 So this is strategies for the 50 plus job seeker. Again, my name is David Robbins. I'm the senior instructor for the job search accelerated program, which I'll tell you a little bit about. I work at JVS. And we're there to really help people learn in demand skills. We actually talked to corporations. We talked to businesses and ask what kind of skills are you looking for? What do you need? And then we build those in and work with corporate partners to help our clients make connections and build a career in the Bay Area. This is give us a quick overview of what JVS is. We've been around for over 45 years. We do focus on training expertise. So we work a lot with training our organization, our clients in different fields. We serve a diverse population. We have a lot of partnerships with our employees. We have a lot of partnerships with our employees. We're looking to make sure that we're including. De I considerations. And we have successful partnerships with hundreds of employers. So we have a lot of what we call our employer partners. And that definitely helps our clients, but mostly it helps our clients with training. And then new things like externships. And return ships. So we're, we're trying to make sure that we. Don't help people find particular positions. But we do teach you how to. So we have a deep network of partners and we have an innovative approach. We're always trying to come up with relevant services. I noticed Lori, that more people are coming into the waiting room. So you might want to either close the waiting room or, you know, catch those. I'm not sure how you want to handle that. We've been admitting people in. Okay, great. Great. Thank you. Thank you. So there are the offerings that we have. We have skills training that's involved in healthcare utilities and technology. We have standard job search training. And that's where the job search accelerator program is. We also have public workshops. And I'll give you a slide to access those. And then we do have programs in the high schools. We're working a lot with high school youth in life skills and job skills. We also have a job search accelerator. It's a two week program. Where we meet five days a week part time. We're still in zoom. So we're going to meet in zoom. We use Google classroom to deliver material and collect assignments. And there is a link and you're going to get this slide set. So there'll be a link at the bottom. If you want to get more information about that. The nice thing about it is that when you graduate the program, you can actually build a really good peer cohort. And then we have add on services afterwards weekly programs. We have mock interviews with corporate partners. We have ongoing programs for the people who get through the two week program. And then we have the public workshops. So there's information here in the slide set about the public workshops. And you might want to take a look at that one. You get the slide set. Colleague of mine. I think some of you might recognize this. Right. So you all can see the cartoon. Great. Looking someone with the wisdom of a 50 year old, the experience of a 40 year old, the drive of a 30 year old, and the past killer of a 20 year old. And that's true. The nice thing about it, take a look at the positive side of that. What do they give the 50 year old? Wisdom. And I have to tell you that you're going to see as we go through this program, that there are a lot of companies or a lot of hiring managers that are in need of the wisdom. They've been hiring the young people and the young people come in with great technical skills and a lot of energy. And then in two years, they leave the company and go to another company for a big raise. And then they leave again. But they're sometimes looking for his wisdom. So I thought this was cute, but take a look at that word. And I think that's really important. I'm going to move into what I'm here for to talk to you about. And I'm going to go through basically three, three topics. The first one is let's do a background. Let's take a reality check. You know, I can see some of your faces. Some of you don't look like you're even close to 50. So you snuck into this class. It's okay. I don't think that the library is checking anybody's ID at the library. But we do want to make sure that we are in touch with what reality is because we can't automatically make believe it's not there, but we can deal with moving forward. So I'm going to spend most of our time today in how do we move forward? What are the resources that are available to you? What are the tips and strategies? And I'm going to go to a number of different resources that are out there to take a look at what tips they are. And I'm going to start with the one thing that I recommend for people who are in job search in their, in their 50s. And then the last thing is, it doesn't happen automatically. You can't just keep doing the same thing you've been doing. If it hasn't been successful. But now you want to get these tips and then you want to take action. So I, I talk to my students all the time. two weeks doing that, but you have to implement the tools. If you remember that phrase, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. It's kind of similar to that. We want to make sure that people learn how to implement things. So today, we're not going to get, we can't deep dive, we're only together for an hour and a half. So we're at least going to give you the tips and show you what to do and then give you resources of where to go to get more information, including coming to JVS for the Job Search Accelerator Program. Okay, so some of you know this because some of you here are older workers. In 2019, 25% of all employed people in the U.S. were 55 plus. Now, some people think, well, that's, that can't be because, you know, there's ageism and nobody works if you're over 50. Well, actually, a lot of that is due to a lower rate of attrition. At 55, people used to retire. Now, I do have friends that work for the state and they did retire at 55. I hate them, but that's okay. They did, they did it their way. But what's happened is a lot of those positions are still being filled by people who are over 50. And we do know that companies do hire people over 50. And that might be a surprise to some of you, but we want to talk about that also. Between 1980, not the 1800s, 1980 and 2020, the employment rate of people 55 to 64 increased from 54% to 64%. So, you know, there's the part of the reality that we kind of ignore, but don't ignore it. I mean, understand that be positive about this. Now, it's true. 40% of people over 50 are actually working or working or actively looking for work. And then it does in the last bullet, it's the hard part to take. Average, it takes 25% longer to find work if you're 45 to 65. That doesn't mean you don't get placed. It just means patience becomes more of a skill that you have to hone. Now, we do know that there are laws, right? So, discrimination facts in the law, it is illegal to discriminate on age. That means that it's illegal to discriminate age. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen. As a matter of fact, people who think that they can prove discrimination, actually it's harder to actually prevail in court. And then many people think that discrimination on age believes when they hit their 50s, although the law says 40 plus, the discrimination we think actually starts happening 50 plus. There is a gender difference in perception of age discrimination. And that's the perception of age discrimination. And the last bullet, again, a colleague of mine bolded this, you can take action. You could go to the EEOC, you could go to the National Labor Relations Board, but I want you to focus on getting a job, not trying to change the law. Get your job, build yourself up to become CEO of the company, and then lobby the laws changed. But right now, I want to give you this information, but I want you to remember that if you're taking care of you, it's getting the job. That's what I want you to focus on. And we'll talk about how to do that. That's going to be more important than making changes or even calling out a company for being agist. There's one other thing that I like to always say to people, if you know that a company is agist or racist or genderist, okay, massage, if you know a company is like that, why would you fight to get into that company? Right? As soon as you realize that that company is, quote, stupid, you don't want to work there. And if you can fight your way into the company, they're not going to help you grow your career because they're agist. So the thing is to recognize it and then move on. Get past it, cross them off your list, literally cross them off your list, and then move on. Now, why is there agism? Well, it's because of stereotypes. And that's with any of the isms. It's all about stereotype. The stereotype is that people who are older are technologically inept. Yet all of you signed on to Zoom and you're here, right? And you're all using Microsoft Suite. And you're all, some of you are HP UX, you're UX proficient, you know technology, but that's still a stereotype. The stereotype is that you are not up to date. We want to talk about that. They also have the stereotype is that you're only wanting a job for a couple of years and then you're going to retire. That's true for some, but not true for all. So that's something you may have to overcome when you're trying to make your pitch to get into a particular company. Now, understand that hiring managers do know that young people do turn over more frequently than older people do. Older