Good advice, from Mr. Backus

Here's a random item - I love reading biographies and obituaries of successful people. It's amazing to read, time after time, how success came about only after years and years of frustration. We all know talent is rarely enough by itself - it also takes great determination and energy. Job seekers over 40 need to remember that!

In my Forbes.com article, I wrote that you should apply to every job where you feel like you are a good match, and follow up on your resume submission in creative, relevant, energetic ways. Don't be deflated by the fear of rejection. If you need a boost, take a look at the obituary of John Backus in today's NY Times. Who was John Backus? Well you might not be reading this (or anything else on a computer) without his contributions. He was the leader of the team that developed Fortran, the first widely used programming language. Fortran was 'the turning point' in computer software, and his work 'opened the door to modern computing.'
He suffered many many setbacks along the way, and he certainly had no guarantee of success. Here's how he dealt with frustration, and failure - he was talking about programming but he could have been giving advice to job seekers over 40, trying to overcome ageism:
"You need the willingness to fail all the time," he said. "You have to generate many ideas and then you have to work very hard to discover that they don't work. And you keep doing that over and over until you find one that does work."

So keep at it, and take a look at Jobs4.0 today - we've added a whole bunch of new jobs lately!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/20backus.html?ex=1175054400&en=d76ca10764a7769f&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Best,
Steven