Permission to Not Be a Stuffed Shirt

Suffice to say, the good news about being a Baby Boomer, i.e. someone born between 1946 and 1964 is that we have the benefit of a built-up knowledge base and oodles of lessons learned.

Alas, it can also be our down-fall, if we get so full of ourselves, i.e. hubris, that we ignore seeing our blind-spots and then wonder why we lose our jobs and less expensive, younger people seem to be our biggest competitors in the job search.

Social media, and in particular LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are potential game-changers for us, because they allow one to be less of a stuffed shirt, without dumping the experience of walking the corporate halls. How? I find these powerful tools to be just the communication mode that opens the door to be more human. The ability to post a picture, list groups where we participate  ( volunteer and professional) plus encourage asking and answering questions which opens windows for one to be heard and seen.

Doctors, engineers, lawyers and any of many other classic professionals now have the avenue to sound less like a boiler-plate-laden resume. Liz Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle writer and 25-year HR veteran voiced the following in her recent article titled “The Savvy Networker: Eight Little Known Tricks for the Job Hunt”.  “Yank the boilerplate out of your resume and give it a human voice, replacing the “results-orientated professional” with “I’m happiest solving thorny problems that slow down product development” or whatever (human) statement describes you”.

Today’s younger generations seem to naturally be more open and we can thank them for that!

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