people are happy to get their job and they really want to do a good job and they really want to grow in that company. Young people just want to move on and grow in other companies. So the idea of, well, you're going to be there only for five years. Young people usually are only there for three to five years. There is a stereotype that you're reluctant to learn new things. We're going to talk about how to overcome that right away. And that you won't get along with your younger coworkers or younger bosses. And we want to talk about that because some people say, I have children who are 27 and I get along fine with them. Well, that's not a good answer. We do want to ignore the whole idea of age and we want to focus on skills, productivity. We want to deal with value, the value you're going to bring. And a reality is that there are a number of people who are in their fifties who are set in their ways. So when a manager comes and says, here's how we do this, that older worker sometimes says, oh, I don't need, you don't need to show me. I've been doing this for years. Not a good answer. Maybe they're doing it differently for a reason. So these are some of the things that a stereotype speak cost they've experienced this with a lot of their, a lot of their hires. So again, we take care of that reality check. Age discrimination is real. Two out of three older workers say they have seen or experienced age discrimination, age discrimination, but again, hard to prove, right? Sometimes I didn't get the job someone else did because of my age. Don't use that as an excuse. Maybe it's because of fit. Maybe it's because of culture. There are a lot of other things that are in play, but let's take that reality check. Age discrimination is illegal. Again, yes, but, and it's pervasive in our society, not just in hiring. So these are things that we can't control. These are real. This is the reality check. So what I want to start working on is focus on the things we can control. And that's what's going to be really important. I found this great quote from Tim Tebow. Don't worry about what you can't control. Our focus and energy needs to be on the things we can control and we can control our attitude. We want you to be confident but not aggressive. We want you to be humble and confident. We want you to make sure that you are checking your attitude at the door, making sure that you can control your effort, how much effort you're putting into your job search, which will show up in how you're going to be an employee. And you can use your deal with your focus, how to stay focused on getting that job. Those are the things that we can control. Now, are there any benefits to a company for hiring older workers? So I just want to share this with you. And then I want to see if there are any kind of opening questions. But advantages of hiring older workers is that all the workers have a wealth of experience and knowledge, and that becomes a real advantage. All the workers are less reactionary in a crisis. They've experienced a lot of crises, so they're comfortable, less uncomfortable working through them. All the workers are retained at a higher level than the younger workers, and they usually have a stronger work ethic. 65% of employees over 55% are engaged in the work, meaning that they're productive, compared to 58% to 60% of younger workers. So understanding that, we could see this, another one that a colleague threw into the slide set, don't think of me as a 54-year-old job applicant. Think of me, think of you getting two 27-year-olds for the price of one. Okay, so I want you to start thinking about that positive side before we move into the tips. So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to stop share just for a minute, and I don't want to spend too much time here, but I want to see if there are any questions that came into the chat, or any questions that you have now that you want to throw into the chat, just about that idea of what the reality and what the actual workspace is that we're living in. Yeah, I don't see any questions, David. Okay, great, which makes sense, because what I showed was exactly what's happening. Okay, so let's move into me sharing the screen and getting into tips. I want to introduce the tips. I went to different sources. Instead of telling you what I know and what I think, I thought it would be good to go to different sources. Now, one source I went to is the Muse. Now, for those of you that are not familiar with that, it's online. It's a newsletter. It comes out, I think, weekly. I know it just appears in my email at work, and I encourage all of you to take a look at how you could sign up for the Muse because they'll always give you tips about job search, not just 50 plus, but job search is job search. Whether you're 27 or whether you're 65, you still are certain things that are going to work and certain things that are not. So we want to make sure that you're keeping up. The Muse is a great place, and they also post a lot of jobs, and they're nationwide. So for people who are thinking of possibly relocating, move closer to your kids, move closer to your family, you can see some of these national jobs that are posted. But here are some of the tips, and I wanted to give you some tips from the Muse, and then we'll go to AARP, and then we'll go to a third source that people may not think of. So first thing is update your skills. Now, I'm over 55 myself. I know I don't look at, but I'm over 55 myself, and I have a lot of skills. I worked for Hewlett Packard for 16 years. I trained corporate trainers in all different kinds of industries for five years as a road warrior. I worked for the state of California in finance and marketing. So I have a lot of experience, but I still need to update my skills because so many of the things that I did before are done differently today. So how do you do that? Take online classes, earn certifications because those show up in your LinkedIn profile, those are things you could put down under your education, certified in communication marketing, certified in digital communication. Those certificates says that you have a learner's mind, and it says that you're updating your skills. It doesn't mean that you're getting necessarily completely new skills. Optimize your resume. Now I know people say my resume is great, except that your resume not relate to what it is that they're looking for. So there are a couple of things that you want to be making sure you're watching for. And again, lots of training online for this. You want to get through the applicant tracking system. The ATS system is a filtering system a lot of companies use. You send in your resume. The computer system looks at it and matches your resume against the job description and says they don't match. They toss it and actually put it into a database somewhere, but it doesn't get through to any human. So you want to make sure that you are matching the job description. What are you applying for? That's what should show up on your resume. And you want to highlight your experience that relates to that job description. Some people got their degree many, many years ago. It's now acceptable to not put your date on your education. And some people say, well, that means that it's very old. No, it doesn't. It just means that it's acceptable now to not put the date on your education. So I don't have years on my education. And it's absolutely fine. Also, some of you have email addresses that go back to AOL or Hotmail. You heard what I said, go back to. Yeah, they're still usable. Keep them for your personal one, but create a Gmail account for your job search. Because that again says you are up to date. So that's a tip from the muse that we talk to our clients about the same way, no matter what their age is. Make sure you're fit for the organization. Do you know enough about the organization you're applying to? What's the culture of the organization? Some people love to get the job. They get the job. And then they realize that this organization does not deal with saving the planet, does not deal with any charitable giving. And then you go, oh, I don't really don't like this company anymore. Well, look for those things before you apply to the company because then you could become more excited about the company. So you can imagine that a hiring manager, if they're looking at two people with exactly the same skill set, same experience. Person A is talking about their experience. Person B is talking about their experience, but also how excited they are to possibly be working for this company. Which one would the hiring manager go to first? They go to the person who's excited about this company. So you want to make sure you're a fit for the organization so you can be excited about that. Embrace your experience. Okay, so many times we may not have direct skills that relate, but we have transferable skills. So many of the soft skills that you have acquired over the years are transferable to any kind of job. Communication, collaboration, you know, just management skills go from one company to the other. I remember watching years ago, CEOs move from one company to the other, even though they came from a company that had nothing to do with the new company. Why would I think it hired? Because they're good at being a CEO. And that's the depth for that level, that's what's transferable. Someone who could fundraise, someone who could deal with corporate partnerships. So you have the same thing, you have to embrace all of those skills, and you don't have to go back, but you can refer to them in your marketing materials, in your LinkedIn, in