Walking Through Open Doors

I received a comment today from "Mike" - here it is..
"I am now 40. I started feeling the discrimination when I was in my 30s and a fresh graduate with an M.B.A. I had big dreams for myself at one time. One major issue appears to be employers that are completely enamored with the 20-something crowd which - as we all know - is lacking in overall professional maturity, wisdom and dedication (I recently read about a 24-year-old managing director - what a joke). I sincerely hope that this website opens doors for us and, perhaps, provides us with the motivation and foundation to organize against the wave of age discrimination. Thanks for a great website. Good luck to all. "

To Mike and many more of you who have written expressing a similar sentiment: Thanks for writing. As you suggest, Jobs4.0 is working to open doors, but you and your over 40 colleagues need to be walking through them. For that to happen, job seekers need to check our site regularly and apply to the employers that are posting with us. WHEN APPLYING, PLEASE LET THEM KNOW YOU ARE DOING SO IN RESPONSE TO JOBS4.0 POSTINGS! These companies WANT to see your resume, yet I suspect some job seekers are mistakenly avoiding mentioning our site for fear of HR managers discriminating against them! Bad idea. Attempting to mislead HR people about your age isn't going to lead to job offers. First of all, there is no way to hide your age on a resume - none. Omitting dates and jobs is a transparent and poor response to a difficult situation. Instead, find employers that embrace experienced workers, and then carefully draft a strong resume. And please tell them you saw their postings on Jobs4.0, they will thank you for it!
An ever growing number of prominent employers are posting jobs with us - doors are starting to open, and you need to walk through them, not walk around the block and try to get in through a different entrance!

I'll be a columnist for Forbes.com beginning the first week of February and my first column will cover this in detail. Stay tuned....

Thanks,
Steven