Written by Debbie Cheng
Landing a Job as a Senior Jobseeker
Being employed in your silver years is a great way to stay active. With a job, you'll gain new experiences while keeping yourself busy and earning some cash along the way. However, your last job may have been some time ago and you may not understand how the job market has changed and the new hiring practices that follow. Here, we underline some crucial points when it comes to applying for a job as a senior jobseeker and provide some tips on getting the job.
1
Share relevant and recent experiences
You may have many different job experiences spanning across different industries and job scopes. As such, you should:
- Include only recent job experience
- Include only relevant job experience
- Exclude irrelevant positions held more than 10 to 12 years ago
Create your resume as you go: Use our resume template to create your resume as you read on! Learn how to write a good resume and edit the template accordingly.
2
Pick up appropriate skills and certification
It's important to stay relevant and to pick up skills that match the industry you are joining.
Look out for courses or gain skills in the following areas:
Look out for courses or gain skills in the following areas:
- SkillsFuture courses with subsidies
- Computer skills
- Operating smartphones
- Microsoft Office software
- Service courses
- English language proficiency
3
Focus on small companies
You may find more opportunities by focusing your search on a smaller company. Not only are there more small companies around, but small companies tend to be less critical about age and focus on attracting people with great expertise who can help them expand their company.
4
Tweak your resume based on the job requirements
Don't use the same resume you used to apply for a logistics job to apply for a position in F&B. Although there may be overlapping skills and experiences, it's important to tweak each resume based on the most sought after skills in each industry. This means including certain keywords in your resume to highlight your strengths based on industry.
5
Know what you can offer as a mature jobseeker
When applying for a job and attending an interview, it's important to highlight what you are able to bring to a company despite your advanced age. Mature workers can:
- Bring a depth of experience to the job
- Offer stability that often times, younger jobseekers lack
- Resilience through years of experience
- The ability to provide insight and wisdom to younger employees
- Mentor younger colleagues.
6
Explore and understand the use of virtual interview platforms
Most interview are now held online and tools like Zoom, Whereby, Google Meet and other video chat tools have become an important part of the recruitment process. Here are some steps you can take to improve on this front:
- Take a lesson or watch a training video
- Familiarise yourself with different video meeting apps
- Practice with a friend
Looking for jobs as a senior jobseeker?
As you continue with your job search, the platform, SilverJobs (www.silverjobs.sg), is a website meant for mature jobseekers to apply for related jobs and courses that meet their skills and needs. You can also use the "Resume Drop" feature to deposit your resume for potential jobs.
Look for jobs on FastJobs with the hashtag #SeniorsWelcome, as this tag signifies that our employers are open to hiring senior jobseekers. This allows you to apply for any job without being concerned about your age and focus primarily on your work experience, skills, and education. Since this campaign started in July 2020, we are seeing a higher number of mature applicants getting hired for #SeniorsWelcome than younger applicants, showing that employers are sincere about hiring older jobseekers.
Look for jobs on FastJobs with the hashtag #SeniorsWelcome, as this tag signifies that our employers are open to hiring senior jobseekers. This allows you to apply for any job without being concerned about your age and focus primarily on your work experience, skills, and education. Since this campaign started in July 2020, we are seeing a higher number of mature applicants getting hired for #SeniorsWelcome than younger applicants, showing that employers are sincere about hiring older jobseekers.
Don't give up
Whatever you do, keep in mind that it's not just you who finds it hard to get a new job. Usually looking for a job isn't always easy , no matter how old you are. If you think age is hindering your job search, there are strategies you can use to address the situation. Don't give up; finding a job can take a while but there are employers who recognise the importance of maturity, life experience , and skills of an older worker.