your resume, in your cover letter, and then especially in your interview. So you can show that you have the skills that they're looking for, even though they came from a different company. Demonstrate your knowledge. And this again is about researching the company to show how you can match their needs. Practice answering the hard questions, right? Well, don't you think you'll be overqualified for this position? I know it sounds weird. I mean, wouldn't anyone want someone who is overqualified? But what they're thinking about is you're not going to stay. So again, you have to come up with an answer, and there are answers online that'll help you get through this. But when they ask that kind of question, you should be able to answer with the idea of, I have a lot of skills. And I think that the additional skills I have will help this organization because I'll be able to provide more value, which is different than saying, well, yeah, I'm overqualified and I'll get bored soon. Right? You have to turn that around up front. So that's where the muse comes in with some really good tips. And then you do have to show that you know how to use some of the video tools. A lot of companies are interviewing on Zoom. A lot of companies are interviewing on BlueJeans, which is another site. And some are looking at the Microsoft site, and some are using Skype. So you should know how to use video meeting tools. And if you're invited to an interview, you have to ask them what medium will you be using. And if it's a medium you're not familiar with, get familiar with it right away. So again, show that you can learn. And the last thing from the muse network. Talk to people in your chosen field. I consider informational interviewing to be the gold standard of job search. You can't get any closer to a company than actually talking to somebody in that company. Right? And in an informational interview, you set up the meeting, you ask someone, you invite someone to meet with you, you ask them for 15 to 20 minutes of their time, and then you control that meeting. So you have all your questions that you're looking for. And the key to informational interviewing is you're never to ask for a job. Because once you say, are there any jobs available here? Then they're going to say, oh, I'm sorry, you're in the wrong room. You have to go and talk to HR. So informational interviewing is just what it says. It's interviewing for information. And the more you can learn about a company, the better you're going to be able to apply to that company. Now there is a key in this whole idea of networking, talking to people in your chosen field or your chosen company. And that is they start learning about you. And when they see an opening, they may bring you information on that opening. So you're going to build a connection with people because most people get hired from people who know people who know people. So that's going to be real important as we move forward. So that's what the Muse did. And I grabbed this from an article. And you'll be able to just search on the Muse. There are a lot of articles there. But then I went to the senior center, and I mean that in a number of different ways. And that is AARP. Now I don't know how many of you are members of AARP. I think it's $16 a year, but they had a big sale. It was $12 for two years. It's a good membership to have, although you start getting emails about their party or their contests and things that they're selling. But as far as information made available to you, really good information. And they are an association. Used to be American association of retired persons, but now they are for anyone over 40. So you know that their focus is going to be for you. So that's where you should go and look for information. So let's talk about some of the tips that came from AARP that might be helpful. Well, the first one on theirs is network. Your network is the most valuable resource you have. We have a cheer when I teach my cohort in job search accelerator. Every so often I will say networking, networking, and then they all unmute and they yell, networking. That's the key. I mean, statistically they say 40% of jobs are gotten from the network. And I've actually heard up to 80% of jobs are gotten from the network. I'm going to show you a slide later called accessing the hidden job market. You can understand that the network is part of that hidden job market. So we want to talk about that too. So network, your most valuable asset, LinkedIn. Now, I teach two workshops at the library for LinkedIn. At JVS, I'm considered the LinkedIn expert. I signed on to LinkedIn in 2004. Someone invited me while I was working at Hewlett Packard. I had no idea what it was. I said, sure, I'll join. And I didn't even look at it. Just ignored it. And then in 2005, I got laid off. And then somebody mentioned I using LinkedIn, I went, oh, yeah, I signed up for that. Let me check it out. And since then, I've been growing my network in LinkedIn and making myself visible as someone who has expertise in my field. But understand that when you say, yeah, but I don't really want it. I don't really need it. You need it. 90% or more of recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn in their search for candidates. Recruiters look at the LinkedIn database over 750 million people worldwide. They look in the database looking for people to fill a position. If you don't have an optimized profile in LinkedIn, they won't find you. But they'll find someone else. Now, some people say, yeah, but I'm networking. I'm doing other things. That's great. But you know, when you send in that resume and the hiring manager likes you, before they call you, they'll go to LinkedIn to see who you really are. So don't throw it away. And don't say, well, I have an account. You want to again, go in and optimize it just like you have to optimize your resume. You want to optimize your LinkedIn profile. Different than a resume. You don't have to customize it for every job you're applying for, but you do have to bring yourself up to date. And you want to explain a little more personally, which you can't do on a resume, a little more personally about how you work. Because that's the chemistry that they're looking for in addition to your competency. So hiring managers use LinkedIn to find candidates or vet candidates. And what you need is a complete profile and you need to have a photo. You can't say, yeah, but if they see my photo, they're going to see what I look like. Look at this white beard. And they're not going to want to talk to me. I mean, you might guess what my answer is. If they don't want to talk to me, great. I don't want to talk to them because if I don't have a photo and they contact me and we go through all the stuff and then when I go to the interview, they see my white beard, you can see them going, right? I want to let them know who they're hiring. So don't be afraid of having that photo, but have a good photo. Doesn't have to be a professional taking it, but a good photo. Make sure that I try to make sure my hair is in place. Now that it's getting so long, I have to make sure it's behind my ears, right? I want to make sure that I'm dressed in something I would wear to work. I wouldn't have this background. I want to have a very standard background, a very plain background. But again, you can get a lot of information about how to put together your LinkedIn profile. I know that Shari Tishman also does a series of three LinkedIn classes through the library. I encourage you to just take hers, take mine, or anyone else's, but the LinkedIn library has a wonderful compendium of free resources. Okay, more tips from AARP. Have a great resume. It has to be customized, targeted to that position. So that means people say, so I have to write a resume every time I apply to a job, and the answer is yes, because the resume for the other job may not include what this job is looking for. We actually teach in our job search accelerator program how to decode a job description before even writing a resume or tweaking your resume. Do you know what the higher manager is looking for? Do you know what they say they need? Is that reflected at the top of your resume? If not, there are other people that are going to jump ahead of you in line. So make sure it's a targeted, tailored resume for that position. Now a lot of it in your resume is going to be the same from position to position, but that top part and how you're going to sequence the bullets under experience, that's going to be a little different for each job. So take the time to do that. Get rid of outdated information on your resume, and including your outdated email address. So here they're talking also about the AOL and hotmail email addresses. Also email addresses that are things like pretty lady at Gmail. Hey, you said Gmail, yeah, but pretty lady doesn't work. So come up with something that is a little more quote work related, a little more professional. There are all different kinds of resources. So AARP in particular saying use the resources that are out there. There are resources for services, for job search services, there are resources for training. Also, there are professional associations in almost every field. You should join the professional association for two reasons. One, it's going to help you keep up to date because they usually have speakers every month and they'll have meetings every month. And many times they're free if you have, if you join the organization. But also you're going to see other people in these meetings, and particularly when we come live again, which at some point in the next, I don't