Find Shared Core Values

Pointing out the generational differences in the workplace is now a stale conversation and no longer makes us the shining star. One of a few ways older job seekers can combat age discrimination and disrupt the hiring process is through relationships in the company and sharing common core values with the company itself.

In 2003, I worked for a small start-up where mostly everyone had families and marriages, but there was a high sense of integrity. I think that was why I made the cut as the questioning during the interview was to unveil my tolerance of a lack thereof.

It’s not that older workers are incapable of grasping tech, it’s the behavior– kicking and screaming about learning one more new thing. There is a place to meet in the middle where it’s possible the company inherently rewards behavior reflecting its core values.

Core values for most older workers manifest in their life and career

Employers can’t train personality or strong core values in employees. Although companies will emphasize the job skills gap, they want employees with the right soft skill set. One way for older workers to connect with employers is to display high core values. Employees are more invested in the company’s mission when they share core values.

These values for most older workers manifest in their life and career. At the company I worked for, the manager went out of his way to ensure we were clear about our customer’s expectation and how it should be reflected in the store first. It was drama-free, unlike the bigger company I had just left. If older workers find out if they mean something to an employer, it can serve as leverage to hire, especially if core values mean something to both.

An older worker has a tighter grasp on his or her core values. Younger workers focus on their hard skill sets while most older workers possess applied knowledge, skills, and an acute awareness of self. Core values change over time and may match the employers, and the fit may result in serious consideration. If an employee makes business decisions driven by shared values, then it works out perfect for both. Employees are more invested in the company’s mission when they share core values.

As an older worker, it is up to you to find common ground at every opportunity

Employers examine core values during the hiring process. Behavioral Assessments are used to pass candidates to the next round, usually to a person-to-person interview, but don’t measure core values. The common ground becomes evident when the candidate and the employer grow familiar with one another through the process.

Along with the other research you’re conducting on companies (you are researching companies, right?), research the company’s core values. Here are few things that should stand out if the company emphasizes their core values:

– Core values should be EASY to find

Zappos has a complete page of their core values. In fact, you’ll find several pages where they list their core values and how they affect Zappos culture. It seems core values drive the company’s mission to succeed and the employee is its most valuable catalyst for success.

– Do they provide training of their core values?

Zappos also spend three days of training during their onboarding training for new hires. The opportunity as a wiser and seasoned job seeker to share the company’s core values would solidify their worth to the company.

– Look for the company with core values in action

Press releases are a good way to find out if the company practices what they preach. If a company says, they embrace diversity and community, is it reflected in management and volunteer community? Surely there are pictures from the community they serve that proves this, right? Bank of America is another good example of stating what their core values are but also showing how it manifests throughout the company on their YouTube channel.

– Is the company’s leadership talking about it openly

OK, they have clear core values as a page on their website. Are the company’s President and C-Suite executives talking about them in their communication to employees? How about the press? Well, see what Sharon John, Build-A-Bear’s CEO says about her company’s core values and how talent alone isn’t everything.

– Are they responsive to questions about its core values

If a company says it’s a family, they should support employees who have families such as maternity and parent leave, right? While working for the start-up, it was apparent families came first. Not only were the questions about family answered in my interview, but also constant reinforcement occurred throughout my time there.

During this period my sons were in grade school, and when emergencies came up, there was never a problem leaving early. The company I left was also supportive of families, but what was different was the small family feel of the start-up. It wasn’t possible for a large corporation to replicate. You’ll need to discern how

Excellent skills are necessary but what will make an older job seeker fit in the company? Look beyond the desktop and start finding out what makes the company and its leadership motor run. You can often find it in the core values and how it aligns with yours.

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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Career Disaster Area

I am working with two clients who are 65 years of age and they are figuratively living in a “Career Disaster Area.”

The career world where they lived for so many years has been hit by a massive earthquake. They truly are living in a “Career Disaster Area.”

