Career Talk

I'm 50. Can I Get a Job? (Part 2)

Article tools

Printer friendly	E-mail article	Subscribe	Order reprints
	Discuss any Chronicle article in our forums
Latest Headlines First Person It's Not a Zero-Sum Game Are a moderately heavy teaching load and an active research program mutually exclusive? First Person Pothead Ph.D. This is most definitely not a cautionary tale. First Person Subject Experts Need Not Apply Recent job postings and hires suggest that many academic libraries are losing interest in hiring humanities Ph.D.'s. Career News When Laptops Disappear Stolen computers containing sensitive data are a growing and costly problem for colleges. Resource Salaries: Faculty | Administrative Presidential pay: Private | Public Financial resources: Salary and cost-of-living calculators Career resources: Academic | Nonacademic Library: Previous articles by topic | by date | by column Career Talk, Ms. Mentor, and more... Landing your first job On the tenure track Mid-career and on Administrative careers Nonacademic careers for Ph.D.'s Talk about your career Blogs

By Mary Morris Heiberger and Julie Miller Vick

Question: "Is it possible to begin academic life after 40 (or 50, or 55)? Dare I hope for a position somewhere?"

Question: "Age discrimination, for some reason, is considered to be less harmful, less discriminatory, and less unjust, than other types of discrimination. Consider the recent Supreme Court decision saying that employees of public universities may not sue their institutions or their states for age discrimination in federal court, even when it is clearly taking place. (See an article from The Chronicle on January 21.) What can we, the more mature applicants, do to overcome this very wrong practice in academia?"

Julie: If you view an academic career as a tenure-track position at a university or liberal-arts college, the answer is Yes, it is difficult for older candidates though not impossible. New Ph.D.'s of any age can often easily obtain adjunct, and thus temporary, teaching positions. Obtaining a tenure-track position is another kettle of fish entirely, and is extremely difficult for older candidates.

If you take a broader view of what constitutes academic life, many people have happy lives in an academic environment where they teach one or two courses a semester but hold other positions, perhaps in academic administration, that are their main jobs.

Mary: As I think of people we've worked with over the years who've obtained tenure-track positions, the oldest I can remember were people in their early 40's. At the outer end of the spectrum, one of our alumni, now teaching at a community college, recently told us her department had hired someone who was in her late 50's. For this article, we asked people to write to us if they had successfully dealt with this issue. Some who responded said that they had been new hires at a non-traditional age, up to their early 50's, and a few had hired new assistant professors who were over 45.

Julie: However, most were not as fortunate and had been on the job market for a number of years. One respondent echoed several others: "Adjuncts are in demand and profs are not." Much as we wish we could be highly encouraging about the odds of older candidates obtaining those elusive tenure-track positions, we don't want people to overlook the real obstacles they face.

Mary: There's a certain irony in the dilemma. Several years ago, the mandatory age at which faculty members could legally be required to retire was "uncapped," so now there is no forced retirement at any age. Since many faculty members like their jobs, they continue to work at them. This decreases the number of openings and produces an "aging professoriate," which both increases the desire for "young faculty" and makes it more difficult for candidates of any age to get jobs, at least in fields where the market is tight. (See an article from The Chronicle on March 17.)

Julie: Not that age bias is legal. The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination in employment decisions for persons at least 40 years of age. Most states also have laws on the books making it "unlawful to refuse to hire, discharge or discriminate against an individual because of age." However, discrimination based on age is often difficult to prove, redress is possible only through a lawsuit, and a lawsuit can be expensive and take years to settle.

Mary: Furthermore, one can rarely be sure how much, if any, role one's age played in a hiring decision, particularly in fields where jobs are tight and well-qualified candidates frequently don't get interviews. One reader writes, "None of this constitutes very strong evidence for age discrimination. However, I still find myself wondering whether it played a role in some of the interviews I didn't get."

Is age discrimination a reality? Absolutely. How big a role it plays in a particular decision, or in a particular candidate's experience, is almost impossible to know for sure. There are risks and advantages to either way you choose to view this unknowable reality.

Julie: If you see age discrimination behind every negative decision, you may feel a stronger sense of confidence in your own abilities and qualifications, since you'll see rejection in terms of unfairness rather than personal weakness. On the other hand, by being predisposed to find interviewers unfair, you may lose opportunities to establish the kind of rapport that can overcome age barriers.

If you feel your age is irrelevant to your prospects, you may approach interviewers as if they are fair, thus increasing the odds that they will be. Nevertheless, you may be more likely to see turndowns as personal failures and be more likely to persist in pursuing a fixed set of goals past a point of diminishing returns.

Mary: How might you develop a balanced approach when you worry that institutions won't want to invest in you because they see you as not having enough years ahead to distinguish yourself? It's important to think about what you have to offer and focus on that instead of worrying that your age is an issue.

As one reader writes: "We also have some pluses; we won't get pregnant, job hop, or step on others in our climb to a deanship. We are basically a bunch of mellow, dependable folks appreciative of this second career opportunity. We already have mature work habits and aren't distracted with young kids, so we should be productive." Make yourself a strong candidate and be active in your field. Publish, give presentations, use technology confidently, and distinguish yourself.