know, years will be going into meetings face to face, you'll be able to actually talk to people. But even with Zoom, you'll see what people are putting in the chat. You'll also see some people putting their titles down. And those are people you want to start connecting with and grow your network through the professional associations. What else does AARP talk to us about? Get an internship. Now I don't know how many of you saw the film, the intern. Oh, you should look it up. It's really cute. It is. It's a company, pretty much a startup. And they have brought in interns, but they decided to be proper. They're going to bring in a senior intern. And people who were in the company said, what makes him a senior intern? I said, oh, no, because he's over 55. So they brought in an intern who was older. And he was the one that actually was teaching the younger interns. So it's a fun show. It's very touching. It's a good movie. I can't for the life of you remember the star, the senior intern. If anybody remembers that name, put it in chat. But someone you recognize right away. But a lot of companies are offering, if they're not offering internships, they're offering externships or return ships. The people who are coming through our healthcare programs are getting trained. And then they go into a healthcare environment and in externship, which is a paid environment where they're going to get paid for being there. And that might be a six week externship like an internship, but it's external. And then return ships are for people who have been away from work for three to five years or more. And we have them also come to us in JVS. So we let our clients know about those, but keep in touch with things like that. AARP is calling it out. So it's something you should be looking for. Shopping your skills. Again, they're calling about the same kind of thing. Get training, take classes, show your learner's mind. Show that you're willing to learn, that you're currently learning. If you're in a program that is going to say take three months on your resume, you could say you're in that program in progress. So it lets people know that you're still learning. You're still learning. You're still training. And then through all this demonstrate, you're keeping up in your field. And that could be an opportunity you have in LinkedIn is to actually comment on other people's postings to show what you know about what they just posted. Or you could actually publish a little article yourself. And that goes to all of the people in your network. So again, you have an opportunity to demonstrate that you're up to date. Now, this is something that's interesting comes from AARP and they physically and mentally fit. I'm going to show you later information that comes from a former client who got a job when she was 72. And we asked her to come to us. We were doing a panel. We were calling it instead of a job search, we were calling it job success. We're saying 50 plus job success panel. And we invited her to come to the panel and she said she can't get away from work, but she wrote this letter and I want to give you some of the tips in that letter. But one of the things she talks about is you have to be able to exude confidence. If you walk in thinking, I'm not going to get this, I'm not going to get this, I'm not going to get this, you're going to be right. You're not going to get it. So if there's that phrase, right, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. So I think you can just easier. Okay. So staying physically and mentally fit doesn't mean you have to be pushing weights and running for a mile. It just means staying healthy and mentally fit. There are a lot of tools out there just to, I play word games regularly every day just, well, one it's a distraction from my work, which is always good. But the other is I have to think. I have to really work things out. Okay. And then ARP talks about the fact that how many people that are in their organization talk about becoming entrepreneurs. So there are a lot of you here that have a skill set where you can actually, you still have to build a network, but you can go to your network and offer your skill set without necessarily getting hired in a full-time position. Now, a lot of you like myself, I need the full-time position because I need the healthcare. Okay. So that's a reality. I'm going to go for the full-time position. But while I'm in my full-time position, I'm starting to dabble a little bit in doing some things on my own. Volunteer work at the library, right? Showing a little bit about who I am. So there are things that you could do that you then finally realize, you know what, I can actually make money doing this. My daughter, one of my daughters is in fashion design. Had a lot of trouble getting hired. It took two years. Then she moved to New York and got freelance work, which here we call contract work. And it still didn't pay for her healthcare. So it wasn't helping. Then she got that full-time job. And you know what? It wasn't exactly what she wanted to do as a fashion designer. She's designing socks. But she's designing socks for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. So it still looks good on her resume, but it's not what she wants to do. So what is she doing? She's working full-time, isn't that great? She's looking for the next position. She wants to get back into women's apparel. That's what her degree is in. That's what her specialty is. That's what her website's all about. But she's going to be patient and just keep being persistent, being persistent. I talked to her about becoming an entrepreneur and she said, you know, in the fashion industry, it's just going to be too expensive. But consulting and teaching, something that can be done. So these are the tips from AARP. Before I go into any questions, I want to give you a couple of more tips. And I don't want to overwhelm you. We have till 11.30, so we'll have time for Q&A. But I found job search tips for people over 50 from the U.S. News and World Report. What? I looked at it and said, okay, what are they going to be talking about? And I have to tell you, I'm going to share it with you because the first thing they say is, don't delay your job search. Get into it right away because you're just creating a gap. So to avoid that gap, just get into your job search right away. But what was really important was I saw this, use your network. What? Oh, really? Yeah. Find a job through personal contacts and they said it helps avoid discrimination. Your network is your networking. Your network is networking with you because they know who you are. They know what you can do. They know more about you. They're not going to discriminate against you. And if they might refer you into a position, they're going to let that person know about your skills, about your attitude, about your productivity, about your past successes. They're not going to say, but David is over 65. They're not going to say that. So use your network because that's where you can avoid some of that discrimination and they can help you with your personal contacts, can help you, personal and professional contacts, can help you with that job search. You do want to figure out how to reassure a younger manager. And the way to do that is not to say things like, and I think I didn't even have a slide about it, not to say things like, I work with young people all the time. I'm really into the new music. I hear the things I listen to. That's not what they're talking about. What you want to do is completely get away from answering that question or that contact, that comment about age and instead talk about why you're excited about the job, why you're excited about the company, and you appreciate good management. Not, well, I'd rather have an older manager or I know how to work with a younger manager. No, no, no. I appreciate good managers. It'll help me grow. That's a real different tactic than you saying, I'm okay working with younger managers. So instead talk about how it actually you're considering it to be an asset. And avoid, of course, avoid talking about your age at all. Make no reference to age. Don't talk about the interviewer's age. Don't get upset when you see the interviewer is a really young person. Now, hopefully they were trained in how to do a good interview. They may not, but I know a lot of senior interviewers that also don't know how to do a good interview. So don't blame it on age, right? There's good and bad in both sides of the spectrum. Just avoid referencing age at all. Now, again, the law says that they can't ask you your age. In certain states, they can actually ask you your graduation date from school. In California, they're going to avoid those things. So don't bring it up yourself. US News and World Report says target your resume to the job description. Oh, I think we heard that before, right? Leave out experience that is unrelated. And you say, yeah, but look how well I did. Look at this great accomplishment statement. And you know what? They don't care. They don't care how wonderful you are, except as it relates to you being wonderful for them. So I was a yoga teacher. I had my own yoga school. I got together with eight people. Now we're talking about when there were only maybe four or five yoga centers in all of San Francisco. We're talking about back in the day, right? Now I could talk about that, right? We were leading edge. We got a retail space and we, eight of us that were certified instructors in yoga and we opened up our own yoga center before everybody else did. Nobody cares. Now, is that good information for me to keep in