Never apologize for growing older and wanting to work

 

There are a lot of people and entities giving advice to people of a certain age looking for a new job; and one thing the pandemic has shown us is that a lot of people still need to and are trying to work.

 

Browsing though various articles such as:

 

·       “Tips for Finding a Job After 50”

·       “7 Tips for Getting a New Job in Your 50s”

·       “Job Searching Over 50: 8 Secrets for Success”

 

I realize that a common theme throughout all, is that there is a sense that being over 50 is a negative somehow, and you need to diminish yourself and your experience in order to get someone to hire you.

 

Since when has experience become an impediment to finding work? Since when did we have to start apologizing and placating potential employers because we had the audacity grow older?

 

Employers need to start looking at things a different way because there is a lot of wasted talent out there becoming discouraged, simply because society only seems to value youth.

 

Things to think about.

 

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Being ghosted after a professional interview

 

Let us assume you did everything correctly as far as interview protocol, let us assume you were a very strong candidate for the position; in other words, you did nothing wrong.

Something we must recognize in these phenomena of employers “ghosting” qualified candidates after an interview, is that a lot of the hiring managers are not professional recruiters, and sometimes professional recruiters are bad at their job. If you think about it, there really is no consequence to them for doing that, especially when so many people might be vying for that one position.

We are a in a different age where the golden and platinum rules of courtesy are not always applied, and the advice candidates must understand is that this will happens sometimes so just move on. Sometimes it is not that easy to move on.

This is an interesting article I am sharing on “ghosting”: https://www.vault.com/blogs/interviewing/3-things-to-do-when-you-re-ghosted-post-job-interview, and the last sentence is important.  It says: “you may never find out why a particular company ghosted you. But why would you want to work for an employer that shows so little consideration for candidates anyway?”

Know your worth, never give up, and for the who ghost just remember, one day this might be you.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

 

PS. I am not trying to be negative, but sometimes you just must stop excusing peoples’ bad behavior

Judgment in the time of COVID

 

We should always be conscious of our words, even in the best of times, because words can have a powerful affect on people, even if they were not consciously said with spite or malice. We are not living in the best of times, not even close. People have been out of work for over a year, they are struggling to pay bills, as well as dealing with the mental health of their families and themselves.

With all the various text forms of communication available, and the growing trend of texting not speaking means that the words you type are very easily misconstrued. Plus, we also have the phenomenon of the “keyboard warrior” where people feel safe cyber bullying people from behind a keyboard.

You do not need to put yourselves in someone else’s shoes to be polite, you do not have to dig deep to ask yourselves some simple questions before you hit send (or digitally open your mouth in some way):

·        Is it true?

·        Is it kind?

·        Is it necessary?

Life is tough right now, so why pick a fight when you can have fun? Why make enemies when we all need friends?

Choose wisely because tomorrow is never promised.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Communication and job interviews

 

This is not a personal story, just an observation, and I have observed this happening more frequently as more people are competing for the same job.

Are you aware that most people can take rejection, even when it is a job that they really want? Professionals understand that rejection is part of the story, but not the final story.

What makes professionals truly mad, especially in today’s world where there are so many forms of communication, is when there is no communication after an interview.

Respect a professional’s time, you respected them enough to interview them, and that often means you could end up working with them in the future. There is no need to create a negative image of yourself by “ghosting” after a professional interview. It just makes you look bad.

Practice what we teach.

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

Merry Christmas from the ETeam!

 

My father often reminds me

 Not that I have failed at anything recently, but COVID has made things dificult; for all of us. My father pulled out this gem he had us learn as kids. Thanks Dad!

Dr Flavius Akerele III, The ETeam

Try Try Again

by T. H. Palmer

'Tis a lesson you should heed,
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again;

Then your courage should appear,
For if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear
Try, try again;

Once or twice, though you should fail,
If you would at last prevail,
Try, try again;

If we strive, 'tis no disgrace
Though we do not win the race;
What should you do in the case?
Try, try again

If you find your task is hard,
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try again

All that other folks can do,
Why, with patience, should not you?
Only keep this rule in view:
Try, try again.

 

Explaining what defunding the police really means

First of all, defunding is not a great term, and I bet even now some people are losing their ever-loving minds when they hear it. Please relax and listen to logic. Also, I am not using specifics here, just general information.

Reforming might be a better term for now, so I will use that, along with some other Rs.

1.      Re allocation of resources and budgets needs to occur. If the police are going to be considered professionals, then they need training that reflects true professionals, and an average of 16 weeks will not do it. Police need more education, training, and psychological and drug testing before they are ever given a badge and able to interact with the public solo. Move that money from military equipment to training officers before they are sworn in; this would weed out a lot of the “bad apples” before they start, and like any true profession, this training needs to be renewed on a regular basis.

2.      Re-imagining the role of police from warriors to bodyguards and guardians. Warriors are trained to kill and subdue their enemies and the public are not the enemy. The thin blue wall must come down, and the thin blue line must be erased, quotas and incentive systems need to go.  There should be no fictitious barrier between the public and the guardians that are supposed to protect them. Like doctors, police should be held to a higher standard, and that should include malpractice insurance and higher consequences for wrongdoing tied to pension or promotions. Police currently are rarely held accountable for hurting and killing their wards.

3.      Respect the people you are sworn to protect, all the peoples, regardless of race, socioeconomic background, or mere suspicion of being a criminal (hopefully training will reinforce this). In the current form, police demand respect of people who are terrified, which to them means absolute obedience. However, this is America, and you cannot expect a country of people founded on rebellion to be subservient. Give respect and you get respect! By showing respect to the communities they are supposed to protect, they will get respect and be rewarded with trust.

The stats show the police have a failing grade in their current iteration, so it seems obvious something new needs to happen, but Reforming police is only part one, there are at least 3 more parts.

District Attorneys need to be transformed to seekers of true justice and not statistics driven deliverers of punishment. We are seeing real results with DAs who believe in justice not just punishment. Justice needs to be truly blind, so that punishments can truly fit the crime.

Prison system needs to change from penal to correctional and rehabilitative. Prison is place of little or no hope, it is place you try and survive like “escape from New York” where the strong prey upon the weak. Right now, the corruption in the prison system is the worst part of the whole criminal justice system because it is profit driven and prison guards are the most corrupt out of all law enforcement officers because there are few eyes on them, and society does not value the people in the prison system as people.

Probation and parole are also a corrupt system due to the profit incentives to collect fines and fees, and the corrupt nature of these officers to exploit desperate people who are just trying to survive. The prison and parole/probation systems recidivism rate are so high!  Their job and promotions should be ranked based upon how few people go back to prison; the idea as that we want them out of a job eventually.

This would take a massive culture and political shift in this country, the lip service and small gestures will not do it, and we must be prepared to fire a lot of people who are not doing their job correctly, because that is what happens in professions; you lose your job if you are not doing it.

This is my translation of defund the police, and if you still feel the system is doing a great job, I wish you well.

Dr Flavius A. B Akerele III

The ETeam