different sides of the age issue
different sides of the age issue
Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:44 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1814 -- 1/29/2008 >>>>>
Did you know that if you are an older worker, and if you are unemployed, the
odds are it's your fault? Well, just in case you didn't know, this HR person
and motivational speaker is ready to explain why you blew it!
According to Roberta Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions
and a former Monster contributor, "Nine times out of 10, if you
don t get a job, it s not your age -- it s your attitude.
So check your attitude."
Blaming the victim seems to be very fashionable especially when it comes to
berating American workers. Vivek Wadhwa wrote an article for BusinessWeek that
is far more realistic about age discrimination, although it too has some
serious shortcomings.
There are two passages that are very important to consider together. Read them
then I'll explain why.
The fact is that in tech, youth is an asset and is in great demand.
Experienced engineers are needed mostly in senior architect
positions and in management, where they are paid the highest
salaries.
Senior Vice-President and Chief Technical Officer David Vaskevitch
(Microsoft) acknowledges that the vast majority of Microsoft hires
are young, but that is because older workers tend to go into more
senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to begin with.
Folks, this is a classic cattle herding technique -- older workers are
corralled into fewer and fewer job positions as they are squeezed by younger
workers. Yes, Vaskevitch is correct that most of their new hires are young,
but that's because there are only so many jobs as senior architects or
management. Vaskevitch didn't come right out and say it but Microsoft isn't
going to hire older engineers if they can hire a younger and cheaper one for
similar jobs.
One of the popular myths in the media is that older engineers and programmers
can't find work because their skills are outdated, but what about when older
workers get training in new technologies? Does it help them? The example used
in the story below isn't encouraging; although I'm not sure Wadhwa understood
the cruel irony in his example.
Joe Bennett, a 13 year veteran engineer at Microsoft, decided to brush up on
his skills so he took some courses in C# and ASP.NET. Since the training he is
still working for Microsoft but not in engineering or programming!
Bennett is working at a marketing job so he basically wasted his time getting
trained in these new programming technologies.
This page has a MS organization chart. Joe Bennett is listed as Director of
Enterprise Server Marketing. How much you want to bet he never used C# at his
new job?
http://www.redcomm.com/sample/DOMIS/orgchart/sample/outlineorgchart.html
No doubt Bennett has a choice position, but it's not a job where C# is needed,
and there are just a handful of those types of jobs compared the large number
of programmers at Microsoft that will eventually be over-the-hill and
unemployed by the time they are 40 years old.
Vivek Wadhwa's fatalistic conclusion is used by many of the free-market
ideologues to try to brainwash us into passively accepting globalization.
In addition to his unsubstantiated statement that globalization was inevitable
Wadhwa failed to recognize the dilemma posed by examples like Joe Bennett.
Obviously training wasn't the main issue with Bennett because he moved into a
non-technical job. Wadhwa's proclamation that older workers can hold onto
engineering jobs by improving their technical skills is dubious at best.
The bottom line is that we can't slow globalization or require
companies to do things that aren't in their economic interests.
Let's focus the debate on improving the skills of our existing
workforce.
So, what does all this have to do with H-1B? Not much if you read Wadhwa's
article, and nothing if you read the Monster article. H-1B and age
discrimination are very tightly linked but that point escapes almost everyone
but Norman Matloff, who Wadhwa at least provided a link to.
Matloff explains in this short essay on page 5 why H-1B exacerbates age
discrimination.
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/CLER.pdf
On the surface, it should not be surprising
that older workers in the tech field
tend to face difficulties in finding work,
since this is common in many professions.
But it will be shown here that it is even
harder for engineers and programmers,
since in those fields employers tend to make
use of an external source of additional
younger workers, brought in from abroad
under work visa programs such as H-1B.
Wadhwa wrote a good article but it could have been a great one if he would
have made the important link between age discrimination and H-1B.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc20080115_576235.htm
Viewpoint January 15, 2008, 8:00PM EST text size: TT High-Tech Hiring: Youth
Matters In IT engineering, young hires tend to be more energetic and up to
date.
Older workers need to keep skills fresh, or aim for management posts by Vivek
Wadhwa
In the engineering globalization debate, the battle lines are drawn.
Companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC), and Oracle (ORCL) say there are
severe shortages of skilled workers and they need more visas to bring in
foreign workers to stay competitive. Unemployed engineers say this push for
more visas is a plot to suppress wages. My own research at Duke University has
shown that there is no general shortage of engineers in the U.S.
The globalization debate shouldn't focus on the issue of visas. Instead, it
should examine an issue that tech executives don't like to discuss: age.
Tech companies prefer to hire young engineers. Engineering has become an "up
or out" profession -- you either move up the ladder or you face unemployment.