myself? Absolutely. Because in an interview, something may come up and they might talk about starting something from scratch. And I say, well, I did start a business from scratch with a number of people. We had incredible collaboration. And interestingly enough, it was a yoga center. And it was back in the early 80s, right? Now I probably wouldn't even say the early 80s because that again starts talking about things that they may not be interested in. But that's not something I would bring out front because it's unrelated to what they're looking for right now. Those are things that come up in the interview only if they raise the issue. US News and World Report, again, since the stereotype is that we are all overqualified, so you have to be proactive to explain you're the right person for the job. You were a director and now you're going for this assistant position. Well, yes, thank you for asking that. I was a director and I did a really good job as director and I had a lot of success. Since then, I realized that I was looking at other things that I might want to do. And I really think that an assistant position is a great place for me to learn more about this organization and how I can actually become better and maybe move back up to director someday. But right now I'm just looking to get in there and learn and be productive for you. Yes, I'm overqualified, but I want this position and I can be good for you. So you don't have to say yes, I'm overqualified. They said it. You have to explain why you are the right person for this job. And when they see that passion, when they see that excitement, that's what's going to get you over the hump. Okay, and again, showing fluency with technology is going to be important. All different social media. When you open up your LinkedIn account, they give you a LinkedIn address and it's some kind of cryptic thing because it's a unique identifier. You can go in and customize that to just your name and then you're going to put that LinkedIn address onto your resume with your email address and your LinkedIn address right away that says, I'm up to date. And then you can show the classes you've taken. You follow the company on LinkedIn because recruiters want to call for people who are interested in their company, not just people who have a bunch of skills. So in LinkedIn, you can follow the company that you're interested in applying to. And on Twitter, you can follow the company. So there are a number of things that you could do, but definitely show your fluency with technology. Okay, once again, before I take some more questions, I have a couple of more tips and then we'll go through questions. And these are things that came from our clients over time. And this was something I mentioned earlier. Be humble yet confident. So sometimes we're confident to the point of being obnoxious. That's not what we're looking for. Confident in your skills, but humble in the fact that you're looking for a job. Point out your continuing education to show old dogs can learn new tricks, but don't say that. Don't call yourself an old dog, okay? But you want to show that you are continuing your education. And there are so many ways to do that. In LinkedIn, there's online courses, all the courses that are given here through the San Francisco Public Library and all the other public libraries that are out there, incredible amount of learning that's available to you. Take advantage of it to show that you can do those things. Focus on your most recent work and relevant experience. So don't always go back all the way back into the past. Now, somebody asked, and the reason it's here is volunteer with a question mark. Well, I'm volunteering now. Can I put that on my resume? Of course. Now, if you're volunteering at the food bank and you're sorting fruit and vegetables, I wouldn't necessarily put that down as experience in the experience section, but I might put it down as volunteering at the food bank because 60% of hiring managers like people who volunteer, interestingly enough. But if I'm volunteering at an organization as a bookkeeper, that's professional experience. It doesn't say on your resume, paid for work experience. It says work experience. And if it's relevant, if you're looking for a job in finance, in accounting, and you are currently volunteering because you're not currently working full time, you're volunteering as a bookkeeper in an organization. It goes right on your resume. Okay, so that's your most recent work. Put it up there. Now, if you're overqualified again, express your sincere interest in working for that organization. Focus on what you do bring, not what you or the extra stuff you're going to bring. You want to present your value. There are a couple of words that for me are really important in job search. One is passion. I even mentioned it in my LinkedIn. I'm passionate about, okay? The other is value because that's what they're really looking for. You can have all the great skills, but are those skills going to provide value to the new company? So you want to somehow present your value. Remember that the goal in all of this is to earn the offer for the job, not eradicate the reality of ageism. And I used to teach a workshop twice a month at JVS. That was a 50 plus job search strategy group. And we talked about strategies. And every so often someone would come in and say, but it's not fair. And I agree. It's not fair. So what? Well, we should change it. I said, I think that's a great idea. First, get the job and then figure out how you could change it. But if you are going to think of changing it and you're going to do the big fight that people have been doing now for decades, it's not going to help you get a job. So I just want to have that kind of stand out for you. Okay. So I'm going to stop sharing before I get into the next slide and find out if there are any questions that have been coming into chat. Yeah, there are questions. David, the first one is from Rebecca. She says, I applied to a job that had an online job form. Dates of education were a required field. No way to move forward without entering dates. Is this legal? Any thoughts on strategies if this happens? No. Yeah. So if you're asked to fill out an application form, they're going to ask you for a lot of things that they are perfectly legal. On your resume and on your LinkedIn, you don't have to put in dates for your education. You do have to put in dates on LinkedIn, you have to put in dates on your resume also for your jobs. But if you're filling out an application, you have to fill in every box. And if they ask you for a month, day, year, you have to try to figure out month, day, year. And they're also going to ask you silly things like your supervisor's name and phone number. That supervises long gone and who knows what the phone number was. But you have to fill something in. So I put in a supervisor's name and I put in a phone number of that company. I go look online if that company is still existing. I put it on. If not, I put in NA for not applicable. So yes, Rebecca, unfortunately, an application is just a little more severe and you do have to fill it in. So it's going to give you away. But remember, we're not trying to sneak in. Again, if that company is agist, good on them. Let them go. You don't need them. I know it's hard to take, but that's the truth. Okay. Any other questions, Leah? Yeah. So from Judy, she says photos used to be a big no-no due to potential discrimination. Yes. Is that a comment, that a question? Yes. Actually, do not put your photo on your resume. In the United States, an American resume, if they get a resume with a photo on it, they will usually shred it. And that is because of potential discrimination, whether it's under the radar discrimination, outright discrimination. So yes, you do not want to put a photo on a resume. No matter what your age. On your LinkedIn profile, you will not have a complete profile until you put in a photo. Now, again, we go back to, but then they're going to see David has a white beard and they are. And you know what? I do. Am I going to shave my beard off just so I look younger? I can, I can darken my hair. Now, I have to be honest, my wife colors her hair. Okay. Something just went wrong for me. Hang on. My zoom meeting just disappeared. I touched that. My wife probably came in and pulled the plug. Hi, look, I want to share that with you because she's doing it. She's been working full time in the company. Why is she doing it? She's doing that for herself. She's not doing it to get the job. I actually have a colleague who was coloring her hair and then decided, why am I doing this? She actually went back to her stylist and said, can you take all the color out? And she went natural. So in answer to your question, Judy, yes, do not put a photo on your resume, but definitely put a photo on your LinkedIn profile. Okay. Next question, David, is do you have to tailor your LinkedIn profile to the job you're targeting? What if you're applying for different jobs at the same time? Very good question. In LinkedIn, you're not targeting to a particular job. You're targeting to your professional persona. Who are you as a professional? So you actually can go back many more years than you would on your resume in your LinkedIn to show the growth of your professionalism. So you want to come up with making sure that you understand in your field or in two different fields, what are the keywords they're looking for? What are the skill sets they're looking for? And how could you show those? So someone might be looking for a job as a landscape architect, but just finished