How can you be over the hill at 50?

Last week I bumped into an old friend's son. He just graduated from university and is looking for his first job. I asked him how it was going and he said something that reminded me of the time when I was looking for my first job 25 years ago. "It's the classic dilemma. No one wants to hire someone without on-the-job experience but there is no way to get that experience without some employer taking a chance on you."

And if you want you can take it a step further. Once you have had years of priceless experience, you are often past a desirable hiring age!

I started to think about it and then I started to get angry. While I don't clearly remember the effort involved in getting my first job more than two decades ago, I definitely know what it feels like today now that I am almost 50. In the employment world, I might as well be dead.

I don't look 50, even though I am not really sure what a 50-year-old should look like. And more important, I have gained a lifetime of valuable experience over the past quarter century. Why don't employers value that?

It is a sad statement on society. How often have I heard that older people, who have both the experience that is needed desperately and the qualifications, are being rejected on account of the fact that they are over 50? I know computers. I know social media. I know how to roll up my sleeves and get the job done at all costs. I am not restrained by young children at home. You would think that that would make me valuable. It doesn't.

This problem of “ageism" is happening throughout the Western world. In many places, such as the European Union, it is illegal but that does not mean that it doesn't continue to exist there.

There are good people out there who are looking for jobs, but they simply can't find them. They have strong skills. They have extensive experience. They have maturity. I think that one of the biggest concerns is that employers are worried that older employees won't "fit in" to their corporate culture. And I also think that they are worried that, at our age, we have less working years ahead of us than we have behind us. Ironically, I think you could fairly assume that an older employee is more likely to stay with the job longer than a younger employee who is still climbing the corporate ladder and looking for the next best thing.

I also believe that older employees have been stereotyped as being too set in their ways and less adaptable to news ways of doing business. Why anyone would think that is beyond me, but I do not doubt that many employers share that worry.

And finally I suspect that some employers worry that older job applicants will be over-qualified for the job that are seeking. I am sure that many younger managers worry about how they would deal with an older, qualified employee – rather than realizing what they could learn from that person.

So, what's the solution? Consulting work. Freelancing. Volunteering. Part-time work. Anything that gives you a chance to use your hard-earned skills with people who will appreciate them – even if it is only for the short-term life of a specific project. You won't get a long of job security going this route, but you will be able to keep working and contributing to society.