You're Too Old for These Olympics

One of the things I loved best about these Olympics, Readers, was the blow struck for the “old folk” – those Olympians who were foolishly thought to be over the hill.

41-year-old Dara Torres with her 1/100th of a second behind Silver Medal; Oksana Chusovitina with her Silver in the vault; and Constantina Tomescu-Dita with her Gold Medal in the marathon, were each the oldest person competing for their event, and came away winners in what’s typically seen as a young person’s game.

You know, we hear a lot from you, Readers, about the perils of age discrimination in the job market. And let’s face it, it’s real and it does exist.

But let’s take a page (a torch?) from these Olympians, and think about how you can strike gold in your own job hunt:

Great attitude. When Dara came up just short of the Gold Medal in each of her events, who would have blamed her for being upset, bummed out, or bitterly disappointed at missing her chance for the top rung?

But instead, she was a runner-up with grace.

She beamed. She laughed. She congratulated the winners. And she showed what sportsmanship at the highest levels is all about.

A great attitude like Dara’s is going to see you through the near-misses and the almost-had-its, and that, my dear Readers, is going to make you the champion in the long run.

Use Wisdom. Constantina Tomescu-Dita out-thought the pack in the marathon.

Her strategic gamble to break away at the mid-point of the marathon paid off when her younger competitors thought, “Hey, she’s gotta be bluffing.”

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, exploit your opponents’ youth and inexperience. Open up a wide gap when they think you’re taking it easy, and laugh your way to the Gold.

You’ve had a lot more years to train, you should be better!

Dara Torres broke a world record in the 50 mm freestyle that she first broke 26 years ago as a 15-year-old. Those two-dozen-plus years of training paid off for Dara – her stroke, her technique, and her mental discipline all improved.

Take advantage of the lessons you’ve learned over your career – you’re sharper, you’ve seen it all, and you’ve got a lot of learning to bring to bear on the business problems of your prospective employer. Put your best foot forward and really showcase that expertise – after all, it’s been a long time in the making!

OK, folks, those, at least, were the lessons that I picked up from watching the “Old Olympics.” I hope you found something similarly inspiring in all the performances these past two weeks that will help you raise your game this fall.

Just one last thing, Readers. Today marks the 5-Year Anniversary of this newsletter!

I’ve been writing to you every week since August 25th, 2003, to share the insights we’ve learned about the $100k+ job hunt, highlight the success of the tens of thousand of people hired through TheLadders.com, and hopefully provide some inspiration as you go through what is all too typically the painful, messy, confusing process of finding your next $100k+ job.

In response to one of your most common questions: yes, I write this newsletter myself, every week. It wouldn’t be fair to blame anybody else at TheLadders for the corny jokes or sometimes tenuous segues.

It’s been a privilege to help you, the nation’s leaders, this past half-decade. I find for me, in my job as your guide, that there is something uniquely meaningful in enabling, advising, and counseling the top 10% of the workforce through their careers, and through the difficulties of the job hunt.

Over the past five years, you’ve sent in quite a lot of emails, and I’ve personally read over 200,000 of them. I’d like to thank you, our 2 million subscribers, for your comments (and criticisms), suggestions, but most of all for your support.

And thank you for making TheLadders.com the leading resource for $100k+ jobs and job seekers on the planet.

Happy hunting this week!