They're skilled, they're smart, they're seasoned. Why isn't anyone hiring these over-fifties?
“When I asked them why, they dithered and mentioned the few times I had come late during Selichos, half a year earlier. I pushed for more, but they said they couldn’t go into details,” he recalls. As he tied up loose ends over the next few days, he observed the new hires trickling in. Almost all of them were under 30 years old.
But if being fired for no reason felt like a punch in the gut, the ensuing job search was a total knockout.
“I sent out dozens of résumés online and made many new connections on LinkedIn, but despite my valuable corporate experience, I didn’t net a single interview,” David shares. “I got smart and deleted my graduation date, and removed 25 years’ worth of experience from my résumé to hide my age, but still nothing. Companies research your online profile within minutes, and a gray-haired LinkedIn picture can be all it takes to get passed over. A headhunter told me that a major Wall Street firm told him point-blank, ‘Don’t send us any applicants over 45, because we won’t take them.’ ”
Aware of the odds he was facing, and determined to find work, David was open to a complete career change at a significant pay cut, and he ultimately found a job in the diamond district. But others who were fired alongside him close to three years ago struggled for many months, and some are still job hunting. He’s convinced ageism is the cause.
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