library in school. I figured we'd make it local. So they're looking for either a job as a landscape architect or as a librarian. And I get the question, which should I put on my LinkedIn profile? Both. Yeah, but if they see that I'm looking for a library position, they're not going to want to talk to me as a land. No, they will. They're going to search for landscape architect, and they're going to find you. And then they're going to see that you're a well rounded person. So they still may want to talk to you because you show wonderful experience in landscape architecture, and you're also showing experience in library. So for someone who's looking for a library, they may find you. And then say, oh, and you also specialize in landscape. That's good. We could use you and maybe teach you some classes. So don't think it works against you. In LinkedIn, you have to show who you are as a professional and try to, you're going to be a lot broader than in your resume. In your resume, you're usually responding to a job description, the job description. And that's why we call it decoding the job description. The job description is actually telling you exactly what they're looking for. If you don't match, say, 90% of the required things that they're looking for, you can still apply to the job, but don't think that you're going to win it. On the other hand, there are all the duties there. And if you can match those duties, and then most of the requirements, they still might want to talk to you. But they're telling you what you're looking for. So the resume each time you first analyze the job description, we call it decoding it, analyze the job description, and then make sure that what you're sending them from your experience, without making things up from your experience, here's what I have that matches what you're looking for. And that goes right into that summary section. So it catches their attention, and then they want to read the rest. So yes, you want to target your resume, but you want to generalize your LinkedIn profile. You have a lot more opportunities with your LinkedIn profile, too, because people give you references. People can endorse your skill set. So there's a lot more going on in your LinkedIn profile than your resume. And that's why they go and check it, be either before or after they get your resume. So if they work together, they shouldn't necessarily contradict each other. Okay, we have time for another question before we move on. Thank you, David. Rebecca asks, do you have thoughts about how far back to go with your job history? Okay, are we talking about resume or LinkedIn? I'll answer for both. So many of my colleagues still go by the thing. Don't go back more than 10 years. I use a different perspective. I like to use the word relevant, right? Go back to bring out your relevant skills, because if I'm looking for a corporate training position in a multinational company, I have been working at JVS, which is a small nonprofit, for going on 12 years. So that would be the only thing I could put into my resume. I mean, I could show that I've grown and I have three different positions, but I can't go back and show that I was the global knowledge manager for Eulah Packard's education practice worldwide. I can't put that on there if I only go back 10 years. I was laid off in 2005. And then people would say, well, who's going to care about it? Well, people who are looking for someone who has familiarity with working with international teams, I want to show that. So there are different ways that I'm going to bring that out. For some of my experience, I'm going to, because if we're going to use a chronological resume, I'm going to have my information there and go back, maybe I'm only going to go back 10 years. And then I'll have another section called other relevant experience. And in that, you can leave off the dates, but you put in the company, your title, maybe one or two bullets of what you accomplished there, but no dates. And that way, they'll at least possibly bring you on to ask more information about that. So as far as going back, as far as you want to go, it's up to you. And again, resumes can be two pages. They are completely acceptable to be two pages long. One page is wonderful. And if you don't have a lot of experience that you want to share, one page fits perfectly. But if you want to show more experience, you might want to have two pages. More than two pages is useless because nobody's going to look at it anyway. They're only going to give you six seconds in the first read. So there's a lot more information about resume, but as far as 50 plus, make sure that you're showing the relevant experience and figure out the best way to do that. So that's going to be really important. Okay, I'm going to share my screen again. So bear with me. I want to go into a few more pieces of information that might be helpful. Well, we talked about this. So we did this. I want to now, if we think back to the tips that I showed you from the Muse, AARP, US News and World Report, and then from some of our clients, what stands out? What are the key factors? It's almost a summary of what we've talked about that you should use as takeaways from this. And I hope you do. And yes, we can start nitpicking about what should go on a resume and what should go on LinkedIn. But there are a couple of things that I think are going to be real important for you as 50 plus job seekers. And the first one is network. You have to put in the energy to build a network. And I think that's going to be real important. That's what's going to be one of the most helpful things for you to do. The other is, again, to make sure that you're not using a resume that you felt is really nice, but is not targeted to each job description. Now, this has nothing to do with 50 plus. We teach this to someone who just graduated college or graduated high school even. We talk about the fact that your resume should speak to what they're looking for. And it's especially going to be important for us. You should start putting together some comfort with LinkedIn and social media. Even if they don't use LinkedIn and don't use social media in their search for candidates, every company nowadays is using social media. They're using it. You better know how to use it. And if you can show that you know how to use it proactively, it's going to help you be a candidate. A learner's mind is going to be important. Show that you're up to date in your field and show that you're still learning. And that's, again, the stereotype of you don't want to learn anymore. You know it all. Get past that stereotype just by showing them, I'm still learning. I'm getting the information. Know what the hiring manager is looking for and what they need. And this relates again to customized targeted resume, but it also relates to how you're going to put together a cover letter, how you're going to reflect information that you're going to bring to an interview. So really understand more about what the hiring manager needs. And then one of the things that I hope stands out that I think is real important and that is more networking. Networking, networking and networking. What we encourage our students to do in a job search accelerator program is to build your network with maybe two accountability buddies. These are people who you'll meet with once a week to talk about your job search. They're in job search. You're in job search. And maybe some of them already got jobs, but they're still a good friend of yours and they're going to help you out. Once a week, you're going to meet for 30 minutes. Now, the reason, too, a former manager of mine said you should have two accountability buddies because one is there to commiserate with you. I sent in the resume. I still haven't heard back. So I sent to one another company. I'm still not hearing back. And they go, yeah, I know what it is. I feel for you. And that's a good accountability buddy. But the other accountability buddy is going to kick you in the tush and say, okay, well, that happened. Now what are you doing? Didn't you say that you were going to write that cover letter? I still don't see it. Are you going to send it to me or not? I need it by this afternoon. So there are different kinds of accountability buddies. You maybe want to have both of them. There are some of my students that actually form because they meet together for two weeks with people. They pick and choose who they want and they put together what they call a success team. And again, so it might be four or five of them and they meet together just to talk about, hey, I saw this job. I interviewed for this job. And I think it's not really for me, but maybe it's for you. That's the reality of what makes job search really successful. Informational interviews is kind of the uppermost portion of what networking is all about. And I'm not kidding when I call it the gold standard of job search. That's where you're going to learn about the company. And they're going to learn about you. And many times there are companies that have job openings that they didn't publish them. But when you're talking to somebody in the company and they hear you talking and they really like what you're talking about and they like the way you express yourself and they like what you say about the company, they may then say, you know what, I think I might have something for you. So that's a benefit of informational interviewing. And then there are other things. I did want to talk to you about what our client in her 70s shared. So I'm going to go through this pretty quickly. But tips from a JBS client. This is what she wrote