Facing Job Hunt Challenges at 41: Is Age Holding Me Back in HR?

I am working as an HR head in a small IT company (around 10 people) in Chennai for the past 5 years. Now, I am 41 years old and have 7 years of experience overall. I have just finished my MBA. Due to the financial crisis, the company is about to shut down at any time. Now, if I go into the market, will I get a job?

I have tried applying on Naukri and through consultants whom I know. To my surprise, I was not called for an interview by any companies. The consultant mentioned that due to my age, there will be some constraints. This situation really demotivates me. Above all, I am in dire need of a job as soon as I leave this company because of my personal commitments.

Kindly suggest!

Regards,
R

Considerations for Job Search at 41

Probably more than your age, the size of your current company (10 employees) might be creating a problem since employers may look for candidates with experience in larger profiles. Try to revamp your CV with accomplishments and avoid being too ambitious about getting into a big company right away. Aim to join a smaller company that is comparable in size to your previous one, and thereafter, build your future plan.

Regards,
B. Saikumar
HR & Labor Law Advisor
Mumbai

B. Saikumar has a valid point about the company size you have been exposed to so far in your career—since the type and scale of situations one handles with a small crowd would be totally different from the situations you would have faced if handling a company size of, say, 100.

But at the same time, age also would play a part in your situation—especially since you are in the IT sector. Quite often, the general viewpoint of IT managements would be that since the general age range in an IT company would be 20-30 years, an HR person being in the same age bracket would be able to better understand and evaluate the candidates during interviews—though I wouldn't really subscribe to this.

There's also another aspect in your case. You say your age is 41 years and experience is 7 years—that really doesn't align with the general experience level for your age [presuming that you began your career after graduation, it should have been around 10-14 years]. If there are gaps in your overall profile, maybe your resume doesn't provide any clarity regarding these aspects—which could be another reason why companies may be ignoring your resume. Hope you get the point.

So, in a way, you have multiple aspects that you need to cover in your resume. Like B. Saikumar mentioned, focus on the core areas you handled and can handle in interviews.

In principle, suggest leaving as little scope as possible for the person reading your resume to arrive at conclusions that don't align with your own perceptions about your resume/experience [or to put it another way, direct them to attributes where you want them to focus on].

All the best.

Regards,
TS