Julie: Of course this writer's post raises some other interesting issues. Discrimination based on family status is no more attractive or legal than is discrimination based on age, and, in fact, some older candidates do indeed have young children. We received one interesting post from a 54-year-old man with three very young children who had received positive feedback from search committees on being the father of young children. Because of the children, the committees viewed him in a more "youthful" light. It's not clear, however, that an "older" mother of young children would receive the same enthusiastic response.

Mary: Thus, it's better to stick to assets that are a function of one's self and experiences, rather than of membership in a category, whether based on age or anything else. As we all know from firsthand experience, some younger people act more maturely than some older people, and some older people are more flexible and learn more quickly than some younger people.

Julie: You can also plan to anticipate and deflect some stereotypes. For example, older candidates may be presumed to be less technologically savvy, less open to new ideas, and uncomfortable working with people who are younger than they are. When you interview you can deflect these stereotypes by making sure you're particularly knowledgeable about new technology, by talking with enthusiasm about new ideas, and by relating so comfortably to people of all ages during your interview that there's no doubt about your ability to work with everyone.

Mary: Another stereotype, at institutions that stress research, may be that an older candidate will have a shorter period of productive scholarship than will a younger one. Counteract this by talking with enthusiasm about research plans that stretch far into the future.

You can also use your greater experience without calling attention to it. Because you've had more experience, you're less likely to be surprised by anything that happens in a job search and have a larger repertoire of prior experience on which to draw in deciding how to deal with issues as they arise. More interviewers are likely to seem like peers to you, which may make interviewing and its associated social events more comfortable.

Julie: So, go into the job search prepared and confident, making the most of support from your advisers and resources available to you. Follow suggestions given in other columns on this site and in our book, The Academic Job Search Handbook. And give attention to appearances, even if you believe it's outrageous that they should matter.

As one reader suggests, "Look lively; behave with bounce! ... We don't have to fake our age, but let's not exaggerate it. Go ahead, dye those temples. Remember when we had to compete for a date? We took stern measures to look our very best. We can do it again to compete for one of those neat professorships."

Mary: Take the advice of the reader who emphasized initiative and establishing rapport with potential employers:

• "Apply to positions with older faculty, at least as old or older than yourself. At 50, I have found that it is easier for me to find work with people of my own age or older. It is also then very pleasant to find people with similar life issues as colleagues.

• Keep very current on high-tech issues and skills. Emphasize this capacity.

• Network, cultivate contacts, circulate, go to conferences. Also, in applying for positions, stand out through personal contact. For example, follow up the submission of a résumé with a telephone call. Chat up people with a relationship to the position.

• Be prepared to relocate."

Mary: I know that many people do it and feel that it helps their candidacy. However, when I see a C.V. without dates, it telegraphs to me that someone is concerned that he or she will appear too old. So it all depends on who's reading the vita.

Julie: Whatever you say on your C.V., if you find that despite your qualifications and efforts to job hunt as well as you possibly can, you are not getting offers, consider whether it makes more sense to modify your goals than to keep hitting your head against the wall. If your age or prior experience has made you a marginal candidate in terms of standard positions, consider that margins and borders are often where creativity flourishes.

Whether in virtual courses, corporate training rooms, or retreat centers, a great deal of education is going on outside of traditional academic structures, in settings where the rules are more flexible. Many of the people who wrote to us have realized this, taking care to hone their ability to work with technology and looking at their intellectual careers in an entrepreneurial fashion, asking themselves what intellectual products they can create and who might be interested in them.

Mary: As one reader suggests: "Change fields to one where you have more control over whether or not you can work. For example, I am currently making a transition from teaching to publishing/editing. Small-business ownership might appeal to some older academics. Writing articles and books can also advance other areas to branch out in, but particularly those in which you have a strong interest, and preferably a good deal of talent. This might involve forming a creative work group with friends."

Julie: I completely agree that it makes sense to decide when a traditional academic career isn't likely and to plan a rewarding alternative. However, people concerned about age discrimination are also likely to be concerned about things like children's college tuition, helping out aging parents, and their own financial security during retirement.

As you look at exciting entrepreneurial possibilities, you need to weigh them against employment with a more predictable salary and set of benefits. It may make sense to consult a financial planner as you weigh options, even if you feel your current financial resources are extremely limited.

Mary: So people have to deal with financial, as well as job-market, realities. Julie, do you think we've encouraged people or totally depressed them?

Julie: Neither, I hope. It's true that this is a tough challenge, and it's true that people have found creative ways to overcome it. I hope we've encouraged at least some readers to keep trying things until they find one that will work for them.

This article does not respond to a related question we received: "Please address the issue (like mine) of a professor who has been not granted tenure at a state university (non-research) with a great deal of experience in the field -- teaching, publishing, consulting -- who struggles to find any kind of employment." We'll answer this in a future column. Again, we welcome mail from our readers on the topic. Send your comments to careertalk@chronicle.com

ALSO SEE:

Career Talk: I'm 50. Can I get a job? Part II

I hadn't reckoned on turning 50: Comments from readers

David W. Johnson: How I became a university instructor at 53

Getting a tenure-track job at 44: A conversation with Jennifer Gunn