in her email to us to share with the people who are coming to our program. Age does show on the outside, but it's the inside attitude that connects and repels people. So are you experienced and helpful? Or are you experienced and always trying to prove yourself? Two different attitudes. Are you still growing? So she talks about that being open and interested in learning is huge. Mention does talk about how you look and trying to dress stylish, but not trying to look like you're 16. Sometimes people say, oh, I got the interview, it's great. I still have my interview outfit from 74. It's don't use that one. Right. Go someplace and pick something up. Dress for success. If you really, if you can't even afford goodwill and I know some of us are in that position, go to dress for success. They will help you dress for interviews. A few more things that she said that I thought were interesting to share. Are you happy? Happy comes across. Not happy comes across also. If you're interested in life and open to new things, it shows. Are you afraid of younger people? So there's some information here about get curious instead of defensive. And then it's not so much what you did in the past, but what you learned in the past that can help your employer now. I thought that was very insightful of this one. What she was saying is, yeah, I did these things, but they were a long time ago, but you already learned from it is, and that's a great way to express yourself. Okay. A few more things to do. I know we have a little more time. You have to start thinking about what is your value add? What are you really good at? Not just I had these other jobs, but what are you good at? What are things that you've learned from your experience or from new learnings? What are your top skills? Whether they're hard skills or soft skills, whether they're transferable skills, what are your best skills? And you could take some skills tests to learn about what your best skills are. What are your greatest strengths? I used a book called Strengths Finder 2.0 and it's a really thin book, but what it is is when you pay for the book, you get a sealed envelope in the back and it gives you a link to a profiling exam. You take that online and it comes out and tells you what your strengths are. And a lot of companies are using Strengths Finder internally, so it's nice if you could talk about it externally. And then, of course, what I'm very experienced in, but there are other things that you want to avoid. When asked if you could work with a younger supervisor, don't talk about you're the same age as my children. Just try to avoid the comment completely and talk about the job and the company and why you're excited about it. Don't list jobs that go back 40 years. It's okay to go back 10 to 15 years. And again, if there's something that's relevant beyond that, figure out how you're going to show that relevant skills. Avoid being unwilling to accept current job search approaches. Okay, some people say, I know how to job search. I've been doing it for a long time. It's not the same. It's not the same when I first started looking for a job in 2005 until now. It's different, very different. Networking is key. LinkedIn is almost mandatory. Don't frame your early experience with things like, before you were born, don't do that. Okay, so avoid some of those things that are things that are going to trap you. And I have a few more comments here. Again, I don't want to overwhelm you that you're going to get the slides that you've been able to read these. These are people, one is a guest service representative at UCSF. These are people who came through our program and got jobs, but they're over 50. And one is a cloud support associated at Accenture. Again, high tech company. How are you successful in landing a job? Persistent, stay positive. Don't be discouraged if the inferiors go well. There's another company that's for you. Did you encounter age discrimination? This is really interesting when you ask people, did you encounter age discrimination? And they say, I'm not sure if it was age discrimination. Some of my interviews kept getting rescheduled and one of my cohort who was younger with an MBA and less experienced landed the job. But when I think about it, she was a better fit for the company. So I did try to meet with others in the company. I actually got to meet with the CEO and I felt that after meeting with the CEO, it would not have been a good fit for me in this job. So don't dwell on bad interviews, keep pushing forward. And then any tips, all the things we've been talking about, know your value, know that there are jobs out there, stay positive, positive, positive, and network, network, network. You can read the more detail about it later. I'm going to give you also a whole bunch of resources that are available. AARP, of course, their job board is specifically for people who are 50 plus. So instead of looking at Monster all the time, spend some time looking at the AARP job board. Also, professional associations usually have their own job board, and that's also really good because you're learning more about that professional association. AARP has these workshops. All of these links are clickable. If you have trouble with them clicking when you get it in the email, you could actually search on all of these. So you could search on AARP work and jobs in a Google search and it'll take you to the right place. Give you more information about how to polish your resume. And then additional resources I had to, of course, talk about the public library. I think you're here and I'm here. And the resources are incredible here at the San Francisco Public Library. They do have senior community service employment. It's another group that's outside the library, but the library helps promote them. I think that their workshop ended, but there's still an organization that's available for you to look at. And then there is a digital literacy assessment. I actually just found out about that and I'm going to start doing that myself. I want to see how digitally literate I am. So these are the little exams that you could take online. The purpose of all of this research is what I want to know is these things, but you have to take the action. So one more tip. This is a strategy. Use the hidden job market. Now some of you may know of this and some of you may not. And you know why? It's hidden. So what do we mean by hidden job market? It's the jobs that are not posted. Anywhere from 40% to 80% of jobs that are open are not posted on job boards. It costs the company money to post it on job boards and they're first going to try to use their network to find candidates for these jobs. So what you want to do is get into that network. So look beyond the job boards. Many vacancies are filled through networking or social media. Now LinkedIn has a job board, but I have been invited to apply for jobs through just LinkedIn messaging, not that I saw something on the job board, just someone in my network. So vacancies are filled that way. There was a job site survey that was done in 2020. 42% of the respondents said that they learned of job openings on social media. That's the hidden job market. Don't only depend on, because people say to me, you know, I've been looking for a job that is appropriate for me and I can't find it on monster. Well, then look someplace else. There are lots of other job boards. Some specialize. If you're looking for nonprofit, you want to go to idealist.org. If you're in tech, you want to go to dice.com. But you want to mostly use your social media and your network. Internal employees refer job candidates. So if you're networking with someone in a company you're interested in working for, when there's an opening, they may contact you and you know why? If they bring you into the company, they get a bonus. Use it. The companies make it easier for them and easier for you and easier for the company to win-win-win. So that's where networking is real important. If you're really interested in a company, talk to people in that company. Continue to connect with professionals in your field. They don't care how old you are. They care about your skillset and your attitude. And then stay on top of industry news so that you're always going to be able to answer questions about what's going on in the field. And then I put the summary together, but you can pretty much summarize it from yourself. Stay positive. Stay patient. Update your skills. Earn certifications. Those look really nice on resumes and on LinkedIn. Tailor and optimize your resume for each application. Build and use your network. Build accountability buddies. Find the right environment and then use informational interviews. Leverage your experience, but that relates to the job, not just how wonderful you have great experience, right? I mean, yoga instructor was great experience, but I'm not going to talk about it now. You know, I sang in the all city high school chorus, right? I'm not going to talk about that. There's a lot of things that I'm just not going to talk about. Demonstrate your knowledge. Show your research. And that's the idea of what it said before. You know, look to know what's going on in your industry. Learn to use video meeting and then network, network, network. That's what's going to make it work for you. Okay. I'm going to take questions. I want to say that what you need to do now is you need to create a to-do list. Even before you wait to get the video and the slide set, start thinking about, I know some of you, I watched you, you were writing notes. Put together your to-do list. What are your action items