It's Linda Rainer of Linda, rainer dot com, career strategist and intuitive purpose coach.

I helped driven professionals like you to enhance your personal brand so that you can pursue a career hell.

Truly enjoy.

So one of the most common questions that I've been getting recently from clients from people in my my email list who have responded to my recent email, thank you is the question of Is my age stopping me from landing a job?

Basically, they're wanting to No one does ageism actually exist?

And two, if it does, how do I deal with it in my search for an amazing job opportunity?

So here's my take from someone who has been an experienced recruiter in the past who's hired and helped to hire professionals and who now is a career strategist.

And a lot of my clients are experienced and seasoned professionals.

I would actually tell you that, yes, ageism does exist when it comes to hiring individuals.

But the truth here, though, there's a caveat to that.

There's a deeper truth to it in that for you and for anyone else, ageism really only exists if you hold it in your belief system that that is the one and only thing that's stopping you from getting a job.

If you really, truly, honestly believe that, it's just simply your age.

That's the reason why you're not getting jobs, then.

Yes, that is your reality.

But what I can tell you is that it's likely not the case, that it's just your age alone that's stopping you from getting the job offer.

What I'm actually saying is that you need to do a bit of a deeper look into exactly how you're approaching your job.

Search what the way that you're coming across in interviews on your resume and really your mindset when it comes to looking for a job.

Because if you truly feel that the only one barrier that's stopping you from getting it is your age, then I can tell you that it's gonna be really hard to convince you that there's likely other factors that need to be enhanced and improved on in order to increase your success of getting a job.

So here are three questions that I want you to ask yourself that will take away your focus from just your age and instead understand if there could be potentially other reasons that are truly stopping you from getting the job that you want and allowing you to portray yourself as the authentic, ambitious professional that you are.

So the first question to ask yourself ISS is my resume truly top notch.

Being a seasoned, experienced professional, you have an advantage, and your advantage is your experience.

Your advantage is that you have a wealth of knowledge and experience instead of qualifications that many of the people who you're competing against don't necessarily have.

But the thing is, is, if you are overwhelming your resume with all the experiences, all the skills and all the qualifications, all the things that you've done from the beginning of time till now what that does is it does overwhelm the employer, the higher manager, the recruiter, whoever it is that's reading your resume, and what ends up happening is you probably end up hearing the response of you're overqualified more often than you want.

So what you really need to make sure you do is that make sure the first will you have a top notch resume, and when I say top notch resume part of that, there's a whole series of steps and series and strategy that goes into building a top, not trust me.

But one of the main things is making sure that your resume lines up with the job that you're wanting to apply to.

So if you're including those responsibilities plus 10 other different types of responsibilities for different types of positions that you've done in just jumbling it all together, what ends up happening is that it can confuse the employer, the hiring manager to think that maybe you're you know you've dunmore than what this role is really asking for and maybe you'll be bored in this position.

The truth is, your resume isn't the only resume that they're gonna see.

There's always gonna be competition that you're going to be up against.

And what that means is that you need to make sure that your resume stands out in front of the pile on top of the pile that it is selected as one of the first or second candidates that is desire to be interviewed.

You really have to ask yourself the question.

When I look at my resume and because you have experience, you have probably had to hire people in the past, You really have to ask yourself when I look at my resume, do I feel overwhelmed or doesn't feel as though this resume is truly speaking to the type of position that I'm wanted to apply to now?

The second question that you need to ask yourself is, How am I selling myself in interviews?

Are you telling them that you can do it all that you can handle this job, that you've done it all before?

That you've done everything under the sun and that it's a no brainer that they should hire you?

Is that the impression that you're giving?

What is the impression that you're giving?

Because the thing is, what I've seen with experienced professionals is that because they've seen it all, they've done it all.

When they walk into an interview room, they feel as though the job should be.

There's that.

It's a no brainer that the hiring manager should be hiring them, that they don't really have to put in that much effort to try to sell themselves, because clearly it's It's a piece of cake.

They've done it.

That can be a bit of an issue because the truth is is as much as you have the right experience, you have the right knowledge.

You've seen it all.

You've done it all before and you could do it like the back of your hand.

The truth is, is there is still competition that you're gonna be up against, meaning other people that they're gonna be interviewing.

You're not the only person that they're interviewing.

And on top of that, the hiring manager that's sitting across the table from you here, she has never actually seen you work.

They've never seen you in action.

So you can't assume that the person should just know that you know exactly what to d'oh.

You still have to sell yourself.

You still have to convince and persuade and communicate your value to the employer in a way that will entice them and engage them and make them want to hire you.

You have to prove to them why you are the number one person that they should be hiring.

And that means that you need to back it up with proof with evidence, with stories with achievements.

And you need to be able to articulate it in the clear and concise engaging way, you really have to start reflecting.

