mature age interview focus
BY WENDY ALEXANDER

Interview Focus Tips For Mature Age Candidate 

Focus Your Answers To Avoid Age Discrimination During your Interview

Welcome to more real tips for mature age candidates

Why?

Because the talent shortage is real and hiring folk are open to all candidates - especially talent that has real life work battle scars and extended experience

The market has never been better for those with extensive experience to capitalise on their vast knowledge

I covered off tips on LinkedIn and your resume in other posts

This week is all about interviews, because like it or not there are specific things a mature age candidate needs to handle differently

No-one’s going to admit it, but age discrimination is real, and you need to know how to get around it, especially in  interviews

If you’re in an interview and you’re asked in a round-about way (and it will be round-about and not directly) about your age - then you must flip the script and change the focus

One way you do this is to focus on fitting into the company culture

If you’re being interviewed by a group of young panellists in a new start-up company, for example then highlight some of the lessons you’ve learned on the road of your professional experience and how that helped you to do things better, smarter and in less time

The culture of a start-up is likely to be about faster and better, so you want to relate to the MO of the start-up with examples of where you had to think on your feet or how you implemented faster and better processes or how you used emerging technologies to grow the company

Use specific and measurable achievements to clearly demonstrate tangible results

If the question about retirement comes up, you can answer that question by clearly stating that you are far from ready to retire and you are active in other areas of your life and explain how

Give examples of volunteering in the community, mentoring younger people, continuously learning (online or offline), the ways you stay fit and healthy, the hobbies you’re engaged in and so on

Most companies are going to be wary about an older person fitting into their fast paced and ever-changing environments but if you demonstrate that you’re a contributor and that you’re open to ongoing learning, that will go a long way to reassure them

Always relate your experience to what is important to the company

That means doing your research on the company and finding out what their mission statements or values are, where the company focus is and how or where they want to grow

There’s no point rabbiting on about all this amazing experience you have if you aren’t going to link it to what matters to your potential new employer

Everyone is focused on their own WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)

If you want to land the job, then get off of your WIIFM and align your experience to their WIIFM

Focus on embracing and fitting into a company’s culture with solid examples from your vast experience and you’ll overcome any concerns they may have about your age so you get your dream job, pay and perks