Can they recover?

Sure.

Will they ever go back to the good old days?

Probably not.

Let me tell you their stories but their names and identities have been altered to protect the innocent. You may see yourself in their stories.

Marketing Career Disaster Area

Sally was the consummate marketing professional. She had worked in a variety of different industries over the span of her career. At different times in her career, she worked freelance and she worked for some major agencies.

Like many of her peers, she took a hit in the great recession and then her spouse passed away suddenly. Sally decided to move across the country to be closer to her children. Now she is trying to reestablish herself in a new city, where the culture and job market are very young and vibrant.

Sally is 65 years of age.

Sally is taking courses in social media and digital marketing but the skills required to be a productive marketing professional have made tectonic shifts in the direction of technology and analytics. For Sally, this is really a “Career Disaster Area.”

For more: Beware Automation and Robots Will Sabotage Your Career

Tectonic Shifts in Marketing Skills

I spent much of the 1990’s working either in IBM marketing or in an executive briefing center, which was a marketing and sales support function. We produced presentations, marketing collateral, and web content that supported the sale of IBM hardware and software. That world no longer exists.

I am currently working on launching the Career Pivot online community. I am learning about Facebook marketing, Google adwords, re-marketing and pixeling strategies, ad networks, and other digital marketing strategies. When I made the decision to leave the world of technology marketing 15+ years ago, I left a place that looks NOTHING like it does today.

Can Sally shift into this new technological marketing world that is populated with a very young workforce at the age of 65?

It is possible but not probable.

The marketing world where she thrived for so many years is now a ‘Career Disaster Area” for her.

Sally is having to shift her expectations, likely moving to freelance writing, and possibly non-profit community – where her skills are still valued.

For More: Has Your Job Been SMACed? If not Yet, It Will!

Technology Hardware Career Disaster Area

Larry, a 65 year old engineer,  has worked for some of the top companies that designed and manufactured leading computer hardware throughout his career. During this time, Larry was a program and project manager for huge, multi-national and multi-company development projects. The projects had huge scope and complexity.

That world is disappearing fast. Companies like HP, IBM, and others have seen their hardware businesses almost completely disappear. Companies like Sun and DEC have been wiped off the map in a very short period of time.

There are many like Larry that built their careers around designing large and ever-growing, complex hardware systems. The hardware market has become commoditized in the last 10 years. The iPhone sitting next to me has more computing power and function than huge computers of just a few years ago.

There have been tectonic shifts such that the market now demands software, mobile app development, cloud computing software infrastructure and similar skills.

Last week, Larry interviewed with for a position with one of the leading cloud infrastructure companies for a program management job. The first thing they asked him to do is take a coding test.

WHAT!! A coding test??? This is a program management job!

I am like Larry. I have not written a line of code in over 15 years. Could I pass a coding test? Probably not.

Does it make sense that they want to see if he can code? Probably not; but that is not the world we live in now.

For More: What Skills Will You Use in the 2nd Half of Life?

They Moved My Cheese!

The complex world that Larry excelled and thrived in moved from hardware to software very fast. In fact, at warp speed. They moved Larry’s cheese and he did not even realize it.

The career space that Larry and his peers lived in for so many years now looks like a “Career Disaster Area.”

Like Sally, he could retool; but can he do it fast enough and be accepted in a very young fast-moving market?

It is possible but not probable.

It is now time to shift expectations and direction.

For More: Larry Bird, Winners, Talents and Skills

Rebuilding After a Disaster

We have seen it over and over again. People can and do rebuild after a disaster. Sometimes, people have to walk away from the disaster scene because it is too risky to stay.

The question for both Sally and Larry is do they rebuild on their existing skill foundations or do they move on to something different? Neither of them want to stop working at the age of 65. They both have lots of working years ahead of them and the last thing either want to do is retire.

Does this sound familiar? Has this happened to you?

What did you do?

