Wait, is it my hair or something else?

A couple of months ago, I was invited to attend a workshop on reemployment strategies. Although attendance was voluntary, it was required if I wanted to continue receiving biweekly unemployment income.

So, on the morning of the workshop, I filed into the conference room of the local employment/unemployment office along with about 10 other presently unemployed job seekers. We all seemed to exhibit the same level of enthusiasm for attending the midweek, "voluntary" gathering. A mix of unemployed professionals were present: engineer, accountant, administrative assistant, marketing, public relations, etc. Although not asked to give our ages when doing the personal introductions, the attendees skewed toward the older, more experienced side of the age ledger based on appearances. 

The workshop was part of the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program, which, I later learned, provides “customized services to proactively assist claimants deemed most likely to exhaust their Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits."

---

Wait. Hol up! Most "likely to exhaust their Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits"? "Exhaust" as in before finding a new job?

I thought: I’ve been out here busting my tail for weeks since being let go from my previous job. I got skills. Something’s going to pop any day now. Yes, any day now. But what does the UI agency know that I don’t?

Is it my age?

I ask because the affable young career counselor, who facilitated the workshop, spent plenty of time discussing strategies on how to combat age discrimination, including:

• Keep the resume short and sweet; two pages tops. Remember to pepper in keywords from the job description.
• Avoid dating yourself by keeping the year you graduated from college between you and your alumni association. (Sort of reminds of some career advice for recent Black college grads that I heard years ago, which was to refrain from listing any organizations on your resume that would tip-off HR that you're Black.) 
• Work experience should extend back only a decade or so. It's what's most relevant for today's market. Besides, AI is doing most of the initial weeding out and scans for keywords.

That last bullet was my favorite. In other words, never mind your wealth of experience and the results delivered to illustrate your breadth of knowledge, strategic thinking, creativity, productivity and ability to change with the times. According to the roughly 25-year-old counselor (I have ties that are older), citing career longevity beyond 10 years or so is like talking about Y2K. What’s that? Okay, I’m paraphrasing her advice here a bit but you get the picture.

Upon concluding her uplifting presentation, the floor was then opened for questions.

“Yes, Mr. Campbell?”

“If, after doing the things to boil down my career accomplishments and I’m fortunate enough to land an in-person interview," I asked, "should I dye my hair black before going?”

Her immediate mute expression told me that she thought I was serious. No, I’m not dyeing my hair...again.

It wasn’t until I quickly added, “Because it’ll be readily apparent I’m not a spring chicken,” that the joke landed to the amusement of her and several classmates. And, no, she didn’t recommend a splash of Just For Men to improve my chances.

After a couple of other questions that I don’t remember due to my age, I suppose, class was dismissed.

Jokes aside, the career counselor addressed a very real issue – workplace discrimination – and it continued to nag at me. I was curious about what other advice she may have to offer. So, two days later I reached out to her via email: 

Hi, [Name].
Thank you for the useful information shared at the [date] workshop. You raised the issue of how to guard against potential age discrimination. Do you have similar ideas on how I might guard against potential racial discrimination in my job search?

Less than an hour later, she responded with the following:

Good afternoon Mr. Campbell,
I'm glad to hear that you found the meeting to be helpful and worth your time. Regarding racial discrimination, unfortunately, there aren't any strategies I can suggest aside from being honest. Most applications require race to be disclosed, and the most appropriate, and often the only option is to just respond truthfully. I hope that is helpful. 

Hmmm. Well, honesty is the best policy, I guess. On the applications I’ve submitted online, selecting a racial identification is optional. Still, I proudly check the box for Black/African American. And regarding answering “truthfully”? I’m not able to “pass” -- so that's out -- not that I would ever want to try. But I also found that piece of advice rather bizarre, to say the least.

Now, I’m sure some will wonder why I would ask such a question of the career counselor. She started it by making it clear that discrimination in hiring is real, but it may not be limited to ageism. Nor did she dismiss my question outright as if it were so last century. She simply had no other "strategies" to suggest. 

Moreover, the Trump Administration’s all-out assault on anything that even remotely smacks of diversity, equity and inclusion could have a chilling effect on the hiring and staffing decisions by employers, particularly those that rely on federal contracts and grants. That is, given a selection of candidates, an employer may be tempted to favor candidates who are perceived as a safer choice bypassing those who might attract unwanted scrutiny.  

Or for someone in my age bracket, is my grey hair the only physical characteristic I need to be concerned about? That is, of course, after I’ve scrubbed all the age-related telltales from my resume.