NextPath Parents

‘Older’ Workers: 6 Tips to Help You Compete With the Younger Crowd and Land a Job

nextpath — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:52:00 GMT

Getting hired in today’s job market is getting harder, especially for the employees with decades of experience: If you’re a job seeker in your 40s or older, your extensive work background might lead to you being labeled as “overqualified,” and cost-cutting companies could be scared off by your salary history. Or, on the flip side, an employer looking at the old-school skills on your résumé might decide you’re out of touch, unprepared for a digitally dependent workplace.

In the current economy, as companies keep cutting jobs and the unemployment rate mounts, it’s more likely than ever that you’ll be competing for scarce job openings against a legion of new college grads — twenty-somethings who are younger than you, more comfortable with computers and new technologies, and who may be more willing to take a position with an entry-level salary and a demanding work schedule.

But with the right strategy, there are ways to use your age to your advantage. Here are six tips, along with advice from professionals and the hiring managers themselves, to help you get your years of experience to work for you during the application process and in the interview.

(Quotes below taken from U.S. News & World Report: “How an Older Worker Can Get the Interview” by Liz Wolgemuth and “6 Ways for Older Workers to Impress Hiring Managers” by Emily Brandon.)

1) Keep your résumé short.
As an older worker, you have a wealth of work experience that a recent grad doesn’t. While it’s good to drive that point home, “your résumé shouldn’t be any longer than one-and-a-half to two pages,” says Jon Zion, president of Eastern operations for Robert Half International, the world’s largest specialized staffing firm and the parent company for staffing agencies Accountemps, OfficeTeam, and The Creative Group.

Use bullets to get in information like job title, date, location, and a few accomplishments.

“You don’t want to say too much,” Zion says. “You just want to create some interest.”

While keeping it to-the-point, make sure you’ve peppered your résumé with the right high-impact words and action verbs. Many large companies now use computer programs that scan your résumé and cover letter for target key words in order to weed out the applications that don’t cut it. Don’t make it past this automated gatekeeper, and a human being may never even see your application. For some extensive lists of résumé key words you can draw on, try Résumé Help, Quintessential Careers, and Professional Résumés.

2) Zero in on your relevant skills.
The longer you’ve been in the work force, the more likely you are to have held multiple jobs at various companies. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you’ve worked in a range of different industries, slapping every job you’ve ever had on your résumé and listing all your responsibilities for each and every position will make you look well-rounded and experienced. Your résumé will just end up being unfocused and likely passed over by busy hiring managers who can’t find the job-relevant info they’re looking for right off the bat.

Instead, highlight only the work experience that applies directly to the job you’re applying for. This usually means you’ll need to custom-tailor your résumé for each position you’re applying for.

You should still provide prospective employers with a reasonably full work history — you don’t want to have a bunch of gaps in your employment history. Just be very deliberate about how you arrange your information: Consider listing your most relevant work experience first, and spend more time describing your work responsibilities at relevant jobs than at non-relevant ones. For those jobs that don’t relate to what you’re currently applying for, you may just want to list your employer and your title; you can answer any questions about what you did there during an interview.

3) Get specific.
The best way to convey just how much value you can bring to a new company is by giving specific examples of how you improved the bottom line for previous companies you’ve worked for, whether an idea you came up with led to the company making bigger profits or streamlined workflow. Use specific numbers whenever you have them.

“We are really looking at past performance to predict future performance,” says Kristy Rigot, system director for recruitment and retention at Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Fla.

4) Emphasize your ability to adapt.
Show employers you’re not resistant to new technologies or other changes. The more you embrace learning and support the evolution of a company, the better your chances are of competing with a bunch of young go-getters.

Give examples of how you adapted when your last company implemented a new software program or marketing campaign strategy, or when one of your employers joined forces with a new business partner that completely changed the way your company did business.

It’s important for job applicants, particularly seasoned ones, to “present themselves as eager to try new things,” says Dale Sweere, the director of human resources for Stanley Consultants in Muscatine, Iowa. “If they can demonstrate through their past experience or give examples of how they adapted to new experiences even late in their career, that is all the better.”

