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Layoffs are all over the news. According to lalayoffs.fyi, more than 150 tech companies alone are saying goodbye to around 40,000 employees. Of course, it’s bad to be one of the people trying to get out the door.
This may be especially difficult for highly educated workers between the ages of 40 and 65 who have been out of work for more than six months.
Ofer Sharon, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says the deck is stacked against the most experienced job seekers.
“Many employers prefer job candidates who are already working, but unemployed candidates are often fired for reasons that have nothing to do with their performance,” says the author in her new book, The Stigma Trap: College. Educated, experienced and long-term unemployed.” I feel that if someone is talented, they will work for me.
In preparation for her book, Sharon interviewed job seekers, recruiters, and career coaches to uncover how the dark stigma of unemployment takes a toll on workers’ personal finances, relationships, and mental health. I made it.
Here’s what Sharone had to say about the stigma of unemployment and what strategies can help those looking for work. Edited excerpt:
Kelly Hannon: Why is unemployment so precarious for middle-aged, college-educated people?
Offer Sharone: That’s the puzzle of this book. The stigma of unemployment means that as soon as someone loses their job, they are viewed through a different lens, a more skeptical one. And that can make it difficult to get a job. And as the length of unemployment increases, prejudice increases. And it stubbornly persists.
What frustrates you the most?
I began to think this was just employer bias against the unemployed. But then I learned about network bias. …It’s something much deeper. It may be mostly unconscious, but the desire to see the world working in such a way that if you do the right thing, go to a good school and get a college degree, your career will be okay. there is. We tell ourselves that story. And we encourage each other to talk about it. And we tell our children this story, but the flip side is that anyone who loses their job is blamed.
In other words, are they in some sense “less than” because they are unemployed?
yes. It makes us think that there must be something wrong with what they are doing because otherwise we might end up just like them. they are making a mistake. They’re not looking for jobs the right way, and they’re not networking enough.
I always tell people that networking is the key to getting a job, it’s who you know and who knows who, but I say you’re not that fast. What are the disadvantages of networking?
Networking is a way to avoid the stigma of unemployment. Because, in the best case, it means having someone to vouch for you. Someone goes to the hiring manager in the office and says, “This person might be a good fit.”
About half of the people I studied eventually returned to good professional jobs, and in each case networking had something to do with it. The disconnect is not realizing how difficult networking is, especially if you’ve been unemployed for more than 6 months. It’s very difficult. And job seekers themselves don’t really understand how difficult it is.
Networking happens most easily and naturally when you’re working. Therefore, networking opportunities constantly appear for people currently in their professional lives when they talk to clients or attend conferences through their work. Unemployed people have no organic opportunities to network. That can only be done through very active means…finding new contacts and prospects, attending networking events, etc.
What is very difficult is to network effectively. You need to appear very confident in your skills and abilities and what you have. There’s no way someone who has been unemployed for six months would feel that way. By then, you will have experienced a series of rejections.
You have researched why applicants are rejected because they are overqualified. Could you tell me more?
Job seekers typically first apply for the type of job they recently held. This is how people climb the career ladder. Even after achieving a certain level of success, they lose their jobs. They try to go back to their last job, but if they were successful, it means there are only a few jobs available. It’s like a pyramid.There [are] The higher you go, the fewer such high-level jobs become available.
and [because] They are unemployed and face prejudice. Over time, they find it very difficult to return to their previous positions. So they say, okay, I’m going to take a step back and apply for more types of jobs, but maybe it’s the position I had five years ago.
And then the employer comes back and says, “You’re overqualified.”
The recruiter told me that the candidate would not be satisfied because he had already reached a high level and wanted to leave immediately. Even if a job candidate says to me, “No, at this point in my life, I’m fine with that position.” In most cases, you won’t have a chance to argue because you weren’t invited to the interview. This is a very difficult area for job seekers. …They want to argue, but they are just excluded.
Isn’t the common refrain of being overqualified also a technical term for age bias?
yes. Additionally, those who tend to fall into the overqualified category tend to be older workers. Because it takes years to get into this high level position with many qualifications. And you’re more likely to be overqualified. When I talked to recruiters, they differentiated between age concerns and overqualification concerns. The concern with age is that as the person gets older, they become less flexible and therefore more difficult to manage. They may not have as much energy. It may not be a cultural fit with my younger employees. They may not be keeping up with technology. They may quit soon because they want to retire.
These things have been refuted by research. And we know that these are myths, and that older workers actually stay in the workforce longer than younger workers who are looking to change jobs strategically to advance their careers. The cruelest thing about moments of overqualification is that the things people are most proud of – their accomplishments, advanced degrees, career successes – now come back to bite them.
read more: How much money should I save by the age of 50?
Offer, I love your take on the myths of self-help approaches. Could you please explain a little bit about that?
A self-help approach is about telling people what they can control. [If] Put more effort and skill into networking, revise your resume, and everything will be fine. When you go to a career center, that’s the focus. All these workshops for unemployed people [about] How to use LinkedIn, how to network, and how to write a resume and cover letter.
The message, both explicit and implicit, is that this is just a matter of learning job search skills. And once you master these skills, you’ll be able to take control of your career and land a job. …That’s a myth, right? Self-help ignores prejudice against the unemployed, age discrimination, and many other forms of discrimination. It makes discussing it taboo. Job seekers may get that initial push and think, “Okay, I just did something wrong on LinkedIn. I’ll just fix this and everything will be fine.” Yet they can’t get a job…and they start to internalize the stigma.
There are some helpful strategies that I discussed when I interviewed you many years ago. Career Transition Research Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 2013. What did you discover?
The support of being with a group of others who are going through the same thing normalizes the experience and makes you realize that this is not pathological or wrong for you. That way, you can keep moving forward and prepare for what will most likely be a marathon rather than a sprint to get back to professional work. But it’s not impossible. It takes a lot of resilience.
Second, work with a career coach. At its best, coaching can hold a mirror up to job seekers, allowing them to see themselves in a less distorted way. Coaches who are aware of this can counter this process by holding up another mirror, a mirror that says, “Look, this is actually what you accomplished, this is the skill you achieved.” Here are all the achievements that cannot be taken away, no matter how negative the response. You need to remember this about yourself.
Good coaching and a good support group can give people a place to talk about any difficulties. With this kind of support, people can go out and network. What I’ve learned from my research is that improved well-being with good support can help you create the networks you need to recover.
We are experiencing fairly significant demographic change in terms of global aging, but there are not as many young workers coming through the pipeline. In fact, we found that employers believe they should keep older workers working longer. Do you see anything?
Employers will ultimately adjust as necessary. We can publish any research on older workers and their productivity and the value of their experience and wisdom and guidance. It seems like it makes no difference. But it’s the lack of workers that makes the difference. And if that causes employers to reconsider, that’s great. The workforce is aging and the supply of ideal young workers is becoming increasingly scarce. Employers have no choice. This is a structural shift that could lead to a cultural reassessment of what older workers can bring to the table. And finally, all the studies that show the value of older workers will now be proven.
Kelly Hannon is a senior columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 of her books, including “The World’s Best.”Taking Control Even Over 50: How to Succeed in the New World of Work.” and “You’re never too old to get rich.” Follow her on X @Kellyhannon.
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