Am I too old?

Question

"I am 53 years old, and an experienced and successful hotel general manager, both in the UK and overseas. At the beginning of this year I found myself made redundant from my job in a four-star Mayfair hotel, when it was taken over.

I took an accommodation consultancy, for the short term, with one of the Home Office Agencies. This I did with great success and then began to look for a new and quality long-term GM position. As well as applying to direct adverts, I registered with a number of well-known agencies who just months before had been 'biting my hand off' for the business I could give them. The response was less than positive with such platitudes as 'it's too small for your experience'; 'the market is very tight at the moment', and 'nothing matches your degree of experience'.

Privately a number of them admitted that age was a factor. I've had an almost blanket resistance from agencies to my applications and they seem to control access to the best positions.

I have never been out of employment before and have a career of successful appointments and am excellently referenced. I have reviewed and revised my CV and my letters of application but here I am, months on, with no appointment.

What a waste of ability and experience! Am I doing something wrong or is there a silent ageism policy? I ask this as I cannot think of any other reason why I am having such difficulty in identifying and obtaining a new position.

Your advice and assistance would be much appreciated."

Philip D Artingstall

What the expert says

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Á¢Â€Â I was very sorry to read your letter as I think you raise a number of very good points and I welcome this opportunity to comment on some of them. Firstly, I donÁ¢Â€Â™t believe that there is a blanket silent ageism policy in this industry. Indeed, at Portfolio weÁ‚ have come across manyÁ‚ individuals well into their 50s who have successfully obtained the sort of job they wanted. In fact, I would say that as the marketplace becomes ever more challenging commercially, it is vital that we use the experience of individuals who have worked through a recessionary climate and who know how to Á¢Â€Â˜beat the oddsÁ¢Â€Â™ in these circumstances. We are able to convince many of our clients that they would be better placed to adopt this philosophy than take the potential risk of a younger candidate. A final note on age: I personally believe that you are as old or young as you feel and I was pleased to see that you consider yourselfÁ‚ Á¢Â€Â˜youngÁ¢Â€Â™ and energetic. More important than the date of birthÁ‚ on a CV is the impression, physically and mentally, that a person projects Á¢Â€Â" I am sure I have interviewed many people in their mid 30s who cannot use the same adjectives to describe themselves! Another few specific issues do arise from your query. Firstly, senior general management roles in Mayfair rarely Á¢Â€Â˜sitÁ¢Â€Â™ on the books of agencies. There are only so many in total available and frankly when one does come up, rather like an excellent piece of real estate, it will be sold or filled (from recommendation through interviews) probably within a couple of weeks. Furthermore, one shortlist of candidates is usually all it takes for a qualified and knowledgeable consultant to fulfil the clientÁ¢Â€Â™s expectations. Every brief is different and the credibility of the consultant lies with them recommending only those candidates who actually fit the brief. This is, in my experience, whereÁ‚ a candidate can believe theyÁ¢Â€Â™re ideal but do not understand what the owner or client is actually looking for. It is a moot point, open to plenty of subjectivity but the role of the consultant is to give the client what they want Á¢Â€Â" otherwise they may not get the call next time. On a more positive note, you make no mention as to whether you would look to use your significant management skills in another sector of the hospitality industry. Many people are recognising that if theyÁ¢Â€Â™re looking to move quickly into their next post they should study the transferability of their skills to a different area Á¢Â€Â" maybe in your case contract catering, training centres, event management etc. With a view to this, it is very important that one is in the hands of a recruitment consultant who has the scope to review your career history with a lateral thinking hat on. Finally, I would encourage you to keep going: eventually something worthy of your experience will emerge. Good luck.Á¢Â€Â Do you have a question for our experts? [E-mail us now, help is at hand.