No World For The Old?

“They told me I was over the age limit”

I have lost count of the number of times I heard my mom tell this in the past few years of job search experience.

Jobs that had 32 as the last applicable age, interviewers who gave rude responses when she called to enquire — why does the career world (and respect for candidates) stop at 58?

An Electronics Engineer with a part-time MBA and 15+ years of experience fails to even enter the job interview just because of age?

Things were not promising for my dad either.

He was given an early retirement owing to cost-cutting at his college. A respected senior professor with 26+ years experience was asked to leave over a call with 5 other colleagues of the same age group with a stellar career, 5 minutes before. He has chosen investing in Sharemarkets now and is happy with his choice.

But what about someone like my mom trying to restart her career all these years?

What about the gap in experience people ask -my children fell sick, I supported their education, I was sick and rest of years I was searching for job she replies to her interviewers. Most of them don’t bother to see the 15+ expericence as a professor, general Manager, Branch Manager before that. She is just that — the gaps in her experience and her approaching retirement age.

Why do hardworking and brilliant people have to stop having their career and resort to early retirement because they crossed 55+ years of age.

And why despite enough online resources, educational background, experience and folks willing to learn, are we making the prospect of restarting a career in the late 50s and above tougher than ever?

Here are the questions I am asking the world:

#1 Are we becoming more youth obsessed that ever?

We fear age ironically we fear death too.

We all want to live longer, stay happy yet keep the prime youth we had in our 20s.

Or so we have been taught to assume because youth and beauty sell or is it fear-mongering that ageing is around the corner that sells?

For women, anti-ageing routines start at 25(!). Getting old with saggy skin and wrinkles is seen as a testament to carelessness in taking care of ourselves rather than as the blessing we got to experience life by living longer.

We gush at celebrities and call them ageless and aging like a fine wine.

Heck, Jeff Bezos is investing to find the fountain of youth.

Have social media feeds of pretty and young people subconsciously instilling that our value declines as we age?

The last job my mother applied was for the post of Senior Operations Manager. The age limit was 32.

Like seriously?

How fast are we replacing ageing talent around us with youngsters using the term “fresh blood”, “newer perspectives” easily ignoring that experience got us here in the first place.

Is it the intented goal to keep growing or are we scared that working with seniors is a mirror to our own ageing process?

#2 Why Ageism is Not Talked About As Much as It Should Be?

Why is ageing is still a taboo?

I get enough brickbats for choosing a single life at 30. I was told right from 26 to marry and have children within 30.

What about after 30 then — Should I disappear from everyone’s radar having ticked all the boxes.

We talk about challenging the timeline — you can find love in your 40s, you can go back to school in your 70s, you can start your company in your 20s but what about wanting to have a career after 60?

Why is still a deadline there?

#3 Is Being Their Own Boss The Solution or They Have No Choice?

I remember the job opportunities I suggested mom:

1. Start a home-cooked meal delivery service

2. Cook special lunch for nearby hostellers every weekend

3. Stitch Salwars and sell them online

4. Write in platforms like Medium or Vocal Media

5. Take tution for children in my locality

But mom was persistent — These are great ideas Rashmi, but what if I want to restart my career based on my educational background?I would love that.

I had no answer.

Should I tell her to look for alternate options because job industry today does not need new candidates above the 55+ age bracket because that’s the way society works?

Why should content creation and entrepreneurship be the few choices for a person above 55 years old?

If we are talking about breaking norms, embracing uniqueness in our workplaces, what about embracing a simple law of nature — people age. Also accepting that it’s not a criteria to end a career nor to restart one.

#4 Have we decided Already that After 55 Our Learning Stops?

I believe the same person who said you are too old to marry after 30 propagated the above bull***t.

Who sets the rules when learning stops?

When in real, the more you learn, the better your brain is able to learn. It’a our assumptions that’s stopping us from learning, not our biology.

We eye-roll at our parents confused between Instagram and Snapchat, we fondly recall recieving Facebook requests from them — They learn if we are willing to not stand in their way with our ridicules and assumptions.

As for companies, do they fear that 55+ folks are not trainable?

With so much resources available online, we are willing to recruit someone in their 20s and 30s with little to no experience based on their learnings and certifications then why are we afraid to apply the same rules for folks in the late 50s and above?

Final Thoughts

I am seething in anger while I type this. Seeing two brilliant people reduced and rejected by a number is sickening.

What are you doing about it, you may ask me? Well, I sent mom links to Udemy and LinkedIn learning courses and she is studying them with the same enthusiasm I saw her perpare for her MBA some 15 years ago and gave an interview this morning.

She would never give up and neither am I giving up on her.

I remember my own words I told my junior, who was 5 years younger than me when she told me this on my birthday —

Rashmi didi (didi means sister in Hindi), you are turning 28, someday I’ll also become old like you

I appreciated the innocence (or the lack) of it and replied with this —

“Darling, I started at 0,1,2..crossed 22 and then turned 28 today, its not a straight jump to 28. Someday, if I am lucky I’ll tell the same at 78.”

Our senior citizens today were the youngsters who brought in fresh perspectives, built the foundation for newer generations to stand tall and innovate. In that process they gained experience yet we started to label them irrelevant.

Are we ready to talk about ageism a little more and work to bridge this gap?

If you need a reminder — It’s our parents we are talking about today and few years later its going to be us.

Article first published in Medium.