So into a thread that may provide a little relief to those starting in the profession, who believe that it is only them who are finding it challenging to get a role... or maybe not.

Following the most amazing,  challenging and lucrative 12 years overseas, my last role was made redundant and as I had a couple of young kids, my wife and I took the opportunity to relocate back to the North West of England for their schooling rather than finding another job overseas and prolonging the eventual and innevitable move back at some future point, which may have impacted their schooling.

We had lived and worked in Australia (gaining Ozzie OHS diploma whilst there) but the majority of the time based in the Middle East but covering Southern Africa, North Africa, all GCC, India, Thailand, China, Australia (again) and New Zealand. In so doing picking up a vast amount of soft skills in influencing in the very different cultures, at the cost of spending a lot of time jet lagged and amassing war stories for the pub that no one, who had not worked and lived in those environemnts would ever believe. 

After returning home, there was no immediate rush to find a position as I wanted to rennovate our new home and spend some quality time with the kids but after a few months the job hunt started in earnest with the remit of finding a role that would allow further quality time with the kids and wife i.e. not flying around the World pursuing ever greater career aspirations and more jet lag. What I thought would be relatively easy has turned out to be anything but. Over 100 applications (98 not meritous of any response) and only 2 interviews during which, both HR interviewers said, "do you think you will be bored with this role" which of course means we think you will get bored and move on. So I now ask myself, should I now downplay my experience?

Both also made issues over my last salary. Yes it was, what could be considered significant in comparison to "home" salaries but not for the role itself or what was expected. "I'm sorry but we cant match that". Yes I know what the salary range is for your role and I was happy to apply given that range, apparently falling on deaf ears.

So what to do Yanni? A CMIOSH, FIIRSM with NEBOSH donkeys years ago, a MSc in Workplace Health and Well-Being recently, (ready to start my PhD when I gain a job), PTTLs, TAPROOT and a fair old stack of other diplomas and certificates. Experience in Pharms, O&G, Construction, Aluminium and dross reprocessing and Steel. And after all that still can't get an interview for a "normal" job back in the North West

Being an optomist I dont get disheartened but I do wonder why the market is so tough up here given the propensity of jobs. Yes I left when the old CDM regs were in force however along the way I managed to pick up and work with Indian, Australian, South African safety acts and all the GCC labour laws. Do recruitment agents think that after this, mastering the "new" CDM regs is a step too far ?

Perhaps at 54, downsizing roles is impossible and perhaps I should pack up back to the sandpit where job offers have continued to come in, despite me returning home or even try and hunt something out in the last country I visited and fancied working in, Brunei? 

Perhaps young divisional or corporate safety guys don't want to employ someone who they perceive will be after their job? In case there are any young div or corp guys reading this, trust me the desire for jet lag, an Emirates Plat card and necessity to endlessly use/abuse the latest corporate buzz phrases such as "does it have runway", "do you have skin in the game" etc has long since left the building.

Perhaps I dont have buzz-words in my CV that the software hunts out? Whatever happened to agents reading your CV and thinking about whether it fits? 

Whatever the reason, I have certainly continued to refine my people and influencing skills over the years so perhaps there is hope yet a position in Cheshire or thereabouts may exist. Or Brunei or Africa or Saudi or Qatar. Lol the list goes on.

So the best place to be in a career hunt appears to be the middle. Its tough at the beginning and tough at the end. The middle appears to be a land of endless milk, honey and rivers of wine. Enjoy the middle.

I also emphasise with this. When I was made redundant a few years ago, also in my mid-fifties, I was out of work for seven months, applied for 125 jobs, only got a handful of interviews, and didn't even hear from most of the places I applied. With a master's degree, I can only assume I was considered over-qualified for most of the jobs. When I finally got a position, I had to take a significant drop in salary, and still haven't quite reached the salary level I was before being made redundant, and that was after working solely for UK employers (although significant travel in Europe and the Middle East in my previous role).

One thing I did notice about the job market is that the days of being able to get a position in a new sector, being welcomed as new blood, had gone, and employers would only consider those with specific experience in their industry. Probably a result of the last recession.

Stick at it, something will come up. Strangely, it did for me when I applied off my own bat rather than through recruitment agencies. Employers probably don't like paying the recruitment fees.

We do have legislation in the UK that makes discrimination on the basis of age illegal, but like other aspects of legislation on discrimination, it is toothless, putting the onus on the one being discriminated against to take action rather than policing the one doing the discrimination. In any case, employers can always cite some other reason for not appointing someone rather than admitting it was an age issue, so the true extent of age discrimination will never be known. Yet another example of making legislation that is not enforced, so a pretty pointless exercise.

Good luck with your search.

If you have applied for 100 or so jobs and only got two interviews, then you CV needs looking at.

National careers service (formerly Nextstep) is a free service which may be able to help https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/

Originally Posted by: SNS

A trick told to me when I was job hunting was to copy the job advert wording into your cv in white font so that it is not visible. I was told that computers scanning CVs will recognise the words and increase your chances of getting through a sift and being read by a person.

If anyone can confirm or deny this one it would be interesting. 

