Constant rejections...on the scrap heap...early 50's

[OakCat]

Made redundant from mid senior accounting role I'd been in for 3 years due to wide spread redundancies in company.

Cannot seem to find a perm role (South East). Never had a problem before. Latest rejection email today. I thought I had a good cv and experience and have excellent references. Clearly on the scrap heap. Agencies only interested in getting me 3 month contracts or put me forward for perm roles clearly no one else wants (pay is awful or no WFH at all).

Any words of wisdom....Will keep plugging away but really soul destroying....

It’s a nightmare and for me it’s a lot to do with ageism being in my 50s. Qualified CA, big firm trained etc lots of experience but that’s not valued. Had couple of interviews on Teams both times it was with 2 females interviewing. I’d guess they were at least 20/25 years younger than me. Both interviews went well but no luck I think I’d too much experience is bottom line almost feel like I need to dumb down to get something now. 1 job said I only ticked 9 out of 10 boxes 😖jeez. It’s a minefield. Agencies hit or miss lot are v young and think over 50 is v old . I had one guy ask me what a CA was he had no idea there were different qualifications he’d been an estate agent and was now trying recruiting! Lot are useless finding a good one is rare nowadays.

As someone who saw a LOT of CV’s -

Don’t put anything that ages you on CV. You only need 1-2 pages and relevant recent job experience (last 20 years MAX) you don’t need to put every job you’ve had.

Don’t need to put dates of education & if you were educated to degree level you don’t need to put things like your GCSE / O Levels on your CV, just “MSc 2:1 University of wherever.” Only put things like hobbies if you do something interesting or that helps your application (volunteering etc)

Once you get to interview they can’t discriminate against you because of age and you’ve a chance to make your experience prove you’re the best fit.

Make sure LinkedIn is also snappy and up to date and you have a good photo.

Lastly make sure you’re up to speed with current interview and application techniques, often it’s about making your experience fit the desirable behaviours and applications are scored against a matrix, I’ve had to reject applicants because they scored poorly even though I could tell from their work history they could do the role blindfolded with their hands tied.

I'm about to start looking. This is so depressing. And this whole getting the over 65's back into the workforce is clearly rubbish too, if the ageism at 50 is do bad!

@Aprilx

So I qualified in 2017 and reached FC role on a contract for a household name company. It was a hard slog and long days but at 26 years old and the middle of the pandemic where most of my career growth happened I think I have done very well. So thankyou for your condescending comments. Maybe this is why over 50s are not hired???

There are other accountants on here younger than 50. Late 20s and early 30s late 30s who also have said the same as me. It took them 5 months and a few goes to find the right job.

My generation has far more jobs as the country is a shit show and has been since I left school 11 years ago. Unfortunately we do not have the generational privilege to reach the top of finance in one company as that company usually goes bust before we get past junior accountant. Haha...

Well maybe I will start putting CVs of over 50s in the bin that have no other experience except 1 or 2 companies?? See how you like that comment. I understand the generational divide and currently take each candidate by the generation they trained on. You clearly don't!

Believe me, @Bacon88 I and several others on here who have been reading and observing your angry, confrontational and rude posting style wouldnt offer you a job in a month of Sundays. You may want to check your attitude, we can all wake up and choose it, you know.

@daisychain01

That also works for you too!! Lots of people saying young people wont emoly the over 50s. Then lots of over 50s attacking me. Saying they would bin my cv, not employ me because of my attitude. Hypocritical much??

That all works for the over 50s. Have you ever thought the younger generation do not appreciate the patronising, morally superior attitude the over 50s on here have displayed towards me??z

I have repeatedly said i recognise generational differences and wouldn't throw away a cv because of age but the over 50s would throw mine away.

The world of corp finance is brutal, rude and aggressive in the modern world so op and you older folk better get use to way my generation speaks to you. We do not have to respect our elders...

@Bacon88 you're not being patronised, you're being called out for your attitude and rudeness.

@Floofydawg

Yes and I am calling them out for there attitude and rudeness toward me. If I think they are being rude to me then they are. Rude is a feeling not a defined outcome...

Again it works both ways. Have none of the older people on here recognised that maybe they are too far from my generation culturally and is less to do with age and more to do with standards.

Calling me rude and throwing my cv in the bin is okay because you are all morally superior??? Have we gathered that might be the problem in some of the over 50s attitudes and why young agency employees find dealing with them difficult??