5) Develop your Web savvy.
Establish an online presence. Join professional social networking sites like LinkedIn and XING, where you can connect with past and current colleagues and use these connections to search and get recommended for jobs. Previous bosses and colleagues can post comments about your past work performance for prospective employers to see.

You can even go one step further and create a VisualCV, an online multimedia résumé that allows you to include video, pictures, and a portfolio of your best work. Securely share different versions of your résumé with different companies, and control who sees what. Each visual résumé has its own unique Web address, which you could print on a business card or e-mail to a potential employer.

6) Talk about your leadership skills.
Companies usually want to see that, as an experienced worker, you bring more to the table than just your knowledge. Businesses may look to older or seasoned workplace veterans to teach newbies the ropes and to help them learn how to effectively convey their ideas to senior executives and upper management.

“We’re basically looking for the ability to share ideas, good interpersonal skills, and good communication skills,” says Walter Caldwell, manager of staffing resources at The Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif. “Not only do we have to come up with solutions, we have to be able to explain how we got to a certain point and explain what needs to be done to fix a problem.”

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The Empty Nest: 6 Tips for Rekindling Your Romance After Your Kids Leave for College

nextpath — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:20:00 GMT

You’ve shipped off all the kids to college, and now that they’re gone, you and your spouse or partner may start to notice a vacuum in your lives that you weren’t exactly prepared for.

Without your kids at home to bring you together every day as parents, you may find yourselves at a loss: You’ve been so used to relating to each other as parents that you’ve lost sight of how to relate to each other as a couple.

The empty nest can be disconcerting, often lonely, but it also gives parents the chance to rediscover one another. As the two of you adjust to life without your kids, going back to spending time with just each other, here are six tips to help you bring new life to your relationship.

1) Refocus.
For the past 18 or 19 years, your life has revolved around your kids. Now, suddenly, it’s just you and your spouse, and you may find that you’ve drifted apart or that you no longer have much in common. Take this opportunity to get to know each other all over again, and make a commitment to shift your relationship back to being about each other instead of about your kids.

2) Let go.
Part of getting to know each other a second time around may mean addressing painful relationship issues, like past hurts and disappointments. Holding on to bitterness, anger, or resentment will eat away at your relationship, especially without your kids there to distract you from your feelings. Instead, try to talk these things out so you can come to an understanding and get to a point where you can let them go and forgive each other. Addressing the issues together, listening without judging, and admitting fault where you need to can help you both heal and move your relationship forward.

3) Communicate.
Without your kids around to divert your attention and fill up your time, you could suddenly notice a lot of dead air around the house. You and your spouse may have been so busy talking to and about your kids that you may have forgotten how to really talk to each other. Work on re-establishing communication: Start up meaningful conversations, ask questions, make an effort to turn off any auto-pilot responses, and listen. You may find yourself reclaiming both your best friend and lost ground that’s been missing for years.

4) Make time for each other.
When you’ve been together for eighteen-plus years, raising the kids who are now in college, it’s easy to fall into a routine where things become predictable and you’re so used to one another that you’re both looking past each other, even when you’re face to face.

One way to break out of the marriage rut is to go back to when things were new and start dating each other all over again. Pick one night a week and designate it your date night. Make it one of your highest priorities, and don’t let work, chores, or anything else get in the way. Focus on developing your friendship, really paying attention to each other, and having fun together again: Have a romantic candlelit dinner at home or at a nice restaurant, learn to tango, visit a museum, take in a concert or play, work out together at the gym, go hiking, go for a long walk in the park — anything that lets you spend time together doing something you both enjoy.

5) Travel.
Experiencing a new place together for the first time can help bring you and your spouse closer together. After college bills and parent loans, you may not have the budget to jet off to an exotic location, but you can try to arrange inexpensive getaways closer to home. Start taking long weekends together to the mountains, the beach, a nearby bed and breakfast, or a town or city within driving distance you’ve always wanted to see. If you’d like to venture farther and go overseas, start planning and saving now for a trip in the next year or two.

6) Volunteer.
Look for opportunities to serve others through local civic groups or national organizations. Besides allowing both of you to give back to your community, volunteering can help strengthen your relationship through a common purpose and by giving you a joint sense of fulfillment.

