Golden Opportunities?

Sorry I haven't written for a few days, we have been working virtually round the clock....some very good things are in the works for Jobs4.0 users. They will make a difference to job seekers over 40 finding real job opportunities.... Details to come.

I finally found a little time this morning to look at newspapers. Very interesting article on page 1 of yesterday's NY Times, regarding 'golden hello' pay packages that big companies are now using to entice top execs to join their companies.

Apparently the tens of millions in compensation is no longer enough to attract some execs, such as James McNerney of Boeing, they now need to be 'made whole' by being granted - on a guaranteed basis-- the value of any bonuses, stock options, pension benefits, etc. that they abandoned at their prior employer (the poor things!). It all adds up to tens of millions of dollars paid to CEOs before any work is done.

Let's assume that Mr. McNerney is worth it, that he and other CEOs are in fact worth such riches merely and literally just for showing up on day one. The Times' excellent and exhaustive report left out one fact --- Mr. McNerney's age: he is 57....... Let me see if I've got this right, prominent employers throughout the US routinely hire top execs over 40 and find new ways to heap compensation on them. Yet these same companies have HR departments that routinely deny job seekers over 40 even the right to interview for a job that pays 75K, or 50K or 135K a year because they are 'too experienced', 'too expensive' or 'too senior'.

Companies never seem to hesitate to hire a 57 yr old CEO - they don't balk because they are worried about his ability to work hard, to take on new challenges at that age, the impact it will have on the companies health insurance premiums, etc; all the things that job seekers tell me they hear as reasons why they get rejected by these same companies for much lower paying jobs.

Perhaps one reason for this contradiction is that ageism works like all other discrimination does. A company's bias against all older job seekers doesn't extend to older people that THEY KNOW. Oh, that person is different.

Mr. McNerney was certainly a known quanity to Boeing, they knew the substantial value he could add to their company. He was already a high profile executive, widely known by corporate boards. But the thousands of other skilled and unskilled job seekers over 40 are not known by the HR managers at companies like Boeing. All they see is the candidates graduation dates and age, and way too often that's enough to get Mr. or Mrs. 40+ Job Seeker a golden rejection letter.
Instead, the HR department should spend a little time getting to know these over 40 job seekers. After all, saying "hello" to THEM doesn't cost a thing.

Here's the link to the Times article "Pay Packages Allow Executives to Jump Ship.." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/29/business/29whole.html
Happy new year, Mr. McNerney, and to everyone else as well. Hope you all get wished a golden hello to 2007!