In other words, even though globalization has compounded the difficulties for
aging engineers, it's not the culprit.
Documenting Age Discrimination
One of the staunchest opponents of foreign worker visas is Norm Matloff, a
professor at the University of California, Davis, who says careers in the
programming profession are notoriously short-lived. His research (flip to page
5 of the linked PDF) into attrition rates revealed that five years after
finishing college, only 57% of computer science graduates were working as
programmers; at 15 years the figure dropped to 34%, and at 20 years -- when
most were still only age 42 -- it was down to 19%. This was in sharp contrast
to civil engineering, where careers lasted much longer.
Matloff says age discrimination is rampant in the tech industry and the
importation of foreign workers into the U.S. facilitates this.
I know from my days as a tech chief executive that finding good engineering
talent in the U.S. is always difficult. And hiring policies and skill needs
vary significantly between companies. Some can only afford to hire young,
inexperienced workers, while others can pick and choose. But age is still the
issue.
Startup firms are often the most cost-constrained. Consider former tech
entrepreneur Jason Williamson, who is now a product manager at Oracle (ORCL).
He says that during the six years he spent running BuildLinks, a software
company focused on the construction industry, his strategy was to find young,
impressionable workers who earned entry-level salaries and could learn on the
job. He had limited capital and needed employees who could afford to work
through the tough times when his company couldn't make payroll.
Even the well-funded, venture-backed companies usually echo the experiences of
JiNan Glasgow, chief executive officer of patent software firm Neopatents in
Raleigh, N.C. She says she can afford to pay what she needs, but her best
hires and most productive employees have been new college graduates. She
explains they tend to be more familiar with the latest technologies, adapt
readily to change, are more creative, and try new things. Middle-aged hires
have not always worked out as well for her. She says most had dated skills and
expected to be paid for experience that wasn't relevant to her firm.
Limited Senior Management Berths
The fact is that in tech, youth is an asset and is in great demand.
Experienced engineers are needed mostly in senior architect positions and in
management, where they are paid the highest salaries.
Microsoft (MSFT) is known for the high quality of its hires. Senior Vice-
President and Chief Technical Officer David Vaskevitch says younger workers
have more energy and are sometimes more creative. But he adds there is a lot
they don't know and can't know until they gain experience. So he says his
company recruits aggressively for fresh talent on university campuses and for
highly experienced engineers from within the industry. One is not at the
expense of the other, he insists. For him, it is all about hiring the best and
brightest -- age and nationality are not important. He acknowledges that the
vast majority of Microsoft hires are young, but that is because older workers
tend to go into more senior jobs and there are fewer of those positions to
begin with.
There is lots of competition for these senior jobs. And globalization is
making things worse. Companies are increasingly locating their research and
development operations closer to growth markets (BusinessWeek.com, 1/18/07).
Companies like IBM (IBM) are adding tens of thousands to their workforce in
places like Bangalore and Shanghai. Some of these jobs would otherwise go to
older and more expensive workers in the U.S.
How Maturing Engineers Can Cope
So the days of lifelong employment for engineers may be long gone. And they
face decreasing salaries as they reach their fifties. Research by University
of California, Berkeley, professors Clair Brown and Greg Linden shows that
even those with masters degrees and PhDs have reason to worry.
Their analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census data for the
semiconductor industry revealed that salaries increased dramatically for
engineers in their 30s but these increases slowed after the age of 40.
After 50, the mean salary dropped by 17% for those with bachelors degrees and
14% for those with masters degrees and PhDs. They found that salary increases
for holders of post-graduate degrees were always lower than for those with
bachelor's degrees.
The harsh reality is that as engineers progress in their careers, they need to
stay current in new technologies and become project managers, designers, or
architects. To keep their jobs, engineers need to build skills that are more
valuable to companies and take positions that can't be filled by entry-level
workers. Experienced engineers can also find rewards in entrepreneurship,
teaching, and sales, as well as use their skills to excel in unrelated
professions. And as Microsoft's Vaskevitch says, there are computer
programmers "who become like rock stars and are unbelievably valuable (and
well compensated) as they get older."
Joe Bennett, 44, provides a great example of the approach engineers should
take. After working as an engineer for 13 years at Microsoft and becoming
senior director of its developer and platform division, he realized that he
was losing touch with the technologies he was marketing. So he took a three-
month sabbatical to brush up on programming languages and frameworks like C#
and ASP.NET, and transferred into a job where he was touting the benefits of
different Microsoft technologies. He says that he isn't leading people, but is
having fun again and is more intellectually engaged in his work than he has
been in 10 years. He believes he is now more valuable to the company.
The bottom line is that we can't slow globalization or require companies to do
things that aren't in their economic interests. Let's focus the debate on
improving the skills of our existing workforce.
