To find a job, older workers might want to look in the mirror, too, and spruce up the vintage look

Paige Parker

The Oregonian

It's the most unwelcome of all job hunting tips, and the former recruiter was just the person to break it down for a seminar audience of unemployed Baby Boomers:

You've got to do something about that hair, he said.

And that gut.

And while we're at it -- guys, lose those pleated Dockers. Because to the 35-year-old who will likely interview you, all of it flashes OLD.

Telling the worried out-of-work to get a makeover may seem glib and demeaning, and heeding this advice akin to selling out to a superficial society that discounts experience and skill.

Or it just may have the ring of truth.

"I would try to at least not broadcast when I graduated and how many years I'd worked other places," says Carol Goss, a 55-year-old architect who landed a job two weeks ago with Soderstrom Architects. She networked like crazy through four months of unemployment to get the job. "And yes -- the hair is colored."

Nationally, unemployment among workers 45 and older is at its highest in the 61 years the Department of Labor has tracked it. In Oregon, the number of workers 55 and over who'd filed unemployment claims stood at about 21,500 in June - more than doubling over the last year, as have the state's overall unemployment figures, which hover just under 12 percent.

Now, unexpectedly unemployed Baby Boomers are retooling themselves to compete with younger job candidates, from buying new clothes to crafting an "ageless resume" that omits pesky dates.

"You walk in the door looking like it's the '80s, and you're dead in the water," says Karen Shimada, executive director non-profit, Life By Design Northwest, co-sponsored the job search workshop in July that featured the tough-love recruiter. "It's not right, and we're not condoning it, but it's the reality."

Life By Design Northwest launched in headier times to assist Oregonians nearing retirement in planning a meaningful, service-oriented second act; now, its efforts include shepherding shell-shocked Boomers with shredded investments and savings back into the job market.

"People in the weird gap between 57 and 62, if they find themselves out of work, they're just panicked because of health care," Shimada says. "Many who come to our workshops would volunteer for free if they could just get health insurance."

It takes longer for laid-off people over 45 to find a job - on average, six weeks longer - than younger workers. Older workers who've been laid off tend to find new jobs lacking both the pay and prestige of their former positions, according to an AARP analysis.

Non-profits like Experience Works link low-income, older workers with temporary, part-time, paid training jobs, and coach them in successfully applying for permanent positions. But their workers are finding jobs hard to come by, and for the 11 Oregon counties served by Experience Works, the placement rate has fallen from 55 percent to 36 percent in the last year.

"For every job out there, there's anywhere from 50 to 350 applicants - for a little administrative assistant job," says Julie Forrette, an employment training assistant for Experience Works' Washington County office. "Now, they can't even get an interview."

It's difficult to tell how much age discrimination factors in. After all, it's supposed to be illegal, so it's only hinted at -- as in, the time a recruiter privately told the AARP Oregon's Joyce DeMonnin, that if he sees a candidate over 50 with a belly, he thinks about his health care costs.

DeMonnin tells job seekers to spend a couple of hours on the computer actively looking for work, then a couple more polishing themselves.

"This is the time in your life you actually have time to hit the gym," she says. "Looking for a job is nothing like when they looked for a job 10 years ago or 20 years ago. It's really shocking to go out into that world."

Online job applications, social networking and panel interviews can trip up older candidates. Shimada, who has volunteered at job fairs, said she's noticed older workers tend to ramble nervously when they introduce themselves to a potential employer.

"What we've really emphasized is everyone needs their own, 30-second commercial," Shimada says. "Give them something that entices them without trying to dump everything on them from the get-go."

Often, says Linda Wiener, a Vancouver-based older worker consultant who is also the age issues consultant at job marketplace Monster.com: "You're dealing with the younger interviewer. There's a prejudice, a 'Gosh, you're like my mother, my grandmother, my aunt, my uncle.'"

The out-of-work need to critically evaluate which of their skills could transfer to another career, then hit a community college for retraining if need be. Even then, Wiener says, "they may have to face the stark reality of not getting back in the same wage zone, maybe ever. That's really a medicine ball in the stomach."

Some Boomers bristle at the notion that they need to polish themselves or their blur their resume, deeming it inauthentic.

"As much as it galls me to have to do it, you've got to research and put in a cover letter that butters them up," says Byron Miller, a 63-year-old construction worker and security guard who has been looking for work since he semi-retired last year. "I want to get hired on my skills. I don't want to have to butter somebody up."

But, Shimada, a fan of the ageless resume, says it's crucial to "get in the head of the 30-year-old who's interviewing you."

"Say you've worked in multi-generational teams, you love new ideas, you're not attached to powerful titles but you're really about teamwork," she suggests. "Understand the value set of the Gen Xers who are interviewing you."

Goss says she updated her hairstyle early in her job search, figuring, "55 is awfully old. I don't feel that old. So why would I want to look it?"

But more than that, she treated everyone she met as a potential connection, and her years of experience paid dividends when a former client gave her the lead and reference that turned into her new job. Goss says she understands how a person's appearance and spirits might flag during a long spell of unemployment.

"It's hard to stay upbeat," she says, "and keep plugging away at it."

Sunday September 06, 2009, 8:30 PM