I've tried that and albeit it won't be such a representative sample (sent to 3-4 big O&G players) the replies/rejections were a bit more delayed than usual. That led me to believe that it went through the ATS and was actually reviewed by some sort of human.

Fun exercise, worth doing. Mind you, my resume isn't something I'm particularly proud of, I'm working on it.

Freelancing would work well at the moment to give some flexibility or month on month off rotations. Would you have any links to agencies who specialise in this ?

Mortgage has gone but kids are well and truly here 

Originally Posted by: Ian Bell2

Most of us have peaked by our early 50's. And yes the age discrimnation legislation is pointless, as pointed out very easy for recruiters to give a different reason for no job offer. There is very little that an applicant can realitically do about it.

The alternative is freelance contract work. It does have the benefit of being better paid if you are prepared to work in different locations. So you can earn the same as a permanent job in a shorter time, so have longer holidays.

Even better if the kids are off your hands and mortgage paid off.

To wrap up and close this post. The following may well be of use to older chaps and ladies in the business who havent been getting far recently with their job hunts.

 If you havent been on the market for a good few years as I hadn't, then things have changed folks.

If you are relying upon old colleagues to put a word in with HR then of course, you are fine.

I would suggest that you need to download an ATS compliant CV format. No need to waste time on googling  what this work of the devil is just find one and download.

Do not rely upon some of the CV writers to do this for you. I paid a small fortune for a professional CV to be written on my behalf that I thought was all nice, jolly, all singing and all dancing, that turned out to be useless due to numerous formatting issues and in reality what turned out to be crap content.

You can find free formats on Linkedin amongst all the people trying to flog you one. If you were getting nowhere in job searches then it may not be you, in all likelihood it isnt you remotely. Its your CV is probably old school and no longer viable. It is as much use as digging out your 1993 Sony mars bar analogue phone and trying to log onto a digital network in 2019 - You may still think it looks cool but it isnt going to get you anywhere very fast.

4. You may not have listed all your transferable skills. At first glance, you may not even realise just how many you have amassed over the years that lie latent. A big thank you to my original CV reader, you know who you are, for pointing out this omission as it was probably the biggest wake up after ATS.

So how, you may ask, can i demonstrate the above statements have any relevance to ancient job-hunters? Well after reading about ATS compliant CV's, getting one, populating it overnight and posting it. I had a request for interview within 24 hours and further requests have continued to follow!!! And this is a key point to note. All these interveiws were in NEW Industry sectors !!! 2 of which are quite exciting and one less so, but new none the less. 

The first of those interviews led to a second interview and an offer on the table within 7 days. Further interviews are scheduled next week. All within 30 mins drive of the house (a personal stipulation) and all above average salaries.  

So if you are an aged worker (over 45), a very aged worker (over 54) - that latter definition is not a technical one unlike the first. Do not dispair. You are maybe not washed out, maybe not past your best, and maybe not unemployable. What you are, in all likelihoods, is in possession of an outdated and useless CV that may not work with modern automated recruitment processes and probably doesnt reflect all your transferrable skils.

Now in all honesty,  i must say I have thoroughly enjoyed a summer off, spending time with the kids, exercising the dogs for hours on end. renovating my house and restoring my old Landrover on a warm-ish garage floor as opposed to a damp cold winter one; so it hasn't been a waste of time, but I do wish the realisation had dawned a little earlier that something fundamental was wrong.

Good luck with your searches, try the above. Of course if all the "old" folks follow this advice then there may be lots more of em competing with the "yoof" (sub 45).

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sean

I am very pleased to hear that you have now had a job offer.  I am in the very aged category now (54) and would not want to move on to another job in this day and age.  The thought of starting again just fills me with dread. 

Good luck with whichever job you decide to take up.

I've only just found the job for me at the age of 57, so I'm not going to say the best years are behind me, because I've never had many of those. I won't bore you with the years of detail and all of the crap that I've had to endure (especially in the last 10 years, which have been spent in EHS), but suffice to say that I thought that it would never come; I've only been looking for the last 40 years!! 

Moral of the story - keep working hard, take the study opportunities that come your way and make them count. And never give up hope.

Hi Allan,

I am surprised to hear that. There has always been a little retisence or at least hesitation to recruit people for their first overseas role and for good reason. I have seen lots of new people arrive in theatre and then discover that they cant hack the climate, can't adjust to a world which hasnt been so regulated, cant hack the isolation if remote, cant adjust to multi national employee workforce, being lied to and all the fun that goes with any overseas adventure. And so they jack, grab a flight home and then all who remain suffer some; whether it be the workers or the employer who has to pick up new recruitment costs and grief from the client etc.

Once you have proven yourself as you have, it should be relatively easy. However there are some nationalities who are well qualified academically and the recruitment criteria reflects this or some nationalities who are well experienced with Africa who are happy to pick up a lower salary due to their buying power once the salary goes home, so either may be a current problem. A lot of expat work has always been word of mouth and again to some degree this makes sense so pull up your old colleagues and see if anyone knows of anything on the grape vine. 

Good luck with the search

Originally Posted by: AllanFS

Good Post Sean

I am opposite to your situation. After spending time in West Africa a while ago, I am trying to gain a Foot Hold on securing another Expat Role but despite having International experience, I seem to have hit a Brick Wall.