Jobs4.0 (www.jobs4point0.com)

Jobs4.0 (www.jobs4point0.com)

Saturday, December 30, 2006

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!

3 comments:

Jobs4.0 said...

Oops..... looks like we were ready for Forbes.com and MSNBC.com, but Yahoo put us over the edge!! Sorry we were offline for a few hours today. We have made some changes (hopefully they are improvements, we sure think they are), and that should not happen again. Thanks for your patience and your persistence.

The good news is that Jobs4.0 is gaining traction around the US. We are continuing to build strength among job seekers over 40, and as a result more and more companies are noticing! (more on that tomorrow AM)Job seekers over 40 are not alone anymore -- we are getting a great deal of emails from people who are sharing their stories of age discrimination, starting as young as 41! We'll be sharing some of the stories, as soon as I recover from today's events. Thanks again for your support......stick with us!
Steven
PS. And feel free to chime in on the blog, we'd love to hear from you.

leelyn88 said...

Thank you for being so brave and doing something about it.

Us, who are over 40 and looking for work or career change must realise what has been happening. I now don't feel useless and 'past it'.

It is very humiliating to be interviewed by someone who has just graduated college.

I will be emailing the link to your site to many people.

Thank you again. Change doesn't come from being silent!

Thanks Leelyn

Dave said...

At 58, and looking for work, I am really glad to see someone take the age discrimination thing to the national level. Steven; understanding you are just getting your feet under you, I will be happy to see postings eventually from around the U.S. for older workers. What kind of compounds my situation, is that I am not mobile. I will travel as much as necessary, but after moving my wife 8 times (to follow work) since '92, I cannot relocate her again. Little did I know that my age would be against me when attempting to find employment again. And, being a baby boomer, I have not even considered retirement. I am not even looking forward to it. And; although Telecommunications has been the majority of my career, I am multifaceted. I have other interests and abilities collected from a lifelong hobby and scores of part time employment.