I have no problem getting jobs and dealing with agency's. Its just been a slow market for the last few months. I have had 3 contracts since Oct 2022 in senior finance but there were short term hold 5 weeks over Christmas to prep for an audit in January. Etc

you older folk better get use to way my generation speaks to you

You sound nice. Can't imagine why you're having problems finding employment.

The world of corp finance is brutal, rude and aggressive in the modern world

I've worked in it. That sounds more like a justification for your pretty shitty attitude than anything else. Would the number of jobs you've had be connected to that, by any chance?

Sorry but I think you started it with this comment. I couldn't work with you.

Why would i be jealous of a child and a husband just because I'm older? I have both, thanks.

I had my cv reviews by a professional a few years ago. They advised me to remove the dates from it or at least from my linked in profile. Im mid 40's. It made a big difference. The world is ageist whether we like it or not.

I have neither and I don't want them but I see the usual 'older women are bitter and jealous' has been wheeled out.

Could you go for a related job? Perhaps procurement. It's about managing the spending with 3rd parties in a company and consolidating / running tenders to reduce costs? There's a real shortage of procurement people

Why wouldn't you take the 3m temp role to pay the bills while looking for anything better?

Consider a side step into a professional practice? Accountancy firms are recruiting from overseas to fill vacancies at all levels. Example than experience is desired https://jobs.mazars.co.uk/jobs/returners-programme/

Apply for civil service jobs. They only ask for last ten years career history.

Get networking through taking on a role as a charity trustee/chair of a sports club/school governor etc. I was invited to a newly formed branch of WI last week and they were all in your age group with some pretty impressive jobs.

I was hired into my current role at 55 but it was a step down that I chose for better work life balance.

I last got a job at 50 (which I've been in since, now 54). Not Finance but I think same principles, and echoing what others have said.

I left off O and A levels from my CV and just put my degrees and professional qualifications. I did not put dates on these. I only put on the last 20 years of work experience. I made my LinkedIn look good, had a designer do my CV so that it looked more modern in layout, and practised my interview technique with a work colleague (I was made redundant so was openly looking while at my previous job). I got interviews and a job very quickly.

I would absolutely have taken a 3 month contract role while I was looking, it would probably have a shortish notice period so you could leave if another job came up.

How long ago were you made redundant, OP?
How much do you need to earn to pay your bills without worries?

@Floofydawg

Yes because I took objection to the constant young people find it easy to get jobs. Young people wont hire us. Young people are this and that...

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain

Yeah and your comment is not nice either. What is it with your generation that thinks they are better than me so can be rude and horrible. You find my comments not nice I find half the comments on her about young peoples and some people who randomly joined in attacking me not nice.

Honestly look how bitchy and catty some of the comments are that have target me specifically by people who I was not even speaking with. Then you wonder why people do not want to hire a 50 year old women??

I have had 14 jobs so clearly can get hired. Some were perm. Some were contracts. Hence why so many. I literally had no problems getting hired but the jobs market is slower. As in less jobs. There 3 in my town at the moment! 3 finance jobs.... its competitive.

There’s a book review in The Sunday Times today called ‘Revolting Women’ about exactly this. Women in their 50s who are thrown on the scrapheap in the workplace.

Makes very interesting reading - suggesting that senior women don’t get the director role, rather the ‘great aunt’ role, sidelined into mentoring or supervising.

Many women are apparently walking away and setting up on their own. Maybe something for you?

There is a suggestion that ‘gendered ageism’ is added to diversity and inclusion policies but it all makes very depressing reading.

There are ways to do that, though. If you treat people with rudeness, then that's what you'll get in return.

@Floofydawg

I wasnt rude in my frist comments. I took exception to how rude people were about young managers and young people in general... See it yet??

Also I disagree with the ageism thing as people saying read these books that say it is ageism, you can litteraly find an article or a book on the internet that will fit what ever narrative you want.

I thought it was helpfult to tell op that I had similar experience as her and I am 29 so clearly there are economics factors as well as maybe age. Perhaps being too young is my problem... Then a late 30s women chimbs in with the same experience so now we are down to just being a women. Then we got a man who had struggled in finance recently so we back to economy and jobs market. ??

I personal find other women hire me less in corporate than men do. Now you can decide for yourself why that is. I am 29. Chartered. In shape. Well dressed. Nice car. Married. I will get rejected by a women and a week later a similar job being hired by a man comes up and I get it. No change in me or my CV. So...

@Bacon88 ok then, let's see how you're doing when you're 50+. Ageism in the workplace is a very real thing.

Some decent salaries on here all round the country
https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/search/results?keyword=financial%20controller&skipPhraseSuggester=true&language=en&page=1