Ageism Makes It Difficult To Switch Industries
Many industries boot out employees after they have reached a certain age, and those employees then have trouble getting back to work. For example, the publishing industry has a reputation for only employing young individuals who are willing to work days, nights and weekends to cover news stories. When those who have given their career to the publishing industry get let go, what do they do?
First they probably will try to get into another publishing role. However, often their resume gets no response from the marketplace. Hundreds of resumes can result in silence from potential employers who want to hire a young workforce.
So, what next? These individuals hoping for another option decide to get a “haircut.” They tell recruiters that they are willing to go backwards down the career ladder, and to take a lesser salary than they previously had, in order to hop into another industry that has shown more longevity.
However, ageism makes it so that they can’t get a job that way either. Companies would rather invest money into fresh out of college employees who could potentially remain at the company for another 40 years, rather than someone with just 20 years left in their career – even if they bring 20 years of unique work experience with them from another industry.
Ageism is getting in the way of a lot of things – from a comfortable work environment to the ability to change careers. It’s time for ageism to end.