for your job search? What are the things you're going to do is takeaways from this program. You can always come to JVS. There's more information. The Job Search Accelerator program, the two-week program, is open right now to applicants. So there is a link here to apply. If you want to really focus for two weeks on learning about job search skills, it's going to start again on May 7th. But we're going to have applications accepted until April 29th. So if you're interested, join us. Here's my contact information. You'll have that when you get the link. And again, I hope that this was helpful. And I will stop here and take any other questions that you might have. Thank you, David. The first question is from CJ. When the interviewer asks the question, what do you hope to be doing in five years? Or what job do you want in five years? How do you answer? I'm over 50 and hope to be in the job I'll be interviewing for. You just gave the answer. That was great. The answer is I'm looking forward to growing in this company and add value. And whether it's five years or seven years, I want to make sure that I'm going to be a real asset to the company. Right? You may want to be retired. Don't say that. You may want to work in your A company, because this is really your B company. Don't say that. What you want to say is what you really said, right? I'm looking forward to growing in and growing says something else about you, right? I'm looking forward to growing in this company. And I'm looking, hoping to continue to be an asset and provide value. So I hope that helps. Thank you. Next question is from Ha. How do you cold network during COVID? Cold networking is hard. So I would start by building your network, warm network. People that you used to work with, people that you know, invite them to LinkedIn, go in LinkedIn and see who is publishing things and that you might know them and then reintroduce yourself to them. I've reconnected with people that I used to work with at HP. And I haven't spoken to them since I left in 2005. But when I send them something saying, hey, I saw that you were, I saw that you just changed jobs. And I'm thrilled for you. And gee, when you're in San Francisco, let's have coffee and let's talk about all times, right? So there are lots of different ways that you could do it. Cold networking and invitations is tougher. And it's not only because of, because we're in a virtual environment. Even cold, I mean, you're not going to just walk up to a stranger on the street and say, hi, I'm David Blitz Network. So professional associations, a great way to do it. Anyone here signed up for Toastmasters? Toastmasters is a free organization. It's mostly run by volunteers. It's not free. It's a volunteer organization. And you do have to pay a small fee for some of the materials that they're going to send you. But Toastmasters are going to work with a group of people who are all trying to improve their presentation skills. So it's going to be good for you. But you'll also meet more people. And that is, again, another good way to network. So professional associations, people who you can refer to other people, looking at people who work in a particular company and seeing if there are other people that might know them. So there are lots of different ways to keep building your network. We've been doing it all the way through on using Zoom and then using LinkedIn. Thank you, David. Our next question is if I leave out unrelated experience from certain job applications, does that mean it's okay to have gaps in the resume? Or does that mean you create a resume that is not chronological? Well, there are two ways. You could create a resume that's partly chronological called a hybrid resume. A lot of companies are not really interested in that. Recruiters like what they're used to, and that is a chronological resume. So if you don't want to create a gap in the middle of your workspace, if there's one place where you were unemployed, you were not working, and it's one gap, recruiters understand that they're going to look great past it. It's not a big deal. If you have multiple gaps, then you're going to have to fill it in by putting in the company that is, as you said, not directly related experience, but don't put a lot of bullets there. Call out that you worked at this company, say what you did there, say one bullet or something you accomplished, and then move on to the next company chronologically that is more related, and that's where you put in your three to five bullets. So that they'll scan it and they'll go right over it. So it just again shows you might be a more well-rounded person. Thank you. The next question is, all right, I haven't worked for nine years. What should my resume reflect on work experience? What were you doing for nine years? If I might ask, I don't want to get personal. So if you were not working for nine years because you were raising a family, or you were taking care of elderly parents or family members, you could actually put that down as experience. And the way some of my clients write that, if the current position, if you do not have a current position, they actually put in a current position of the title that you're looking for, and then you're, instead of putting in a company name, you put in the industry that you're looking for. And then below that, instead of bullets showing your experience, you could say pursuing a position as accounting manager in this kind of company. You actually were unemployed because you were taking care of family. Then you put down that you were taking a sabbatical, personal and learning sabbatical, but you want to include what you were doing. Were you handling the family finances? Talk about handling finances. Were you taking classes during that time? So I spoke to a client who left raising children. I said, what were you doing while you were raising your children? And she said, I was raising my children. It's a full-time job. I said, I know, but what else were you doing? We were on the PTA. Oh, yeah, I was a PTA president for two years. Oh, really? What did you accomplish as the PTA president? We raised $50,000 every year. Ah, that's experience. Put it down on your resume. Okay, David. So the person who asked that question, she has unmuted herself. Did you have any further questions for David about that? I do. What I was doing, my husband was a minister and he passed away. And I was his secretary. I ran the house. I ran the church. So I was doing a lot of things under my husband's request, so to speak. But I also did a daycare. I ran a daycare. Those things that you just mentioned are experience. True. I managed life. Running your life, but you were running a congregation. You were helping other people. You were assisting families. You don't have to say, I was a childcare worker. I was assisting families with their needs. So there were ways that you could word it, but you were using your experience. Otherwise, even your husband wouldn't ask you to have done that. Right? Right? And it may never be a blessing, but he knew that you could do it and you stepped up, bragged about it. Okay. Bring that right into your resume. It's experience and call it out. Thank you. Yeah. And then I look, I have to tell you, work with a job coach to help you word that. So it doesn't look like you're trying to pull heart strings, but you're actually calling out. Hey, this is a skill set. Great. Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. All right. Yeah. Thank you to both of you. David, the next question is, do you advise at accepting LinkedIn invitations from people who you don't know? I don't. Unless that person sends their LinkedIn invitation with a note, and they explain why they're asking to join my network. So whenever you will send an invitation to someone, you could say, add a note. I encourage people always add a note, unless you're inviting your first cousin to join your network. Always add a note. Why are you inviting me? Right? Now, I do have someone from the library and she said, I'd like to join your network. I really appreciated what you taught in LinkedIn. And I'd love to communicate further with you. Okay. Well, now I get it. She wants to communicate further. Now, before I will accept that I go to her LinkedIn profile. And if she doesn't have a LinkedIn profile, that's really anything. Just her name. I won't accept it. So I look for two things. One, why do they want to connect with me? I may not know them, but why do they want to connect with me? And do they have a LinkedIn profile? Because we're talking about being my LinkedIn network. Now, I do have some people that are salespeople and they want to get into my LinkedIn network so they can then try to sell things to my 900 connections. So I am, I'm very cautious. And I, you know, I say I have 900 connections, but again, I've been a member since 2004. And I'm a very cautious network. So in answer to your question, if somebody just sends me something, I try to learn more about them. If I can, I might send something back to them saying, why are you, why are you inviting me? And if they don't respond to that, forget it. I just delete them. So those are some of the things that, that become important for me. Great. Well, thank you so much, David. There are no more questions in the chat. And actually, Laurie and I have to get on another, we have another program at noon for resume writing. It's with Christina Gotuako and she is fantastic. Please join us if you have the time. And David, thank you again for your expert advice and presentation. It's much appreciated. And we will see you at the next program. Bye bye.