posted
Is the growth and widespread use of computers a large factor for putting older people out of work?
My father was the CFO of a company that designs/manufactures scientific instruments for the past 18 years. He was let go last March with no real type of severeance package. Now he is unemployed and still trying to find a job. He has had many interviews but his age and mainly his lack of computer skills have been the deciding factor against him. The main thing most companies are looking for are experience with Excel/Access. My dad cant really use either. he is taking classes and having me teach him via textbooks i kept from computer classes at school.
Is it too late for him and other older people to stay employed if the skills required for a job are rapidly turning to computer based ones. Discuss.
He has had a few calls from Suntrust Bank and might be getting an interview soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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1. It's never too late to learn computer skills. Even 90 year old grammas are surfing the net these days.
2. There are some pretty computer illiterate people in my place of work who have pretty high level jobs (a lot higher than me anyway.) Not all of them are legacy employees too close to retirement to be fired gracefully. It may be a case of finding the right place to work.
But I'd still push for the increasing skills over looking for a place that doesn't need them. It may even help him live longer. Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Is it too late for him and other older people to stay employed if the skills required for a job are rapidly turning to computer based ones. Discuss.
Absolutely not! It isn't too late. I know the local junior college teaches computer classes and anyone over 55 gets free tuition.
When I did my stint in corporate training, I trained sales reps who had been on the job more than 20 years keeping paper records and taught them how to covert over to keeping records on their laptop and uploading the info to the company's server every night. In fact, the older reps were easier for me to train. The younger, more computer savvy ones wanted to try and come up with different ways to do things, the older ones just soaked up the knowledge and did what they were supposed to. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
The important thing is this: they can't be resentful about learning, because that makes them harder to teach.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
how do i motivate my dad to get back on the computer and learn the skills he needs. i think he feels it is too late for him and that he should just stay retired.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Get him addicted to something on the computer, even if it's just freecell. That will make sitting down and turning it on a positive thing for him. It will also help his mousing skillz.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
There's another thing that's fairly new that's going on in the job market nowadays. There was an article in WSJ about this and it's absolutely true.
Nowadays most jobs are listed on the web, and so the number of potential applicants is about 1000 times what it used to be when local papers and local headhunters were the main means of finding new hires. That means there are far more resumes than anyone has time to even review. So they must cut that number way down, just to make the search take a reasonable length of time. Because of that, they are specifying more and more requirements, "must have 10 years experience with Autocad 2000", and such things. They want you to have lots of experience in the exact thing they're doing, and not even something very close will do, or sometimes older versions of the same program even! It's crazy! (Especially since once they hire you they'll set you to do almost any task that comes up, with little regard to previous experience. That's pretty much how I learned all my skills.)
So you can read that there's a huge shortage of engineers, and yet try to tell that to all the out-of-work engineers who are applying for dozens of jobs a month and being rejected without a second look.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Sigh, I agree. Willingness to learn is a huge factor. The secretary and my boss are of the same, er, vintage. In fact I think the secretary is older.
But, she adapted to computers much better than he did, simply beause she's used to communicating via typing to begin with, and more willing to try new things.
The ability to type complete sentences is a huge plus. My boss can't write an e-mail without severe grammar errors, even if he manages to use spellcheck to minimize the spelling problems.
In your dad's case, I probably would have at least considered an age-discrimination lawsuit. It worked at our company and it's why a lot of the old relics around here that are nonfunctional in a computerized world,(and ones who *won't* try to learn anything) are still here, and things are still often done by hand even though they take twice as long.
I think if he's having a hard time getting motivated, an actual classroom experience like Belle mentions through a community center or college would be the way to go. It encourages you when you realize that even though you may not be the *best* at anything you probably aren't the worst either, and every one is learning together.
I also think that part of the reason why older people don't catch on to new things on the computer is because they don't know how to properly use the "help" function to LOOK IT UP when you don't know. And it doesn't matter if you don't find the answer instantaneously, because in roaming around those help menus you learn all kinds of other useful tidbits. And, if you can't find it via microshaft "help" there's always google.
Posts: 11265 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
he talked to a lawyer but found out that in the state og Georgia, one doesnt need a reason to fire anyone. i forget the term for that, but basically my dad had no case.
Posts: 813 | Registered: Nov 1999
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They want you to have lots of experience in the exact thing they're doing, and not even something very close will do, or sometimes older versions of the same program even! It's crazy! (Especially since once they hire you they'll set you to do almost any task that comes up, with little regard to previous experience. That's pretty much how I learned all my skills.)