Additional Resources

For more tips and advice on how to cope with empty nest syndrome, especially as a couple, try these additional websites and publications:

Websites

Books & Articles

Empty Nest ... Full Heart: The Journey From Home to College by Andrea Van Steenhouse (2002)
You Know You’re an Empty Nester When ... : A Hilarious Look at Life After Kids by Dianne Sundby (2005)
Empty Nesting: Reinventing Your Marriage When the Kids Leave Home by David Arp et al. (2001)
10 Great Dates for Empty Nesters by David Arp and Claudia Arp (2004)
Loving Midlife Marriage: A Guide to Keeping Romance Alive From the Empty Nest Through Retirement by Susan Golant (1999)
“When to Sell the Empty Nest” by Daniel Kadlec, TIME magazine (Nov. 13, 2006)

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Prescription Drug Abuse: The Warning Signs to Watch For in Your College Kids

nextpath — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:34:00 GMT

You probably had the drug and alcohol talk with your college kids years ago. You spent their teen years trying to steer them away from the seedy friends and drug pushers. But now that they’re away at college, with less supervision and more freedom, your kids could fall into a drug habit without you there to notice.

And the biggest risk these days doesn’t come from those notorious illegal drugs you might have warned them about — crack, speed, heroin, meth, mushrooms — but from the pills sitting conveniently inside your medicine cabinet.

Nearly 7 million Americans are abusing prescription drugs, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — more than the number who are abusing cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and inhalants, combined. Prescription drug abuse has skyrocketed by 80 percent in just six years: Prescription meds are now more popular than every other drug except marijuana, and opiate painkillers now cause more deaths from overdose than both cocaine and heroin put together.

As a college parent who isn’t living under the same roof as your kids anymore, it’s easy to feel helpless, too far removed to know what’s going on with them. But here are some basic facts and warning signs you can stay aware of, even long-distance, that might be your clues to a potential prescription drug problem developing with your kids away from home.

The New Drugs of Choice

Teens and young adults tend to be drawn to prescription drugs for two reasons:

40% of teens (and almost the same percentage of parents) believe that prescription drugs are safer than illegal street drugs.
Prescription drugs are often easy to obtain from friends and family — either simply by asking or by stealing, unnoticed, from a medicine cabinet — and from medical professionals, usually by lying about symptoms and by frequently switching physicians. It’s especially easy for out-of-state college students to go to a doctor they’ve never visited before without seeming suspicious or raising any questions.

The most commonly abused prescription drugs include painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, and Tylenol with codeine; anti-anxiety medications and muscle relaxants like Paxil, Xanax, Valium, and Soma; sleeping pills like Ambien; and stimulants (used to treat ADHD — attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) like Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Concerta; all of which are either taken in pill form at higher-than-prescribed doses or crushed up and snorted.

Students Popping Brainpower Pills

Colleges and universities, in particular, have become hotbeds for Adderall and Ritalin abuse. As many as one in five college students has illegally used one of the two drugs, according to a 2002 study conducted by the University of Wisconsin.

Used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, Adderall and Ritalin in the average student will reduce fatigue, enhance short-term memory, and increase alertness, focus, concentration, and mental-processing speed. College students will use Adderall and Ritalin to stay up days at a time, to help them write more pages, complete assignments faster, and read for longer stretches, and to help them cram and retain last-minute information for exams — it’s the next turbo-charged step up from caffeine and energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster.

Adderall, a blend of four different amphetamines, is frighteningly easy to get addicted to, and it can prove especially irresistible to the most ambitious, hardest-working students, as journalist Joshua Foer reveals in his piece for Slate.com about his self-experiment with Adderall (“The Adderall Me: My Romance With ADHD Meds,” May 10, 2005).

Adderall is like “a cognitive steroid,” writes Foer. “[G]ym rats have steroids, and overachievers have Adderall.”

Recognizing the Warning Signs

In general, physicians tell families to look for dramatic changes in mood or behavior in their children as a sign of drug abuse. But when your kids are in college, generic changes like these can be hard to differentiate from just overall college stress.