Wadhwa is Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence
at Duke University. He is a tech entrepreneur who founded two technology
companies. His research can be found at www.globalizationresearch.com .
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search-essentials/older-workers/search-tactics-for-50-plus-workers/Home.aspx
Search Tactics for 50-Plus Workers
by Dan Woog
Monster Contributing Writer
You re over 50, and you re worried. You ve sent out resumes and interviewed,
but you re still unemployed. What can you do if you didn t get that job -- or
the hundreds of others you ve applied for?
Where to Start
"Search your own name and see if there s anything out there holding you back,"
advises Chuck Campbell, founder and principal of search firm Argyle
Consultants. If companies find negative information about you online, you need
to counteract it by bringing it up first in the meeting, Campbell says.
Also, check your credit rating. You can use a site like Annual Credit
Report.com, which allows you to fix any erroneous information immediately
through the reporting service.
Mary Willoughby, director of human resources for the Center for Disability
Rights, suggests examining the interview process. "Ask HR people you know to
do mock interviews," she says. "Make sure you don t talk too much about the
past. Don t dwell on bad bosses or how hard the job search is.
Emphasize the new skills you ve gained by reading and researching trends in
your field."
Watch Your Attitude
"The biggest problem 50-plus clients have is that they don t exhibit energy,"
says Campbell. "You can read it in an interviewer s face. If he gets restless
or looks at his watch, he s not responding to you."
Practice your interview enthusiasm in front of a mirror, with a relatively
objective friend or, preferably, a casual acquaintance. Avoid using a spouse
or partner, as friction may result, advises Campbell.
According to Roberta Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions and a
former Monster contributor, "Nine times out of 10, if you don t get a job,
it s not your age -- it s your attitude. So check your attitude.
Ask yourself, Am I doing a complete job search, or am I halfhearted?
Have I really contacted everyone I know? Do I have recent job experience
through a temp agency? If your attitude isn t good for these questions, it
probably shows up in your interview, too."
Interview Follow-Up
The end of an interview is an excellent chance to make a good impression.
Asking, "Where do we go from here?" signals enthusiasm. Also, ask for the
interviewer s business card. If you haven t heard back within a week, Campbell
advises making one follow-up call. Ask if the interviewer has any further
interest and offer to meet again.
If no response, Pat Kenney, PhD, president and CEO of HR development training
firm J&K Associates, says, "It s OK to go back and ask, What did the person
you hired have that I didn t have? But you have to do it with as much finesse
as possible. Most companies are wary of age-discrimination lawsuits."
Matuson suggest using this line: "I want to improve the way I m packaging
myself so I can take advantage of the next opportunity."
Adds Tom Darrow, president of the Society for Human Resource Management s
Atlanta chapter, "Don t give them any reason to think you re disgruntled at
not getting a job. You can say, I appreciate your situation. I understand you
chose someone else. I was really impressed with your company, and I ll refer
my friends to you. If you ve got a minute, can you tell me how I can improve
for my interview next week? Let them know you re already chasing another
opportunity."
Consider Your Resume
Your resume might also be deterring job offers. "Track it online," advises
Willoughby. "See if you re getting hits. If people are receiving it but don t
call back, it may be a bad resume. Invest a few hundred dollars with a
professional to see if you ve included too much information, wrong information
or even poor formatting." You can track and view resume performance as well as
your apply history through your My Monster account.
Monster also offers a Resume Writing Service if you need expert help.
"Check your resume closely," advises Campbell. "Eliminate what you did 10
years ago -- it s irrelevant. Then give it to people to critique, and ask for
harsh feedback."
Campbell believes a resume is far more effective as a hard copy, sent through
a company s employee referral service, than emailed. Email is easily
disregarded; a hard copy is often looked at (and paper is looked at more
closely than a computer screen, which may involve scrolling down). If you must
email your resume, send it both as an attachment and cut-and-pasted into the
body of the message. That way, it s visible as soon as the email is opened.
General Job Search Tips
Whether it s your attitude, interviewing technique or resume, Matuson says
there s one thing to remember: "You have to be open to what you hear; be ready
to make changes."
Here are some other key points to keep in mind:
Use a professional career coach to assess your resume, dress, grooming and
interviewing technique. The money you spend can help you get a better job
faster.
Limit your resume to two pages. Anything longer makes you look verbose -- and
desperate.
Tell your references who you re interviewing with, why you d be a good fit and
what key points you re emphasizing.
Two no-nos during your interview: asking about retirement plans and talking
about grandchildren.
If you re interviewing by phone, stand up. Your voice sounds clearer, and your
thinking is sharper.
Consider self-insuring to help sell yourself to an employer as someone who
does not need benefits. This may be worth the financial risk, especially if
you re already covered by a spouse s health plan.
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