Marc Miller  

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

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Check out my latest book which is available on Amazon.com!

Repurpose Your Career - A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life

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Near Fatal Bicycle Accident Was Actually a Mammoth Gift

My near fatal bicycle accident on July 11th of 2002 changed my life for the better. You read that correctly, that fatal day was actually a mammoth gift in disguise.

All I remember was cresting the hill before descending into the blind curve. There are glimpses of memory in the emergency room with my wife, Lotus.

After that, it was waking up in the hospital, a brace on my neck with a morphine drip in my arm. The car had been going 30 miles per hour. I was doing 20+. I evidently totaled the ‘96 Toyota Corolla with my body. At those speeds, the survival rate is about 10 percent. (Click on the picture to get a true idea just how badly the bike was damaged.  This was a HEAVY DUTY steel touring bicycle.)

Most of us need something big to push us out of our comfort zone and make us look for something beyond comfort.

For me, it was the accident that happened when I was 46 years old. I was incredibly fortunate. I spent five days in the trauma center with many broken bones, but no damage to my brain or internal organs. Once I recovered, I realized my being alive was a miracle. I also realized that when I do die, I want to know I’ve made a difference in the world. At the time I was teaching people how to program leading edge telecommunications systems. That made a real impact on the lives of people – NOT. I wanted the work I did to be about something bigger.

After the Accident

I was out of the trauma center and was sent home in less than a week, walking on crutches in 3 days and back on a bicycle in 10 weeks.

You are probably asking yourself

Why would you get back on a bicycle after that?

I had no fear getting back on the bicycle but I had a lot of fear driving an automobile.  I ride my bicycle on low traffic roads but I drive my automobile on busy thoroughfares. It was the traffic that scared me.

This event turned out to be a blessing.  My son had just graduated from high school and he was home with me as I recuperated.

We spent the next two months having lots of discussions about what college would be like. For those of you who have raised teenagers, you have no idea what they actually hear and what actually gets to the brain.

Four years later, when he came home after graduation before getting a job I realized he actually listened!! Those two months turned out to be golden and could never be replaced. By hitting the car I was given some special time with my son.

Return to Work

Within 4 months, I was flying to China and then to Korea to run classes in Shenzhen, Nanjing, Shanghai and Seoul. As I went through security at various Chinese airports, the titanium screws in my hip would set off the metal detectors. Boy, was this fun! I even had the joy of being right in the middle of the SARS outbreak. (I did not get sick!)  That is when it hit me.  WTF. Why am I doing this??

I was 46 years old.  My only child was off to college and I had that fully funded. The high-tech startup I worked for had been acquired by Lucent Technologies, which was in the process of imploding but I received enough in retention bonuses to pay off the mortgage on the house. I had no business being alive much less flying around the world teaching people to design telecommunications systems.

I decided to make a Career Pivot.

The following year I would volunteer for a layoff so that I could pursue a high school math teaching certificate, which is another story for another time.

That bicycle accident is what made me what I am today and I look at it as a mammoth gift.

Is Your Career Tank of Empty?

Your career tank is one of my favorite metaphors and it comes from Jason Alba from JibberJobber.com.

Jason tells a story about driving a rental car trying to get to a speaking engagement and the fuel gauge is almost on empty. We know if we are driving our car what that means. When my 2003 Honda Element gets to empty I still have 2-3 gallons left. When you are driving a rental car that is totally foreign to you, how far can you drive? Jason relates that we do the same with our careers.  We usually wait until our gauge is on empty before we make a change.

Example #1 of a Career Tank on Empty

After my near fatal bicycle accident in 2002, at the age of 46, I went off to teach high school math in an Austin inner city high school. I survived my first year teaching both Algebra I and II but it left me exhausted. The whole summer was spent in recovery mode.

My second year of teaching my schedule was teaching 5 classes of Algebra II.  I was prepared with enough lesson plans to get me to November.  I was READY or I thought I was.

