Second, START looking at yourself as a business who needs to figure out:

·  What you are passionate about

·  What you really want to do from last week’s list

·  Where do you want to work

·  What that company is looking for in skills, cultural fit, character, etc.

·  What are the issues or gaps that you need to address before going to the company

·  What competitive value you can offer to a prospective hiring manager

·  How to brand yourself

·  How to communicate your message

·  How to network into influencers, trusted advisors, and decision makers who will see why they would “want” to hire you versus the masses waiting outside sending in their resumes.

If you cannot follow these simple points, why should they hire you?

Most of your competition is looking on job boards and sending out resumes. You can do better than that.

What sort of new skills and/or education should mid-life, middle management job-seekers consider to do to improve their prospects.

First, figure out what you want to do and where you want to do it.

Second, find out from that company or industry what skills and education you need to technically qualify for the job. You may not even need more training in your field.

Third, recognize that technical fit is the ticket to getting into first level cull list. 50% of the hiring decision assumes you are qualified, and shifts to your appearance, likeability, cultural fit, affinity interests, passion, trustworthiness, and a host of emotional feelings. A buyer (hiring manager) buys based upon gut feel (emotion), confirmed by facts (technical fit), and by politics (internal consensus). In most cases, a person who learns how to sell and market themselves can get a tentative job decision – and perhaps even get to write the job description before being sent down to HR to start the legal review and interview political process.

Think of this path as learning a new sport. You can watch football and think you know the rules. You can get up and learn the sport by playing it. You can get better through coaching and the bumps and bruises of experience. Who do you think will get to play on game day?

How long will the doldrums for this segment persist? Will more middle management positions for the 35’s and 45’s open up again in the near future?

No one knows how long this cycle will last. Some believe we are in an up cycle. Others believe we are about to experience a double dip. In my opinion, reactively doing what everyone else is doing may eventually result in a job. However, proactively learning the skills and process of how insiders and businesses get jobs can only help them get a job sooner. If they continue developing those skills, they will learn a new process that will last for a lifetime of job transitions and career growth regardless of the economy.

Increasing competition for jobs

·  Former executives and middle management who previously retired took a financial hit during the 2009 financial downturn. Now, they are either needing income to pay bills or they are concerned about not having enough money to live on when they can no longer work. Many are trying to re-enter the workforce.

·  Traditionally, there was an outflow of managers retiring whose departure opened the door for remaining managers to survive or for slots to become available. Cash needs, fear, and uncertainty have caused many managers to defer retirement.

·   The U.S. has encouraged immigration, especially of highly educated and trained foreign nationals. While a positive move in strong economic growth cycles, these high quality immigrants have increased the competition for U.S. jobs.

Perception of being more expensive

·  Older managers usually have higher salaries than younger managers

·  Older managers frequently have higher health risks and costs

·  Older managers may still expect to be on a pension or bonus plan that is no longer affordable

Perception of being out of date or too old

·  Many managers are professionally or technically out of date. One example is someone I know who still prefers pencils and paper for logistics rather than today’s integrated technology solutions.

·  Older people are perceived as not wanting to change or innovate – which runs counter to today’s business hyper-change environment.

·  Managers often feel their value is to manage people, but not necessarily produce results or add value. That was yesterday’s model.

Some might ask,  “Is it a case of being over-qualified for entry level-jobs but not sufficiently qualified/experienced for upper management, or is their situation more complex and nuanced than that?”

Being told that you are “over-qualified” is merely a polite phrase to avoid the deeper concern that, when the economy recovers, you will leave for another managerial position with another company. In most cases, you may actually be “under-qualified” to do today’s entry level jobs. Many managers are out of date technically or educationally to perform entry level work.  They may also have emotional challenges when demoted. Why hire a former manager when you can hire a lower cost, passionate, high energy, technically current, and recently educated young person?

For upper management positions the issue is often a lack of experience and proven results. The average tenure of today’s C-Level position executive is from 18 to 24 months. It would be hard to convince a similar size company that a former manager would be the best candidate for senior executive positions when many experienced senior executives are also looking for work.

What can these people do to improve their chances of finding a job? Is it a case of lowering their sights or aiming high for upper-management?

First, they need to face reality that the world has changed. It has become highly competitive with fewer available jobs. That means they need to learn how to compete in the same way that businesses compete for jobs. The unemployed is a product or service trying to market and sell oneself into a job. How are you competing with other products and services looking for placement?

Just implementing a few of these principles can help someone compete at much higher levels.

The first step is to review the many options that you actually have:

·  Try to get their old job back or a similar position in a similar company

·  Try to move into senior management in a smaller company. For example, a controller in a larger company may fit as a CFO in a smaller company.

·  Become a consultant

·  Become a fractional manager who works a day or more at each of several client companies who cannot afford a full-time employee

·  Become a contract worker. Companies will often look to contact solution companies, such as Tatum, to fill interim positions or to handle a specific project

·  Start your own business

·  Partner with others to start a business

·  Buy a franchise

·  Change careers

·  Work for non-profits…

In my opinion, any of these are better than targeting entry level or lower level positions.

