Don Straits - Dragon Slayer

In my last post, I briefly touched on age discrimination and also mentioned some of the new career and business paradigms.  Here is a story about the new paradigms that just happened last week, and it is a real eye-opener.

Last week a recruiter friend of mine drove over from the Bay area to join me for lunch.  He told me of a challenge he faced.  He was asked to find a CEO for a company.  The Board of Directors instructed the recruiter to only present candidates under the age of 45!  Sounds like age discrimination pure and simple.  Totally illegal.  But let's dig deeper into the issue and the message it presents for senior execs everywhere.

The Board of Directors had been interviewing numerous candidates prior to hiring my friend to do the search.  All of the candidates were typically in their fifties. 

They were all asked the following question: 

"What is your experience in implementing and driving accelerated growth using organic marketing, social networking, tweeter, mobile marketing, SEO, SEM, and blogging? Please describe the products, coupled with the strategies and tactics you used to achieve success.  What problems did you encounter?  How did you solve those problems?  How would you implement those strategies and tactics within our organization?  What kind of resources, human and infrastructure, would be required to achieve success?"

The silence from the candidates was deafening.

The board wasn't looking to discriminate because of age.  They just wanted to find someone who knew the new business paradigms.

The recruiter had a simple solution to find the right candidate.  He wrote the job description to reflect those requirements.  The truth be told, very few senior execs could meet those requirements.  Yes, there might be some, but they are probably very gainfully employed because they are a valued, rare commodity.  The search which is just getting underway will attract young, aggressive, internet savvy executives who "get it."  All others need not apply.

The message to senior execs should be loud and clear.

I have tried to convey this message through this post and many others, but a day doesn't go by that an executive doesn't ask me:  "What is SEO?"  And then they wonder why they are having a hard time finding a job.

I was talking with that same recruiter today.  He is going to send me a senior advertising exec as a prospective client.  That exec desperately needs my services though he might not admit to it.

The recruiter said that the exec wanted to be presented for a high level advertising position in a medical company.  The recruiter couldn't do it.  The exec just didn't have the organic marketing skill set.  The exec was frustrated because "only young guys are getting hired today."

And so it goes.

Execs from 45 to 65 can survive.  They can find new challenging opportunities.  But they had better learn and adapt to the new paradigms and technologies or they will not achieve success.