Many older people are highly qualified, 50-plus or 60-plus, and are looking for a new position because, for example, they have had to leave the company or are in need of a new job. Site closure of the company have lost their jobs. For some of them it would be a good idea, provided – they can also afford it – , to go into early retirement. For the unemployed in their early/mid 50s, with kids in college and a mortgage still to pay off; they want, better: need , to find a job again.
Some of my customers are over 50plus and have been trying hard to find a new position for some time now. One of them has already written more than 100 applications – be it for open positions, unsolicited applications, job fairs or professionally oriented career fairs. Unfortunately without success. She was not even invited for an interview. Yet she is highly qualified, has extensive work experience and first-class references. But: She is 59 years old.
Of course, it is not openly communicated that age as a criterion led to a rejection. Many HR managers also think that the knowledge of this group of people is no longer "up to date" or they are just "too expensive" for the company. There are also reservations: Supervisors fear being criticized more by older people than by younger ones. If HR managers were to open up the possibility of an interview to older people, many fears could be dispelled in advance. Not give them this chance.
The know-how of these older people must be preserved in order to make it available to the other companies and to be able to pass it on to the younger employees of the company. How can this work? The answer: an intergenerational job s haring . An older employee works with a younger one, passing on his skills and knowledge along the way.
I mentioned this possibility of re-entering the job market to the aforementioned client in one of our conversations. At first she was very skeptical. But with time her interest in this form of job sharing increased, because she still had not received an invitation for an interview. Now she wanted to try it out to apply for a generation-spanning job sharing with companies. Her most important question? After all, it is not enough to mention this job sharing opportunity in my cover letter. I also want to be successful with it.
A job sharing application must be well thought out and optimally prepared. In the run-up there are already steps that job sharing interested parties should clarify first. For which companies, industries, company size etc. they have the best chances because of their profile? If then the selected enterprises stand firm, it applies to investigate: How do these companies behave to the family-conscious and innovative working hours?? The corporate culture is very important. I have listed here only a few questions that interested people should ask themselves and answer at the outset. In this context I would like to mention that a job s haring (team) application (job partner already available) compared to an application for an intergenerational job sharing is created differently resp. is written.
My customer had decided to apply with the second variant "young and old as a tandem in a job sharing". Once the companies under consideration were determined – both a fit for her profile and of the company culture – she wrote her individual job share applications. We had previously discussed and exchanged ideas on how she should structure her application.
Each application is individual because it depends on the one hand on the personality and on the other hand on the job profile of the applicant. The most important thing is that this application represents added value for the company. Therein lies the art of this application, that the advantages from the employer's point of view in connection with the previous activities resp. years of professional experience in the cover letter or on a separate sheet of paper. Furthermore, a job sharing arrangement should not be missing in any case. Here it is explained what kind of job partner is wanted and how working in a job share should be done. These include, for example: Work schedule, division of tasks (mainly according to the respective strengths), communication, a possible vacation or substitution arrangement, etc….).
With this Job S haring application, you are selling an idea, an application for the conversion of an existing or. newly created full-time position into an intergenerational job share or a solution.
A few days ago this customer called me excitedly and told me that she had a job interview next week. Let it be the first invitation after the many cancellations. She could hardly believe it. It has also prepared for this conversation in detail. We both considered how best to present her job sharing request as a re-entry – this is about cross-generational job sharing. And what questions on the part of the personnel manager or. the management might approach her and how she would then respond to it. Objections from the company are best met with possible solutions. Only these answers don't come to mind spontaneously in a job interview. Then we had prepared a small presentation with handouts for the interview.
At this point, I would like to encourage and specifically call on this group of job seekers to apply to companies in an intergenerational job sharing arrangement. According to the motto: He who tries can lose. He who does not try has already lost. What happens when these older job seekers don't break new ground? After unemployment benefit I has expired, only a small proportion of the unemployed are given the opportunity to obtain an adequate position – commensurate with their skills and knowledge. The road to independence, which is also sustainable, would take too long. What would happen? This group of people would have to use up their savings first, before they can apply for Hartz IV. This is not the solution!