I'm 51. Have over 13 years of experience in Customer Relationship Management. I have been picky with my job search (as I feel most people should be).
I have worked in some form of tech for over 10 years (starting in E-commerce and now as an Enterprise Success Manager for a SaaS company. I know G-Suite, MS Office Suite, Salesforce, Monday, Slack etc.
The last 1.5yrs as an ESM have been somewhat disappointing, I love the job and am really good at it. but the company has recently come under some heat through an incident that led to someone downloading a report of everyone's salary off an HR site, the most recent hires found that we were being under compensated, while others that came after us were better compensated. The company's response was that at the time of hiring we agreed with the compensation (although I tried negotiating either for more pay, internet stipend or a performance bonus and told they couldn't do any of it).
I've been applying to relevant/related roles and I'm on week 3, with very little traction and over 100 applications (most of the ones I did hear back from require video prescreens...so, interesting to say the least...also is this the new thing these days??). It's a WFH opportunity, which is highly competitive. I've been using AI on my applications to boost my ability to make it past ATS bots.
My husband is a recruiter for a company that hires for tele sales (which isn't something I want to work in) and has reviewed my resume, made a few small adjustments it honestly doesn't feel like it's made a difference.
In response to removing dates from diplomas, that isn't an option when filling out applications online and is a requirement to add the date in order to progress with the application. Also, I don't have a bachelor's degree, but have a certificate in Business Administration and plenty of experience to boot), and it's not really hindered me in the past.
I'm under the growing impression that these employers may be gunning for someone within the Millennial & older Gen Z's out in the job market.
I'm not applying to everything under the sun, not asking for more than the job posts, specifically seeking opportunities that match the pay range I feel better than fair for the role. Also not including my salary preference in my cover letters. Adding a cover letter whenever its allowed. My resume is optimized, my LinkedIn is in good shape (using more results-oriented wording). I use LinkedIn learning to gain related skillsets and refresh my knowledge of the role I'm applying for (I like learning).
Does anyone else relate?
Do recruiters find us "women of a certain age" less desirable in the workplace?
Any advice from this community?
Sorry for the long post...just experiencing application burn out and even some impostor-syndrome from time to time!
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