How Reading Job Postings Every Day Can Help You Fight Ageism
Ageism is a consistently growing epidemic in our society – especially in the workplace. A lot of age biases come into play in companies that participate in numerous technological advances each year since stereotypes about older workers “not being interested in learning” are a constant among co-workers and managers inside organizations.
It’s become clear that keeping up to date with new technologies, and fighting to constantly learn new things, is a very important part of fighting persistent age stereotypes inside the workplace – but now there’s one more level to that.
Rather than just consuming every bit of new data you can get your hands on without rhyme or reason, you can focus your daily studies efficiently to help fight ageism in your life and in your career. It just takes a little bit of analyzing.
Where To Start Your Search
We recommend reading new job postings every day within your industry, or within other industries that you are interested in transitioning into in the future. If you pay close attention to each list of job duties and must-haves inside of these job postings, you will compile a list of items that you will need to know moving forward in your career.
Perhaps you’ll find that you know how to do 9 out of 10 of the items listed in a job description similar to what you already do, well, it’s time to learn how to do that one item you haven’t immersed yourself in yet.
Reading through job postings every now and then will be helpful, but to truly get ahead of the curve you should be looking at postings each and every day.
Search High And Low
See what’s expected of you in jobs with the same title you hold now, see what’s necessary in jobs that are levels up from where you are, and see what’s expected in entry-level jobs in your industry to make sure you have all of the upcoming and current necessary knowledge under your belt as you climb the career ladder.
By continuously improving yourself based on what companies are looking for, you’ll be able to speak to any company in the future when you’re looking for a job.
You will deal with less ageism because you have the must-haves for entry-level positions of today, rather than only the must-haves from back when you started your career. Hiring managers won’t be able to make the excuse that they need someone younger who understands current baseline knowledge because you’ll very clearly have it.
Track What You Learn
In addition to learning, be sure to track what you have learned. Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything you have trained on, especially if you’re learning new items each and every day. Make a spreadsheet, keep a journal, or write blog posts to remind yourself (and perhaps your connected social network) of what you’ve had the exciting opportunity to educate yourself in.
Final Thoughts
Growth opportunities help keep ageism at bay from your career – learning builds a barrier around you that keeps age bias out. Educating yourself is the best investment you can make right now – for your current job as well as your overall career path.