With increased technology and industry consolidation, companies have centralized and consolidated operations. Two examples are the use of shared service centers and data center consolidations. Middle management becomes truly redundant and is usually eliminated.

Process Improvements have increased productivity resulting in fewer employees which means you need fewer managers.

Consultants have driven major cost cutting and competitive advantage initiatives, including de-layering, right sizing, outsourcing (discrete jobs), and offshoring (entire operations or manufacturing). Often de-layering and right sizing merely means having to do more with less, resulting in fewer people having to work longer and harder. With outsourcing and offshoring, many jobs are being filled from outside the United States.

There is more competition from true globalization and virtual employment, whether overseas, contract labor, or home based virtual employees who are willing to work for fewer benefits and a lower wage. This trend is likely to increase. Examples include fractional CFOs, part-time consultants, technology managers responsible for internet sites or the internet cloud, project management, and virtual call centers.

There is deferred demand for rehiring middle management. It was easy to let high salary managers who oversaw the producers go out the door. As the economy recovers, many of those positions may open up. However, companies are finding that they can get along with fewer people and they are reluctant to hire even when the need is critical. Why? Because they are afraid of not being able to forecast the risk of potential higher taxes, higher healthcare costs, increasing regulations, tighter credit markets, global instability, lower consumer demand, greater government debt, inflation, and the impact on their marketplace.

Unless there is substantial economic growth, the opportunities for middle age and middle management will remain tight for the next few years.

Older workers have a lot to offer but are not usually aware how much the world has changed.  The old paradigms of resumes and hard work have been replaced with having to develop oneself as the product, communicate their message and value, and be known as a trustworthy employee who is looking out for the interest of the company.

Most older workers are seen, correctly or not, as displaying little passion, believing that much is owed to them, and watching the clock.  Developing oneself as a product requires really knowing who you are, what your passion is, and what the picture looks like for what you want to do and can do in the industry, profession, and company that matches you. In other words, “Why should I hire you?”

Most older workers are seen as out of touch, waiting for retirement, and not strong team players.  Developing your message and value requires understanding what you can do for the company that is better and quantifiably more impactful than your competition.  Even if you are a superstar, if you cannot communicate your value in terms of helping companies increase revenue, profit, cash, or customer satisfaction, then who will ever know that you may be superstar for them?

Most older workers have value systems that do not mesh with today’s company cultures.  Often that includes the senior executives.  Whether the older workers are right or wrong does not matter to the senior managers whose careers depend upon subordinates following their lead.  The question is, “Can I trust you or do I have to watch my back?”

The world has changed.  Older workers can keep their value systems but have to learn to know what they bring to the table, be enthusiastic, communicate their value, and demonstrate that they understand the ground rules and are there to serve – or to find the company whose culture and values are a better match for their own.

If you do these things, imagine how much better your chances will be to land a job or to keep a job.

• People begin to talk about it at work, lowering productivity
• People begin to wonder what it might mean to them, e.g. the price of gas
• Wall Street immediately reacts to major rumors and market trend implications, e.g. the price of oil
• Executives begin to wonder how it might impact their business, their customers, or their future expansion plans

One common occurrence is that these huge stories take the wind out of smaller stories and may stall major financial or business decisions. In other words, business and hiring can come to a stand still until the air clears.

Prior examples included the Bush/Gore and Bush/Kerry election results or the September 11^th terrorist attack. Each of these demonstrated a noticeable business impact. I know, I saw the impact on my friend’s business and my business.

Other huge stories have a smaller US business footprint, such as the Haiti, New Zealand, and Japan earthquakes.  These impacts are seen as “over there.”  Even the Hurricane Katrina was noticeable in the South but “over there” to most other states.

But the Libyan situation may be a sleeper to businesses. The reason is that it is a domino that could have a huge impact in the Middle East and the direction other dominos (rebelling populations in oil rich countries) eventually fall. At a minimum, the price of oil has gone up which will drive up the cost of commodities and may act as a brake to the US economy. Even though most of the Libyan oil goes to Europe, the Europeans are now competing in the world oil markets to make up for the loss. That could give businesses a second thought before hiring new staff.

However, the larger issue is how Libya is being handled. When bullies are threatened by superior force, they usually keep a low profile. Today, the way the UN, NATO, and allied countries are handling the Libyan “humanitarian action” (war) is likely to result in a protracted conflict which could fuel the fire further. How? If the bullies perceive the superior forces are half-hearted and backing away. Long live the bullies.

For this to happen in the oil rich Middle East is bad enough. But there is also a risk of power shifting to the Muslim Brotherhood. If that happens, oil prices (inflationary pressures with a declining US dollar) could seriously threaten or even reverse the current economic recovery that businesses are hoping for and impact hiring trends.

So, what does that mean for the job seeker? It means you should continue what you are doing. You can’t change the world, so focus on what you can change. Even in the worst of times people can get jobs – and so can you. Just be aware that the most competitive and the most connected are usually the ones who win.

So, despite Libya, Japan, inflation, currency devaluation, Middle East Turmoil, or even if the sky does fall, what are you doing today to become more competitive and more connected to the right people?

Share some tips with us on what you are doing.

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