May 2007
Help Wanted:
Mature Workers
By Andrea McGovern

Jim Lundgren has begun a career in car sales after working for 30 years in manufacturing. Lundgren is among many workers age 50 to 65 finding it necessary to learn new skills to compete in today's changing labor market. Photo by Marc Golub

Jim Lundgren says a passion for electronics he’d had since childhood informed his career decisions prior to losing his job in his late 50s. After serving four years in the Air Force, where he specialized in computer maintenance, he worked for an instrumentation firm on Cleveland’s east side. He worked his way from engineering to management on the production line. After 30 years there, he was laid off in August 2005.

“I looked for six months, trying to get back into manufacturing,” he said. He went on 18 interviews. He said he was always treated fairly, but only got close to an offer once. “The other guy won out.”

Lundgren, a Concord Township resident, had one week of unemployment benefits left when he was offered an opportunity in car sales at Mullinax East, a Ford dealership in Wickliffe.

“I had begun to figure I had to think outside of the box, do something different,” he said. “This certainly is.”

Elaine (who preferred we not use her real name) came from a successful career in automotive sales. She lost her job in April

of 2005 when a new owner let 17 employees go from the dealership where she had worked for 10 years. Due to her mother’s terminal illness, which occurred shortly after her layoff, she has now been actively seeking a full-time position for 12 of the 24 months since then, to no avail.

“I was making $50K a year in sales. I was the salesperson of the year, beating out 25 guys,” she said. “I was a very successful professional.”

Elaine, who has also decided to switch careers and go into administrative work, said she has sent out 85 resumes. 

“I’ve been close to getting offers on a couple of jobs,” she said, “but the pay wasn’t something I could live on.”

The positions paid $8 an hour. Elaine, at 57, believes age discrimination is a real factor in the downturn of her career.

“The entire staff at my former employer is now under 30,” she said. “In the past, I had never interviewed for a job where I wasn’t hired on the spot. I also owned my own business. I have the skills, but haven’t been offered a full-time job with benefits. I believe it’s age discrimination, because it’s too expensive to cover older people with medical benefits. This is my opinion. Can I prove it? No.”

According to Paul Magnus, vice president of workforce development at the Akron-based Mature Services Inc., which operates Senior Employment Centers throughout Ohio, older job seekers often become quite discouraged before finding new employment.

“In many cases, we see non-degreed professionals who have worked their way up based on experience,” he said.

When things are reorganized, these workers may find themselves without the credentials they need to compete with younger candidates in today’s market.

Technical skills in demand

In contrast, Greg Schmidt, president of Prosperity Human Resource Systems in Mentor, places professionals in IT and other technical fields. He has worked in the field of human resources for more than 20 years. He said he frequently places candidates between 50 and 65 years of age, if they have the training and experience to do the job.

“In technical fields experience is highly valued,” he said. “Everybody’s perspective on being old is changing as the baby boomers are growing up.” Schmidt said one of his most recent hires was Robert Grayson, who was offered a job at Stam Inc. in Grand River the same day he interviewed as a quality control inspector. He was surprised when looking back at his application to see that Grayson was 62.

“I hadn’t even looked at it,” he said. “This employee was hired the same day because he can do the job.” Grayson said it’s not like the old days.

“My dad worked at the same job at Republic Steel for 28 years,” Grayson said. “Nowadays, if you last for two years on a job without some type of breakup or downsize, you are doing great. It’s not the individual’s fault, just the atmosphere.”

He believes training and learning is the way to keep on top of the job market.

“Fundamentally, what I keep doing is get trained and certified in as many different inspection technologies as I can. I figure if I’m going to be an inspector, I want to cover every base in inspection.”

Get help with job search

According to Magnus, individuals with up to date technical skills are always in demand regardless of their age. “That segment of the market has a market,” he said. “We work with individuals who are having trouble fitting into the employment agency’s model. We teach them strategies to reduce their job search time.”

Mature Services operates a Senior Employment Center in Euclid that serves Lake, Cuyahoga and Geauga county residents. The center’s job club consists of a three-week job seeking skills course covering topics such as goal setting, resume development, interviewing, networking, cold calling and targeting unadvertised jobs. Conducted like motivational sales meetings, the clubs help participants to break the habit of relying on traditional job-search methods and learn to market themselves.

“For example, if you are a chemical engineer, you want to target the companies that work with the chemicals you are familiar with,” Magnus said. “The program teaches you to use directories to get lists of managers. Target those companies first, identify the people in hiring positions and make contacts. Learn to use voice mail to get your points and questions across. Be proactive.”

Collaboration helps

After the program, participants continue to meet once a week to collaborate on their job searches.

“An engineer may notice the company he is looking at is also hiring an accountant,” Magnus said. “He passes that information on. In that way, he is helping himself and his peers.”

Nina Talley, employment specialist and trainer at the Euclid Senior Employment Center, said the process helps to reduce the length of the job search and keeps job seekers from getting discouraged.

“We are trying to keep people feeling positive about themselves so they can convey their skills and assets to employers,” she said. “When you really identify your strengths, targeting employers based on your skills is a totally different thing from looking around, seeing what’s available and settling.”

Change is inevitable

Assessing his skills and interests through the job club was a great help to Jim Lundgren when he decided to start thinking “outside the box.” For the previous 15 years he had been involved in manufacturing test instrumentation for car dealerships.

“I’d interfaced with Ford manufacturing in Dearborn (Michigan). I knew Ford cars on the inside,” he said. “What I had to learn was the outer skin. Ironically, I’d been buying cars from this dealership since the early ’90s. Little did I know I wouldn’t just be a consumer, but would become the person on other side of table.”

Now people are telling him he was born to sell cars.

“I’m having fun at this,” he said. “It’s really rewarding when you find the right vehicle for someone, or even exceed their expectations. It’s great to see that pleasure and excitement in their eyes.”

Seeing his layoff as an opportunity led Lundgren to a satisfying second career.

“I am doing a lot of things I never thought I’d be doing,” he said. “I thought I would retire from the place I was working. That didn’t work out. But there is opportunity out there. You have to go at it from that position, be willing to change. Change is inevitable. Jump on the bandwagon, be open to it.”

Experience drain opportunity

“Everybody knows the baby boomers are getting older,” Magnus said. “The concept of brain drain is also well known. What people are less aware of is something called experience drain. There is a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience retiring or taking a stepped-down role in the market.”

According to Talley, the workforce is in crisis because incoming workers lack experience and the maturity it brings.

“Younger people may have book knowledge, but not the experience to apply it to different situations,” she said. “Mature workers are needed to model and exemplify those skills and train younger staff.”

Lifelong learners do best

But doing the same old thing may not bring the same rewards. According to Talley, there has been a paradigm shift in pay structure.

“What was once worth a substantial amount now has been reduced,” she said. “Across the board the jobs are not paying what they used to. The older worker has to recognize that there are other skills he has and use them to generate other sources of income. A whole new mindset has to be adopted.”

Talley said the whole workplace has changed.

“There is a learning curve that has to take place for mature workers so they know how to position themselves to get that gainful employment,” she said.

Andrea McGovern is a Mentor freelance writer