Larry Chester, who worked as a chief financial officer for a handful of companies, was 61 and out of job — and nobody seemed interested in hiring him for a full-time position.
Although no one outright told him he was too old to be hired, he noticed little cues. Companies would hire him for short-term stints, sometimes while looking for a full-time candidate. Once during an interview process, he was asked to make a 15-year commitment — but he was in his late 50s by then. “In spite of all of my experience I had, I’d make it to the final two or three people but never get over the hump,” he said.
Ageism is apparent in the workforce and the hiring process. Legislators are combating age discrimination, including a recent proposal called the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, and companies are under fire for certain hiring practices, such as targeting younger applicants through social media. Older workers are stereotyped as lacking a strong work ethic, counting down the days to retirement and a disinterest in learning new skills to stay competitive in the workforce, and they also struggle with negative comments about their age from colleagues or are overlooked for promotions.
See: What to do if you face age discrimination at work
At 61, Chester decided to start his own consulting business, CFO Simplified, when he realized he had made a job of working short-term engagements. His company’s services include cash flow management, bookkeeping and executive recruiting. In the 10 years starting his company, Chester has hired numerous employees and their average age is early 60s.
Chester spoke with MarketWatch about ageism in the workforce and starting your own business in your 60s.
MarketWatch: Why do you think some companies avoid hiring older workers?
Larry Chester: I think there’s a misunderstanding of what it means to be 60 years old, or even 70 years old. I remember when I turned 50 and one of my friends turned 50, he said he was so old he couldn’t play tennis three times a week like he used to. I said, who are you kidding? Age doesn’t tell you what you’re able to do or not to do. That’s a stereotype that if you have someone older, they’re going to move more slowly, they won’t think as fast, they won’t be able to react as fast or be as creative because they’re stuck in their rut of what they’ve always done. They want someone young and vibrant and creative and full of ideas and enthusiasm. I’ll tell you, I have a business coach in his late 30s and he marvels at the fact that he has a hard time keeping up with me when we go through our coaching sessions. Age is a state of mind, I have always said you are as old as you feel and as young as you act.
MW: The average age of your employees is early 60s. Why is that?
Chester: People in their 60s, in their 50s and 70s, have a broad range of experience and that’s ideal for me in finding an employee. When I look for clients I’m not looking at a particular type of business, I’m looking for a client who needs help. So when the prospect says to me, who do you have with experience in my industry, my response is we have experience in all industries because business is business, and they have multiple experiences. They can apply their years of working as a senior executive to any business they work at, including yours.
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MW: What are some of the best qualities of workers in their 50s, 60s or 70s?
Chester: They’re mellow. They understand who they are and where they are, so it is easy for them to walk into a business and talk to a younger business owner. Most of my clients are young, they’re in their 30s and 50s. We walk in and we have 20-25 years of experience on them, and it’s easy to sit there and tell them from a practical point of view we’ve done this, tried that, and sometimes it works here, but it wouldn’t work there. Whatever the case may be, we have that breadth of experience.
Emotional maturity is a huge asset, especially because a lot of young business owners are a little fragmented. They’re running around in 19 different directions trying to get things done. When you start a business, you’re wearing 25 hats and the first thing you try to do is get rid of as many hats as quickly as you can. Generally, someone in their 60s knows what works and what doesn’t work and they have a strategic perspective of what takes a business to the next level.
MW: Can you describe the inter-generational relationships you’ve experienced, especially when there are younger clients and older consultants working together?
Chester: I enjoy it, and from a couple of different perspectives. I love the energy, enthusiasm and optimism of young people starting businesses. There’s nothing like it, that keeps me young. But beyond that, there’s an interesting dynamic between a young business owner and an older consultant. I won’t say I’m a father figure, but I am senior with more experience and knowledge in areas, so they turn to me and ask what have you done that’s similar to this, when you tried this in the past, what worked? Can you tell me options to approach this problem we’re facing?
Having all of this experience allows me to give a variety of advice and options to a younger person who doesn’t have those experiences. It makes business planning like a multiple choice exam, as opposed to a “fill in the blank” one. If a business owner has a problem, he may not know how to fill in the blank, but if he’s got three different approaches, he can say why one may be better than the other, and that’s OK.
Also see: Ageism in the workplace is robbing millennials of valuable life skills
MarketWatch: What was it like starting your own business, in your 60s, and what advice do you have for others who may want to go down this path?
Chester: A lot of businesses start out step by step, and most people who start small businesses start them as part-time, saying they’ll do this until they get a real job, but then it becomes reality. So my advice is first of all, do something that you know. It is much easier taking your current knowledge base and turning it into something, even if you’re doing it part-time.
I have found that people like listening to stories, and I am certainly a story teller. I have all kinds of stories from the businesses I worked for, situations that were difficult and how I was able to get through those. Being able to tell those stories was what made others see the value in hiring me for short-term gigs.
When I started, I registered my company, started putting together material — Microsoft Word is sophisticated enough to put together a brochure if you want to, went to a print shop, registered a domain and got an email (not from Gmail). Having that presence gives you immediate credibility. There are a lot of vehicles to create a simple website, and when you start it can be two or three pages, it doesn’t need to be a 40-page website. Those are the basic pieces to go out there and sell yourself.
MW: When some people are at that crossroads you were in your early 60s looking for a job, they may feel as though they’re being forced into retirement. Why didn’t you just consider retirement then?
Chester: There are two things there — one, you have to look around and see if you have the financial well being to live off of for the next 20-30 years of your life, and the second is, who wants to wake up in the morning and feel that the most important thing they have to do that day is watch Oprah at 11 a.m.? I mean, I can’t even conceive that. I get up, depending on what’s going on, between 4 and 5 a.m. every morning. I’m on the road, I’m reading, I’m sending emails, I’m planning the next week’s activities. I’m figuring out what my next staff meeting will be like and what my next move will be. My problem isn’t that I don’t have enough to do, it’s that I don’t have enough hours to do it. The concept of retiring is not for me.
Source : MTV
