My sister is a labor attorney (for the plaintiff side), and she said it's actually more difficult than most people think to prove an age discrimination case... and it's getting increasingly more difficult. Um... we have a case pending against my husband's former employer, though, so we'll see how that pans out. He was the oldest employee in his group, had the most seniority, had an exemplary performance record... and was just a few months from being eligible to withdraw a substantial amount of money from the company. It looks awfully fishy since they kept several employees younger than him who had only been with the company for a very short period of time... and who had performance issues.
As I said... we'll see. Cee ----- Original Message ----- From: Jerry Belloit To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 7:02 PM Subject: [gatortalk] Re: career advice Depending upon the state, companies may be taking a big risk discriminating on the basis of age. Many states have a protected class of workers over age 40. It is not that hard to prove age discrimination if it exists. (Stacey can tell you how. It is nothing much beyond a statistical analysis of who they have been hiring and who applied.) The process is similar to that of proving race or sex discrimination. Jerry From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cecilia Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 6:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [gatortalk] Re: career advice Yes, Randy... that's it, exactly! And then, if I *do* get an interview, they're really taken aback by my lovely silver hair. :-/ Cee ----- Original Message ----- From: Gatornet Admin To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 11:09 AM Subject: [gatortalk] Re: career advice Prior to '89, I was a field engineer living in Jax who worked throughout the state of Florida, Puerto Rico and South America, but I can't include that experience because it "dates" me. I was a Systems Sales Engineer from '89 till 2001, and I have even been tempted to remove THAT era from my resume, as well. I REALLY believe they (potential interviewers) are running the numbers and coming up with an old guy somewhere over 50 years old and then they trash my resume. Are we at Solyent Green already? Should I just volunteer for recycling? ;-) Randy ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 6:51 AM Subject: [gatortalk] Re: career advice Based on what I am hearing - I've decided that the best things I can do is - dumb down my resume. I get so many recruiters that say - I can't follow your resume. Well - I work 60+ hours per week so I am working on several projects at one time. Instead of that proving that I am a hard working person - that turns into a negative against me! I'm convinced that if I act like a dumb, mindless, person that barely shows up for work, barely can do 40 hours per week, does slightly above average work (not great or exceptional though) - I'd be much better off. My original idea of showing all my quality experience over 20 years seems stupid in retrospect - because no one wants you to have experience past 5 years. So I'm dumbing down my resume. I think I'll keep it as it is for very high (and very rare) positions asking for more than 10 years experience. This resume will hardly ever be sent out. Then kind of dumb resume for people wanting 5 years experience. Then dumb as rocks for people wanting a couple of years experience. Maybe I should come up with new slogan: Keith - the really dumb programmer. That should boost my responses significantly. Which brings me to my next question. What do you advise young people to do today for a career? The only two things I can think of are law and medicine - but if you talk to people in those professions - they are trying to get out of them. Do you advise anyone to get a college degree? It use to be a great idea. Now companies would rather hire someone with a degree from China or India. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Cecilia Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 4:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [gatortalk] Re: Herald sports writer Mike Phillips My income definitely started over when I changed career focus. And, 7 years after I left an accounting career spanning 3 decades, I cannot even get an interview for an accounting job. They either think I'm over-qualified because of my years of experience... or I'm too far out of touch in the accounting world because of the years I was doing something else. It really stinks. So... I shifted my focus to getting a teaching job and still can't get hired, especially now that we are seeing more budget cuts hitting schools. :-/ Cee ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 8:29 AM Subject: [gatortalk] Re: Herald sports writer Mike Phillips This is getting off Gators - so if we need to move it somewhere else - I understand Things are so tight and different today. I am 47 years old now and already seeing the age discrimination thing - even though there is suppose to be a shortage of skilled workers in programming. 20+ years of experience, plus BS and Master's no longer seems to matter. Being able to "figure things out" no longer seems to matter. People use to hire me to go figure out how to do things. Nowadays - unless you've been doing something for 3 to 5 years - they assume you have no clue and never will be able to figure it out. What you did several years ago does not matter. For 20+ years I did manufacturing automation. Have done very little in the last 7 years. My resume only goes back about 7 years. People are looking for someone in automation - look at my resume - and tell me that I have no knowledge or experience. How does someone change jobs and maintain an income the same? If you completely start over - doesn't your income? Doesn't your income drop to 1/4 of what it was? Times are a changing ... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gatortalk] Re: Herald sports writer Mike Phillips From: Helen Huntley <[email protected]> Date: Fri, March 13, 2009 7:40 am To: [email protected] You try to figure out what else you can do. I took a buyout from the St. Pete Times last year because I could see that things were only going to get worse for the newspaper industry. Because I was personal finance editor, I thought reinventing myself as a financial adviser was a logical course of action. (http://www.holifieldhuntley.com/) I also have been doing some freelance writing and research. For example, I helped with the research for this book: http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Your-Money-Getting-Fortune/dp/0767929845/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236944055&sr=1-1 . So far things are working out. However, my husband works in local government, where they are planning major layoffs, so he could be job hunting later this year. Helen On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 4:40 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: I was thinking about that similar thing today. I think that the Raleigh newspaper laid off its sports writers and now th only sports writers are in Charlotte covering the whole state. If all you've ever done is go to college for something, and done something for like 20 years - what do you do when you are laid off and no one is hiring in your field? It seems kind of ridiculous going back to school - after you've already graduated with a bachelor's or Master's. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gatortalk] Herald sports writer Mike Phillips From: Helen Huntley <[email protected]> Date: Thu, March 12, 2009 3:58 pm To: gatortalk <[email protected]> Is one of the Miami Herald writers who lost his job this week in the big layoff they had, according to a report I read. We've often had his stories posted to Gator News. </DIV <BR <BR <BR<BR --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
