Baby Boomers compete with age and experience peers for Later-in-Life opportunities

Many Baby Boomer professionals, laborers and business owners are reaching their job or career crossroads and contemplate changing occupations or exploring ways to earn in the years ahead further income from their skills and experiences.

It is easy to picture a 50-something employee on a late Friday afternoon, sitting quietly in an office or standing idle on a production line, and second guessing the decisions that charted his or her career journey. For some, job tenure offered security and stability but limited personal and professional development.

Watching the years on the same job grow to double digits creates the catalyst to explore – or at least dream of – money-making alternatives.

Meanwhile, there is the 50-something professional or worker who has lost long-standing employment or searches to find the right job fit after a series of layoffs or terminations. Searching for new employment generates uncertainty and anxiety. The predicament becomes whether or not the acceptance of a new job brings with it the stresses and lack of interest in development, just like the old job. In desperation, a quick income fix blinds the long-term job or career vision.

“Most Baby Boomers realize that they will work beyond the mandatory retirement years set by their grandparents or fathers and mothers,” said Gary Pettis, principle of Pettis Creative, Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Some will keep working because applying their knowledge, skills and experiences will help maintain a rewarding lifestyle as they advance in years. Others will need be employed or self-employed and earn income to fund their investments and savings accounts, as they lag behind others in preparation for growing older.”

Either way, aging Baby Boomers will need to do the type of work that delivers the satisfaction that they seek, as a full-time, part-time or temporary employee, as an independent contractor, consultant or freelancer, or as a business owner.

“A typical Baby Boomer perception during the last few years was that some older workers with years of experience lost opportunity and advancement to Generation X-ers who earned smaller incomes,” Pettis said. “But the reality is Generation X-ers represent only 17 percent of the total population and account for a ten-year gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials, the two largest American generations today.”

The ten-year gap with a smaller number of skilled and slightly better educated workers provides Baby Boomers the chances to still benefit and reap the rewards from their experiences.

As Generation X-ers settle into their careers and strive for job stability that many Baby Boomers once cherished, Baby Boomers will have eyes open to alternative occupations, daring to find their dream jobs or taking chances on new business ventures.

“Soon, Baby Boomers will most likely discover that their competitors are fellow Baby Boomers and will be competing against them,” Pettis said. “In a society where many individuals share the same backgrounds, skills, abilities and trail of job descriptions, it is going to be the individuals that know how to position and market themselves and explain their unique set of skills and experiences to employers or customers that will gain the advantage.

“Planning and thinking strategically in the fashion of a successful strategically-focused company, except on the part of the individual, will be strong contributor to success.”

This translates into the ability to define who the individual is, how he or she can contribute, and what value from experience is offered.

Frequently, a Baby Boomer at the career crossroads or thinking about the future mulls over the pros and cons of finding a new employer or striking out on his or her own - working independently or starting a business.

But this situation presents a case of possibly being torn between two masters as options are explored and seconds tick away rapidly. Consequently for many, the first response falls back on the traditional role of the resume and cover letter.

While important, the Baby Boomer’s resume and cover letter need to be integrated into a complete set of current and future job hunting or new occupation seeking tools. They are part of the solution, not the single answer.

“Helping professionals write resumes and cover letters, I have seen people fret over the fact that their resumes show a series of too many jobs at different employers, a series of job titles at one employer, or a lacking of transferable skills that carry over to another position,” Pettis said. “These perceptions when a person is older than 50 raises concerns that the work history might be a detriment to alternative or next-phase career opportunities.”

In the Pettis’ opinion, the opposite is true. Clearly, a person in the workforce or in a profession for several years owns a wealth of knowledge and expertise that offers value and a broad-base perspective.

The challenge for Baby Boomers who want to dispel the older-worker myths and remain competitive in their ongoing career, is to be flexible and creative.

“For instance, if a person earned the cliché of wearing many hats, network with one in a series of personal business cards, different ones touting the uniqueness of just one hat,” Pettis said. “If starting a business or being a consultant is considered, build a Website and update it regularly, which can be an online proof-of-value display and be modified as a person’s self-positioning evolves.

“The possibilities are endless once a Baby Boomer thinks outside of the realm of traditional job hunting approaches and packages his or her value and uniqueness.”

It is a safe bet that if a Baby Boomer delays today in planning strategically and acting creatively about the next job or career transition move, odds are his or her contemporary will.