What about my looks? Should I be concerned about what I look like? Sometimes you wonder about things like this, correct? You spend half of your lifetime wondering about your looks. You spend the next part of your lifetime wondering how you can look better. How you can change your hair color, how you can make your skin look younger, how you can make yourself pass for years younger, and yet why do you do this? You do it to be more accepted.
Yes, acceptance is a very important thing to most of us on this earth. Think about it. Who gets chosen for the jobs? Younger people have an advantage, so many times, when applying for a job. So, people want to look young. They think that this gives them an advantage, when in actuality; it gives them an advantage only in a company that chooses to be artificial and vain. But in a company that wants experience, in a company that wants the job right, it will be different. In one company that is more concerned about progress, about success, about getting the job done right, then the emphasis will be more on experience, knowledge and professionalism than it will be on appearance. So, if you are changing yourself, changing your appearance just to suit the world's impression of youth, and of success, then you might be doing more damage to yourself than you know.
Do not assume that all companies are like that-that they seek youth and nothing else. There are companies out there that seek knowledge, experience, professionalism, and yes, age too. Smart executives know that professionalism, skill, knowledge and experience come with age. When they look for office managers, or administrative assistants, you will not catch them looking for twenty-year olds but you will see that their search to fill the job is more like, hey, where are the thirty and forty-year old employees?
If you are in a position of hiring, have you ever passed a good employee by just because you thought that they were too old or too young? Have you done that? You looked at the application, first checked the age box and then placed that application in the negative box, in the place where your applications would be going into the garbage? You are guilty of age discrimination and one day your errors will catch up to you and come back to haunt you. You might think that you are getting away with it; you might think that no one knows you are doing this, but hey, we all answer to a higher authority. And even if your boss does not catch you, in the next life, you will be punished for your discriminations, your judgments and your errors in judgment.
If you are reading this and if you are guilty of age discrimination, know that your reign is only temporary and that soon, it will all backfire on you. (Have you ever thought that someday, you too, might be in a position to be judged by someone? Has it occurred to you that you too, one day, might be judged by your AGE and not by your own ability to do a job or not? Ahh, you cringe at that thought. You want to be accepted for being yourself, yet you refuse to accept other humans for whom they are themselves.
Acceptance! Acceptance makes the difference between getting that job and being passed on by. So what is your view on acceptance? If you are in a position of hiring or even of reviewing resumes, do not make any assumptions on age when it comes to interviewing, or hiring. Let all your misconceptions and generalizations go away before you get to the interviewing table. INTERVIEW EVERYONE! That is correct. Interview everyone, no matter what their age, interview everyone. You might be surprised at what happens. If you put away your generalizations about age and about employment, you just might come up with some of the best employees of a lifetime. Just do it. When you are looking over your resumes and employment applications, do NOT look at the birthdate or age box on those applications. Look, first, instead to the education and to the qualifications and to the employment background of the past five years. That is all you need to know. Then call for your interviews and give the best person the job-WITHOUT looking at the age box.
This is the only true, genuine way to hire great employees. Age has nothing to do with the quality of work when it comes to doing the job. You will find, in your own experience, that there are great employees , in all age groups, in all age brackets. Just put away your generalizations, your misconceptions and all your pre-conceived notions about age and dates. This is the only real way to hire excellent employees. It is against the law to discriminate against people because of their age and each time you pass someone by just because you think that they are too young or too old, you are breaking the law! That is correct. You are breaking the law. I suggest that you mend your ways and go back to the right way of doing business. Interview everyone.
Repeat! Interview everyone. And then choose the best PERSON right for the job, not the best age right for the job.
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