Age Discrimination, Other Issues - September 2010

I’ve been out of work for a while and I suspect I’m having no luck with my applications because of my age (I’m in my late 50s having been a Project Manager for a number of years), what proactive steps can I take?

I’m going to make the assumption that the suspected age discrimination you have experienced is not blatant because there are Age Discrimination laws to protect you and avenues to pursue if you would like to take that further. I will concentrate on the element of the question where you are looking for advice on proactive steps to take to make your job search more fruitful. The setbacks you are experiencing could just as easily be a product of the general economic downturn we have experienced in hires over the last two years and there are four areas I want you to think about and take action on.

Firstly, many experienced project managers who have gained valuable real life experience and skills (and are generally “older”) find that contract or consultancy opportunities are much easier for them to secure at this time in their career. The opportunity to take contracts for a fixed number of months allows them to; choose opportunities that fit their experience and skills; be rewarded specifically for those skills built up over a number of years; choose work but also leave time to pursue other interests in their lives. Many employing organisations are using contract hires to get important projects delivered, especially in these times when corporate headcount freezes are making life difficult. If you’ve just been looking for permanent employment up to now, change tack, seek out the contract opportunities and remember you can always look for permanent employment when the market picks up again.

Secondly, you’ve been working for a while so make sure you use the contacts you have made along the way – most people still find their next work opportunity through someone they know. This is especially valuable for you because the person making that hire will either already know you or been told about your good work.

Thirdly, make sure your profile and work history in your CV or professional profile is clear, concise and highlights your successes and “specialism’s” within project management which are relevant to the role for which you are applying. Project professionals who have worked many years in the project field often present a hefty CV which makes it difficult for a prospective employer / recruiter to easily see what they’re getting if they hire you. Your CV should not run to more than 3 pages; so organising a 25 year plus career into that space can be difficult but it should prove to be a useful exercise for you.

Fourthly, after speaking to a number of organisations about their views on hiring senior (older) project managers, the outcome was, “What is important is not how old you are but rather, how fresh and relevant you are”. Hiring managers are looking for candidates to pass not only the usual selection criteria (qualifications, domain experience etc) but also the fit within the organisation or project team. Being fresh, relevant and as one employer commented, energetic, at the interview stage is applicable to everyone, regardless of age. Do you think your own attitude and approach in interviews needs to be revived and refreshed? It’s not uncommon in the job hunting process to feel defeated and negative and this will come through in interviews whether you believe that to be the case or not. Take time to reflect on your performances and ask yourself – were you energetic and positive?

Just one final point, make sure you remove your date of birth from your CV. You need to make sure every opportunity remains open to you to the point where interviews and face to face meetings take place and your “energetic” performance will be the judge, not a CV screening individual’s prejudices.

I recently attended an interview where there were a series of questions about project failures and the part I played in them. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced such a “negative” series of questions and I think my rejection for the job was because of the answers I gave. What advice do you have for answering these types of questions?

I’m surprised project managers don’t get more questions like this in interviews, after all there is a lot of press and publicity around projects that fail and the published statistics show a large proportion of projects do still fail. Even a project that is deemed a “success” may have experienced some failure during the delivery cycle that was addressed and corrected. That in turn must mean there are many project managers who have encounter failure and consequently managed it in their own projects.

These interview questions are not designed to be negative but rather about exploring your responses as a project manager to failure; how you manage it, what actions do you take, was the failure as a result of an unmanaged risk etc. Hiring organisations are interested in your response and reaction to failure just as much as they are to your successes; they are more likely to employ a project manager who can recognise and openly discuss their experience of failure and who is confident that they have learnt from the experience than someone who has not (not even the project manager in this case can tell them how they manage failure if it has never happened to them and indeed, they would be a little suspicious that a project manager has never experienced some kind of failure!).

Interview questions like this are not about trying to find out your weaknesses and incapability but rather more about your role in the wider project environment – your experience in managing project sponsors, management teams, project teams, suppliers and contractors. The key to feeling more confident in answering questions about project failure is preparation and planning beforehand. Make a note of all those projects or situations where some element of failure has been encountered; next to each one make a note of the reasons for the failure (remember, the reasons for failure are not always down to your individual actions!). After the reason for failure, make a note of the actions you took and the outcome. Finally make a note of the lesson you learnt. Pick three or four of these scenarios which display a different reason for failure; then when it comes to the interview itself, you will be able to easily recall the three or four examples you want to use whilst ensuring the answers are not repetitious. Finally, you may find it useful to research project failure too; there are various publications and schools of thought which will help broaden your own knowledge in this area.

I’m concerned that my current position as a Project Manager within the public sector will be under threat of redundancy in the forthcoming months; I’m considering looking for a new role, possibly within the private sector. Is there anything I need to be aware of which might make it difficult to make the change in sectors?

Project management and the art of successfully managing projects should be considered as a collection of transferable skills; after all the processes or methods are the same for roughly all projects regardless of industry or function. However, over the last two years we’ve seen an increase in the demand for “domain experience” within job advertisements which effectively takes the line “must have experience in the xxxx sector”. One impact of the economic downturn has seen many employers becoming more averse to “risk-taking” when it comes to hiring project managers; they want candidates who can “hit the ground running” and as such demand that candidates must have direct experience aligned to their business. Additionally there is a perception that the economic downturn has increased the availability of candidates in the marketplace, employers believe they can employ like-for-like skilled individuals with no difficulty. So making the move from public to private sector project management employment will invariably have its difficulties.

 The key is to focus on what the private sector wants and what you have to offer in direct relation to the expressed need. The project environment may differ from your own experiences, areas like; project accountabilities, decision-making, profitability, client facing, legal and contractual requirements, a faster pace environment and of course the domain knowledge required to effectively deliver projects to successful conclusion. You should be looking for specific opportunities where your current domain knowledge is applicable – organisational change, systems integration, introduction of new services, outsourcing etc are all domain areas which are applicable in both sectors. You should also think about your current relationships and contacts – does the project you work on have private sector suppliers and third party contractors who would welcome a public sector experienced project manager, someone they are already familiar with? At this stage you could be testing the waters to see if there is interest within the marketplace for your skill set and experience but I recommend changing your CV and profile slightly to appeal more to the private sector. Do your own research on what certain private sector organisations are looking for in their project managers; browsing current vacancies and corporate websites should be enough at this stage. When you have a better feel for their requirements think about your own CV – what language do you use, what successes have you highlighted, is it clear your part in the successes? Have you focused on the similarities of your experience in comparison to the job advertisement and removed irrelevant information. I think the mistake most people make in trying to move sectors is to focus too much on what they don’t have, rather than making a brilliant job of what they do have which is relevant.

It is also worth thinking about your own answers to the inevitable questions you will receive along the way; “what similarities (or differences) do you perceive about making the transition to working in the private sector and also the challenges you perceive there will be?” It seems to be a favourite question asked by interviewers and is probably linked to the stereotypical view many in the private sector have of public sector workers. The more thought and preparation you put into this, the more likely you are to challenge that perception for the good.