We are getting ready to relocate to Florida.  To enable me to live in a manner to which I have become accustomed, I am looking for employment in Northeast Florida; Jacksonville down to Daytona Beach.  I have had some interviews, I even have had a couple of interviews here in Lexington.   Everyone seems interested in me until they see me face to face or they ask me to put dates on my resume.  All of a sudden, they have decided to go another direction.  One of the jobs, they probably did find someone else more closely aligned with their needs, but still I wonder.

When I was in high school (back in the last ice age) I couldn’t find jobs because I was too young or had no experience.  Now, I think I have too much experience.  No one can fail to offer me a job because I’m too old, but they can find other things wrong with my experience or certifications so that they can hire someone younger.  What is wrong this picture?  I read an article today about people still active up into their 90’s.  They have decided to not retire and keep on working until they keel over from wornoutness.   Yes, that is a real word, in the DSM-VI (which has only been sent out to REAL special people) it is a new diagnosis.  It entails the state of mind wherein someone has worked for so long that the guiding forces in the multiverse have decided that they have had enough and send them packing off to, well to wherever worn out people go.

The Jewish elders in olden times would not allow a man to become a Rabbi until after age 30 and they couldn’t even read the weird parts of the Bible until they were 30.  You know the parts of Ezekiel and Daniel and II Misinterpretations or Concordance that deal with glowy things and multieyed fiery beasts.  My point is that experience and some maturing should give us a better perspective on the important things in the business world.  Sure I can’t compete with the sheer volume of “stuff” someone younger might put out. I have learned that volume doesn’t cut it all the time.  I can give a reasoned and seasoned response to problems that someone younger might get all freaked out by.

Some smart-ass smart person once said that if you can keep your head while others around you lose theirs, you don’t understand the gravity of the problem.  I think (and this doesn’t not make me a smart-ass smart person) that being cool under pressure comes most of the time from being under pressure and surviving.  I kind of like a deadline or some project to do in a short time. It focuses me, gives me motivation.  It is like Cortés’ men after he burned his ships, they were “highly motivated” to steal a line from The Hunt for Red October.

I saw Melanie Griffith  in a TV show recently (you may insert any actor or actress you have seen who looked bad)and she was hardly recognizable due to the “work” she had done.  She has not aged gracefully.  I don’t want to pretend to be someone in his 40’s, I’m not.  I just want to be recognized for my gifts and talents that have taken some time to “mature”.  No one ever says “I had the best 3 month old Bourbon last night.”  Good skills, like good wine or good bourbon or great Scotch take time to mature.  Those of us who have matured may not be for the mass market, we are acquired tastes.  But I would much rather have one bottle of really good bourbon than a whole case of week old moonshine.

There are a lot of my generation who have not aged well or gracefully.  But a lot of us still have a lot of years and miles in us.  I’m not flashy but I get where I’m going and back home.