What was different in year 2?

• With the exception of one class, my classes were HUGE.  I had four classes with over 30 students.  My other class had only 12.  The room could accommodate about 30 students. The room was packed.
• I was assigned a new mentor.  She tried but was not very effective.  Plus, she was at the opposite end of the school.  A good 10-minute walk to get to her classroom. My Algebra II mentor that I made part of my team was right across the hallway but she was now teaching more advanced classes. I partnered with another teacher but I was helping her as much as she was helping me.
• I had one class that had 29 males and one female.  There was so much testosterone and machismo in that room it reeked behavior problems.
• I was assigned one of the biggest problem students in the school in my last class of the day.

In many ways, I was set up to fail.  I did really well until early November when depression set in. I did not follow through with the good habits I developed in my first year.  My team fell apart. Daylight saving time ended and the days became shorter.  I was going to school in the dark and leaving in the dark. My personal career tank was not full when the year started.

When the problem student in my last class threatened to cut me and he received Saturday school as punishment I said I had enough.  My tank was empty! 

I turned in my resignation and completed the first semester but was completely demoralized.  It felt like I was abandoning my kids.  I had one student tell me that he expected me to be back because I was just too good! I would come back in the spring to tutor students for the Texas end-of-year standardized exams but I would not return the next year.  My teaching career was over after three semesters of teaching.

Example #2 of a Career Tank on Empty

In December of 2007, I was hired by a sexy tech startup to develop a training and certification program. The opportunity was alluring but little did I know the hiring manager was delusional.  He thought the program could be developed and rolled out in months rather than years.

It took over 2 years to develop the 21 hours of online training, 4 certification tracks, and all on a shoestring budget. In the middle of developing the program, the great recession hit and sales growth slowed dramatically which diminished the need for the program. Management did not see it that way and the pressure to deliver grew with no additional help.

In December 2009, the company was acquired for over $400M. This is when the culture started to deteriorate rapidly. The final straw was when my boss put me in a highly unethical position telling me to hire a senior executive’s relative who was not qualified. My ethical boundaries were crossed and increased my stress levels to an unprecedented level. You can read more about this last incident in my post When Your Ethical Boundaries are Crossed.

In the fall of 2010, I made the decision to resign. I turned in my resignation on January 4th, 2011 where I attained the greatest financial gain as it related to bonuses, stock options, health insurance and vacation accrued.

Exhaustion had set in early 2010 but I worked on the plans for Career Pivot through that year. I left one year earlier than planned due to my career tank being completely on empty.

Example #3 of a Career Tank on Empty and What to Do Next

I am currently working with a client who’s tank is not empty but it is very low.

We are doing the following to prepare:

• Planning her finances to leave. I have referred her to my good friend Roger Whitney, the Retirement Answerman.
• We worked together to develop stop, drop and roll procedures to deal with her stressful relationship with her boss.
• Learning to say no at work. This will reduce here stress and could eventually lead to her being laid off but that is part of the plan.

She is working on healing at work. I previously have written on the importance of reducing your stress before you start looking to make a career pivot. I wrote about this topic in the post Hate Your Job, Miserable, and No One Will Hire You?

We are working together on a total plan, which includes finances, where to live next, and career before her career tank goes to empty.

Are You Waiting for Your Career Tank to Reach Empty?

In the first two examples, I did not take care of myself and I waited for my career tank to go to empty. In both cases, it took me over six months to destress and be able to move forward.

Have you waited for your tank to go to empty?  If you have please leave a comment below with your story.

Marc Miller  

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons below?

Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast

When you subscribe to this blog you get full access to Career Pivot’s Whitepaper Library

————————————————

Check out my latest book which is available on Amazon.com!

Repurpose Your Career - A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life

————————————————

Check out the BoomerJobTips Page for the latest curated content relating to baby boomers or join us on the BoomerJobTips LinkedIn Group