Your Possibilities As You Grow Older

For most professionals, advancing age should mean growing value and consequently advancing income. Unfortunately, many think this should happen automatically and view advancement as an entitlement. Such thinking is rarely the norm today with increasing competition forcing a change in tradition. No longer is seniority a passport to promotion in many companies. Increasingly, merit plays a greater role than just the number of years one is in the company.

What is worse for those who are stuck in the old mindset, there are many firms with a bias for younger people who they believe have fresher ideas and are more manageable. To make the upward climb even more difficult, there is a trend toward less middle management which results in a lesser number of senior posts to aspire for. Technology has enabled many industries to increase the managerial span of control and lessens the midlevel managers needed.

Nowadays, productivity is the key measure by which most companies now measure an employee’s value. In functions with more physical activity is needed, young people are lucky to have strong faculties that they can use to work. They have the energy and capability to produce output. However, the lack of experience also means that more mistakes are committed and there is much less know-how. This aspect is more crucial in jobs requiring more mental work.

As we grow old, we can no longer function as well physically as when we were younger. But one thing good in growing older is that, in time, we accumulate experiences — real-life lessons that help us create decisions better. In the corporate setting, this means that removing old employees might not be the best idea if they want to retain employees who still have the ability to impart their knowledge and help the firm.

There are many ways to improve your value to a company and one of these is to gain more education. Maybe you could invest in pursuing an MBA. If you could not find the time or money to do that, then look for short courses that are highly useful to your current position. In doing this, you will be hitting two birds with one stone. On one hand, you will be gaining knowledge and skills and on the other hand, this will send a strong signal to management that you are expending a lot of effort in improving yourself and that you are not being left behind by the times. This impression will certainly be a factor when you are being appraised for promotion or a pay increase.

Another way and much less mentioned way of self-improvement is to get into the habit of reading material relevant to your field. At a bargain price, you get to advance your skills and knowledge. There are few better uses of your time that can give your career a big boost.

If your present company no longer shows a good chance for advancement after all your efforts to show your capability, then it may be better if you look for greener pastures. There comes a point where you must take things into your own hands. But this is a move that needs deep thought. You must have an accurate assessment of your true worth. It is quite possible that you are already being paid well for your capacity in which case you may just be fooling yourself. Fortunately, this is mostly applicable to those who do not have much appetite for hard work.

After a thorough evaluation, it has brought you to the conclusion that you can do much better elsewhere then open your eyes to all the possible opportunities. See the value of everything that you have been through in your entire life and find out where you can use this time-given knowledge. Aside from a corporate career, why not also consider starting up your own business? Being an employee for how many years in a company would have given you enough experience and connections to help you avoid most of the risks in business.

We must not resign ourselves to whatever happens. For the most part, it is not luck but our own decisions that determine what happens in our lives. The possibilities discussed are just a small fraction of what could be done. As we grow older, we must realize that there are far more opportunities available than what we presently think is possible. With optimism, research, and hard work, there is so much more that we could realistically achieve.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-4, Sunday, November 1, 2015. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.