Here are some more specific signals you can try to pick up on over the phone when you’re checking in:

Excessive energy
Excessive drowsiness
Inability to concentrate
Lowered inhibitions
Increased secrecy
Dramatic and compelling but vague complaints

You can also look for more concrete danger signs when your kids come back for Thanksgiving or winter break. Of course, if you suspect a problem with your kids before then, you may want to drive or fly out to see them, and be on the lookout for physical red flags:

Constricted or dilated pupils
Flushed face and neck
Slowed breathing
Lowered blood pressure
Sensory alteration

Seeing these symptoms in your child doesn’t necessarily mean he or she has a drug problem; these signs could be indicators of a variety of mental, emotional, physical, or stress-related problems. But in light of the much-publicized prescription-drug-related death of actor Heath Ledger earlier this year, these aren’t signs to be taken lightly.

Prescription drug addiction is a serious and dangerous drug problem and may need to be addressed by a medical professional or require professional rehabilitation or detoxification treatment.

If you’re concerned about a potential prescription drug habit in one of your college kids, contact the school health center and ask to speak to a staff counselor about what steps to take next.

For more information on prescription drug abuse, visit www.prescription-drug-abuse.org.

Surviving the Economy: 7 More Small Ways to Save Big

nextpath — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:05:00 GMT

1) Avoid ATM fees.
When you take out money from ATMs that aren’t affiliated with your bank, you could be charged around $5.00 for every transaction — $2.50 by your bank and $2.50 by the ATM provider. Take out cash twice a week, and that’s $40 a month you’re paying just to have access to your money — something that’s free when you go through your own bank.

If your bank doesn’t have enough ATM or branch coverage to be convenient for you, consider opening a free account at a different bank with widespread ATMs where you keep just enough to cover your cash withdrawals from week to week.

2) Unplug.
Chargers and electrical appliances that feature a clock, a timer, any kind of memory, or that can be operated by remote “are all sucking electricity even when you’re not using them,” says Dale Bryk of the National Resources Defense Council. Of the total energy used to run home electronics, as much as 40 percent is consumed when these so-called “vampire appliances” — TVs, DVD players, computers, printers, stereos, automatic coffee makers — are turned off.

Shave some dollars off of your electric bill by either unplugging your home appliances when you’re not using them or by plugging them into Smart Strip power strips from BITS Ltd., which stop drawing electricity when your gadgets are turned off. After a few months of savings, the Smart Strips will pay for themselves.

3) Keep cool or heat things up — but only when you’re home.
The average household spends more than $2,000 a year on energy bills — nearly half of which is spent on heating and cooling, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. You can save about $180 a year by properly setting and maintaining the settings on a programmable thermostat to automatically adjust the temperature for you when you’re away from home. Generally, you can save about 3 percent of your heating costs for each degree you lower your thermostat in the winter and about 4 percent of your cooling costs for each degree you raise your thermostat in the summer.

If you have a manual thermostat, you can still save money by adjusting the temperature before you leave the house. Try turning your thermostat up in the summer or down in the winter by five to eight degrees before you leave for work or on vacation.

4) Make your own meals.
You’d be surprised how much eating out is costing you. A recent survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association found that Americans are spending more than 50 percent of their average household food budget on eating out, compared to the 25 percent they spent in 1955.

Spending just $2.00 a day on a homemade lunch versus $6.00 a day at the drive-thru or at a local restaurant will save you about $80 a month — that’s $960 a year. And if your excuse for eating out during the work week is because you need to get a break from the office, you can always grab your homemade lunch and eat at a local park. Take a walk afterwards, and you could save yourself a trip to the gym.

5) Buy generic.
Don’t buy into clever marketing. Why pay more for a name brand when generic brands are often made by some of the very same manufacturers, points out Joanna Pruess, author of Supermarket Confidential. You can almost always save money — sometimes a couple of dollars per item — by choosing a no-name brand over the name-brand products you know and love.

Go generic on everything from cereal to canned goods and frozen vegetables to over-the-counter medications. The FDA requires that over-the-counter drugstore-branded medications be as effective as their brand-name counterparts. That means your pharmacy’s generic ibuprofen pain reliever should do the job just as well as Motrin IB — for a few dollars less.

