and perhaps see if the prejudice could be overcome by trying to get to know/understand the people that work in a company? If not, think about why you would offer different advice in this situation -- and seem to give a pass to companies/people who discriminate based on age!

[SSS-hxnu]

Since you have a big influence on LinkedIn, your website and other job advice platforms, why don’t you try to influence hiring managers about the benefits of having younger, middle aged, and older employees. That diversity only helps a company.

[ellie_klempar]

As someone who has just finished college, has a little work experience in the sector I'm qualified for, and naturally looks younger than my actual age, I feel like any enthusiasm I show in an interview comes across as naivety. I don't want to come across as unenthusiastic because then I wouldn't be 'being myself', but at the same time I don't want to seem naïve. How do I strike a balance between the two, and show interveiwers that I know what I'm getting myself into and am not naïve?

[spburrows]

The notion that an outsider (the job applicant) has any control or input into hiring decisions made by a company or organization that is practicing age discrimination is an illusion. Most job descriptions (at least, that I have examined) are so narrowly defined that an employer can always counter argue that an applicant didn't meet some critical job requirement and that deficiency was the reason why the applicant wasn't hired. Also, I strongly suspect that most applicant tracking system (ATS) software is coded in such a way to bias against older applicants. Since most ATS is a subscription-based service rather than stand alone programs, the end-user (the hiring manager) is separated from direct knowledge of discriminatory bias while still benefitting from it. Concurrently, the company offering the ATS service or compiled software is probably no more liable criminally or civilly for age discrimination from their product or service than a firearms manufacturer is for misdeeds conducted with their products.

My own professional organization (the American Chemical Society) and faculty members of the university where I am pursuing a mid-life graduate degree flatly deny that anyone practices age discrimination. In both cases, either they don't want to see this reality (willfully ignorant) or inexcusably disconnected from the real world. Age discrimination is a fact of life and one of the few types of discrimination left that nobody really cares about stopping.

[carmenandreea]

This video is not helpful. Shall we understand why they reject us (because of our age) and forgive them?

[kittyg]

Wow.... all I have to say about this video. I found some of your other videos very useful but this one? I think others have already covered by thoughts but really, did you honestly suggest ignoring the fact that a company is violating the law and then - just to seal the deal - suggest the victim "be the bigger person" and work harder to convince them that you are worthy? I was in an interview a few month ago where the employer came right out and said they doubted I could learn the computer programs because I am "older", but that they were willing to give it a try. To bad, because I wasn't as willing to give them a try after that comment. You have a point if you are saying to people if you suspect but are unsure age was the issue for being passed over then take a second look, but that is not what this video was titled.

[trinityml]

This sounds like more victim blaming, victim shaming. Who has time to network and schmooze around with the company before you consider interviewing with them? I need a job now, not after researching the company for weeks and weeks. And as someone else said age discrimination is not a mindset, it's illegal. I need a job just as badly as that 20-year-old does. So please stop doing this.

[Kate-Does]

How does this channel have 259K subscribers? This lady is absurd!