If you've had some interviews in the last few months or last few weeks or days, you really want to start reflecting and asking yourself instead of them thinking that maybe I'm just too old and that's why they're not hiring me.

Maybe ask a little last a few more questions to yourself and ask, How did I actually perform in that interview?

How did I come across to them?

The more that you can be self aware.

And the more that you can question yourself and really be honest with how you're feeling and how you feel you're coming across in these interviews, the better it'll be for you because that gives you nuggets of opportunity to really improve on how it is that you're coming across.

So just start asking yourself, How am I selling myself in interviews?

Am I really selling myself?

And if I'm not, what can I do to improve the way that I'm coming across?

And finally, the last question that you should ask yourself is, Am I being flexible?

Look at it this way.

You're at a stage in your career where you've likely peaked at the rules that you've held, you've had full time positions.

You've mastered your skills in those areas.

You've made accomplishments throughout your career, and now you're at a point in your career where your wanting another opportunity, you're wanting to continue to work.

And ideally, for you that looks to be a full time position.

And you feel that because this is what you want, that you should get that.

But I have to be completely honest with you because that's just my style.

And what I have to tell you is you're not.

That's being a little bit selfish because you're not really considering what the hard managers concerns are the hiring managers concerns, you know, whether you wanna admit it or not, There are concerns with the harm in jail where he or she may be thinking, Well, this person is potentially near retirement age.

How much longer do they truly want to work?

Or they might think, How much energy does this person have?

Do they still have the drive to really pursue the role and take it to the level that they want that the higher major may want this person to or it may be ah fit thing.

Maybe the rest of the team is much younger than you, and you're coming in different.

Not saying that the hard majors air right?

By the way, I'm not saying that their perceptions are correct.

That is not me saying that.

But I'm saying that that does exist, that the reality is there are people out there who think this way.

And these are people that sometimes are in the position of deciding whether or not they will take you on in their company.

If that's the case, you really have to think and ask yourself the question of what do I really want for myself?

So I still have the same drive that I did.

I did when I was 30 35 40.

Whatever it WAAS to really grow, Advance and master, my career likelihood is that you've already been there, Done that likelihood is that really, at this point in your career, you're really just wanting to continue toe work by adding value by contributing your knowledge.

Your experience is that you've gained from the wealth of experience that you have, and you're really just wanted to contribute to an organization.

So then why deny that.

Why pretend like you want something otherwise and mind you, I am not.

You know, I'm trying not to make a blanket statement of all of you out there, So I really hope that you don't take this the wrong way.

I don't want to see these comments in the video saying that, you know, I'm generalizing because I'm not.

But I'm saying I'm speaking to a certain number of you people who have come to me with this question and knowing what their intentions were.

I'm speaking two people who are similar to that.

If you know that, really, your whole intention right now at this point in your career is to add value to contribute.

Thio, you know, really just help help a company out with your experience and knowledge, Then the way that it is structured doesn't have to be necessarily one specific way.

It doesn't have to be one type of job, one specific position with one company with, you know, a 10 year trajectory and benefits and salary.

It doesn't necessarily have to look just like that.

When I'm saying is that you need to be flexible and open to the possibility that Perhaps you can contribute your value, your knowledge, your experience in different shapes and forms, meaning by being a consultant by being a contractor.

Perhaps instead of just working for one company, you're working for multiple companies on multiple projects and for them, the hard managers there for those particular projects.

They're not looking for someone with a certain trajectory or certain image of certain perception.

They're really just wanting someone who can hit the ground running who can come in, pick up from where the last person left off, do the job, do it well and helped to complete the project to its end.

Think outside the box a little bit of what your expectations are right now and whether you are willing to be flexible, willing to be open to considering other possibilities for your career.

Because I can tell you that having been a recruiter, where I did see people who this was in the accounting world, where I saw people who were very successful throughout the career moved all the way up to CFO level.

And, of course, in the accounting world, you know, being a CFO is kind of like the the top of the top.

That's the peak you can only really take on other CFO levels.

And if there aren't other CFO positions, then what do you do?

Well, you start offering your knowledge expertise.

Experience Service is in a different capacity, as a contractor is a consultant, whatever it could be.

So ask yourself, Are you being flexible?

And are you willing to open yourself up to a new way of working?

So there you have it.

Three questions to ask yourself if you feel as though ages stopping you from getting job offers.

If you are an experienced professional who is in this current situation, or someone who has been looking for the last little while, you've been trying to find a job, but you still haven't been successful.

You still don't really know how to sell yourself for these opportunities, and you know that something is missing and you need my help.

Then feel free to reach up to me.

Head on over to linda rainer dot com.

Click under Work with me.

Go to personal brand renewal.

Stand up, get hired.

Feel free to read the page, and from there, Philip the application form.

If I feel that we are a potential match.

Then I will recheck to you and we can discuss further.

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Thank you so much for watching.

And I will see you in the next video.

Bye.