6) Shop the used-car lot.
If it’s time for a new car, you could save thousands simply by buying a car with some miles on it. Look for recent models — those less than five years old — and you could get a nearly-new car that’s still in fine working order for a fraction of the new-car price. Your insurance premium will almost always be lower on a used car than on a new one, and you’ll also generally get more value for your purchase price: New cars generally lose 30 percent of their value as soon as they’re driven off the lot.

7) Say no to new dorm décor.
While your kids might not be thrilled about heading off to college with someone else’s hand-me-downs, shopping for furniture or other dorm essentials on Craigslist, at garage sales, and at your local consignment, Goodwill, and Savers stores could help you save hundreds of dollars.

You may find deals on everything from beds and couches to lamps, desks, and bookshelves. And with a little work, you can often make less-gently used items look new again without spending what you would on something right out of the box.

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It’s All Happening So Fast: 6 Tips to Help You Handle Your Kids’ Freshman Year

nextpath — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:35:00 GMT

Dealing With the Transition to College

You wake up one morning, and it finally hits you that your kids are no longer living with you; they’re not just gone for a few days, but for the year, maybe longer. Their bedroom is still their bedroom, except it’s clean, the bed is made, some things are gone, and it feels empty.

A change like this can be a radical, sometimes unsettling shift for both you and your kids — an 18-year chunk of your lives is suddenly missing, and you’re no longer quite who you were. As you feel your way through the new and empty spaces, and adjust to the changes that come with freshman year, here are six small bits of advice for helping you cope.

The Freshman Year: A New Chapter, With Its Own Beginning

1. Don’t try and fill the empty nest.
You’re sad. Allow yourself to feel that way. It’s called the empty nest syndrome for a reason, and if you try to snuff out this feeling by filling the nest with new worries, you’re going to do yourself a disservice. Letting go is incredibly difficult, especially since you worked so hard to reach that point where your kids would be ready to handle the world on their own. But remember this: You’re still their mom or dad, and that’s never going to change. Eventually, they may even be asking you for parenting advice.

2. Make sure your sadnesses stay your own.
Be careful about burdening your kids with your lonely or down days, especially during a time in their lives that will have its own share of feeling small and lost at the same time that it’s filed with awe and wonder and the exhilaration of new starts. It’s okay to let them know you miss them, but make sure they know that you’re excited for them too. This is a good way to remind them that they’re loved without smothering them.

3. Send care packages.
One of the best pick-me-ups when you’re a freshman who’s homesick, stressed out, and a little depressed is getting a surprise care package from mom and dad. Ship a box of snacks, fruit, homemade bread, a new blanket, a couple movies, a book of Sudoku, a few issues of their favorite magazine — anything that reminds them of home — and you’ll be the coolest parents in the dorm. And you just might find the act of putting together that package of things you know will make them happy helps you feel brighter too. Hint: If you don’t have time to make one yourself, many colleges and online stores have pre-made care packages you can order and have sent on your behalf.

4. It’s your turn.
You’ve spent so much time and made so many sacrifices so you could prepare and afford to send your kids to college that you may have forgotten what makes you tick. Take this time to find yourself again, maybe even rekindle some old dreams, and concentrate on yourself now that you can: Go back to school, take up a sport, join a club, revisit an old hobby. Do whatever it is that fills your life with purpose. And don’t for one second feel guilty about it.

5. Volunteer.
If you’ve gotten so used to having your calendar filled with your kids’ extracurricular activities, and you can’t seem to get by without a day that’s bursting at the seams, get involved in the community. An activity or charity can help you stay busy when you’re not at work, and if you particularly miss your kids’ teenage exuberance, you can volunteer at a youth center or club in order to stay in touch with that young energy.

6. Leave their bedroom alone.
Keep your kids’ bedroom the same for at least freshman year. Resist the urge to redecorate, and hold off on turning it into your office, studio, or new game room. Trust us, after a long and what can be a harsh first year at college, your kids will appreciate coming home to a place that feels like home. They’ll have missed those reassuring pieces of their old life almost as much as they’ll have missed you — and know that they do miss you, even if they don’t always say so.

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