How Old is Too Old? The Gray Ceiling
Wednesday February 11, 2004
Job seekers are reporting age discrimination beginning as early as the mid-thirties. How can this be addressed? What options are there for those of us considered "old" by hiring managers and companies... Read More
Your article “The Grey Ceiling: How Old is Too Old?” really speaks to me. I am an ex-Enron with almost 20 years of experience in Marketing. I’ve been looking for permanent work since 2002. Besides fighting the stigma of Enron on my resume, I have run into age discrimination as well. I have only landed temp assignments and long stretches of unemployment in between assignments. I am now 51, but started looking when I was 46. I look 10 years younger than I actually am…thank goodness. But even if they think I am still in my thirties, I have run into discrimination based on my many years of experience. I have dummed down my resume twice. This is the first time I have interviewed with hiring managers that are younger than I am. I recieved comments from hiring managers as such as “you’re over qualified” which really means “your too old”, or it means “you are more qualified than I am, and I’m afraid you will take my job”, or it means “you will want too much money”. If you are willing to take less money, they wonder why and what is wrong with you. Either way, if you are older, you are out of luck.