The Gerontologist
Vol. 49, No. 3, 317–332
doi:10.1093/geront/gnp031

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.
All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
Advance Access publication on April 17, 2009

Managing Age Discrimination: An
Examination of the Techniques Used When
Seeking Employment
Ellie D. Berger, PhD1,2
Purpose: This article examines the age-related
management techniques used by older workers in
their search for employment. Design and Methods: Data are drawn from interviews with individuals aged 45–65 years (N = 30). Results: Findings
indicate that participants develop “counteractions”
and “concealments” to manage perceived age discrimination. Individuals counteract employers’ ageist
stereotypes by maintaining their skills and changing
their work-related expectations and conceal age by
altering their résumés, physical appearance, and
language used. Implications: This research
suggests that there is a need to reexamine the hiring
practices of employers and to improve legislation in
relation to their accountability.
Key Words: Ageism, Hiring practices, Management
techniques, Older workers, Unemployment

It is widely recognized that the Canadian population is aging, and as a result, there are a wide
number of social and economic changes expected
to occur in the coming years. In particular, changes
in the domain of work will be considerable as individuals aged 45–65 years are estimated to represent close to half of the working-age population by
the year 2015 (Forum of Labour Market Ministers, 2002). Mandatory retirement was eliminated
in Ontario in 2006, and thus, increasing attention
has been paid to the aging of the workforce by
both lay and academic audiences. In fact, the Canadian government has been trying to encourage
older workers to remain in the labor force longer
1
Address correspondence to Ellie D. Berger, PhD, Department of Sociology, Nipissing University, 100 College Drive, North Bay, Ontario, Canada P1B 8L7. E-mail: ellieb@nipissingu.ca
2
Department of Sociology, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario,
Canada.

Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

through various policy changes (Policy Research
Initiative, 2005). Despite these changes, the average age of retirement in Canada has been decreasing from 64.9 years in 1976 to 61.4 years in 2005
(Conference Board of Canada, 2006).
Further, industries in Canada, such as manufacturing, have had large layoffs in recent years and
switched their focus to more contract and parttime work, which leaves older workers with little
protection under employment standards law and
employment insurance (McMullin, Cooke, &
Downie, 2004). In fact, it has been recognized that
recent changes in the Canadian economy have led
to the need for workers to be geographically, occupationally, and industrially mobile as well as invest more heavily in job searches, training, and
education (Secretariat for the Expert Panel on Older Workers, 2007). Thus, displaced older workers
face the most challenges due to their lack of mobility, education, and training and due to the existence of age discrimination. These factors cause
older Canadian workers to have a reduced chance
of ﬁnding reemployment once unemployed. Further, older workers take considerably longer than
younger ones to ﬁnd work once unemployed due
in part to the existence of age discrimination
(Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2000; Walker,
2002). In fact, as age increases, so does the average
duration of unemployment for working-age Canadians. Individuals aged 15–24 years spend an average of 7.9 weeks unemployed, those aged 25–54
years spend 17.9 weeks unemployed, and 55- to
64-year-olds spend an average of 22.8 weeks unemployed (Statistics Canada, 2007). This ﬁnding is
similar to that in the United States, where individuals aged 16–19 years spend an average of 11.2
weeks unemployed and those aged 20–24 years
spend 14.4 weeks unemployed on average (U.S.

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Bureau of Labor Statistics: Division of Labor Force
Statistics, 2007). This pattern continues, where
number of weeks spent unemployed increases as
age increases, and 45- to 54-year-olds spend an
average of 21.2 weeks unemployed and 55- to
64-year-olds spend an average of 21.9 weeks unemployed.
Therefore, despite the growing number of older
individuals and policy changes that encourage
them to remain in the workforce longer, labor
shortages will still occur due to their tendency to
retire earlier (both voluntarily and involuntarily
due to discrimination) and to their poor retention
and recruitment. Although an increasing amount
of research has been focused on policy changes related to the aging workforce and quantitative studies examining employers’ attitudes toward older
workers (reviewed subsequently), there is a lack of
research on how various policies and practices
(both positive and negative) affect older workers.
Speciﬁcally, little is known about the hiring practices of employers from the older worker’s perspective and how these practices inﬂuence older workers
when searching for employment. Therefore, the
purpose of this article is to examine older workers’
perceptions of employers’ attitudes toward them
and their management of these (mostly) negative
attitudes.
Literature Review

Employers’ Attitudes Toward Older Workers
Employers’ ﬁrst impressions of older workers
are often based on stereotypes—“mental pictures
of people based on their membership in a group”
(American Association for Retired Persons [AARP],
1994, p. 8). Although research suggests positive
attitudes toward older workers on certain dimensions (knowledge, experience, honesty, dependability, work ethic, mentoring, and stability;
Berger, 1999; Marshall, 1996; Walker & Taylor,
1998), they are perceived negatively in many other
areas. For example, studies indicate that employers believe older workers are less ﬂexible, in poorer
health, less creative, less interested in technological change, and less trainable than are younger
workers (Chiu, Chan, Snape, & Redman, 2001;
Guillemard & Walker, 1994). In addition, older
workers are seen as being more prone to accidents
and staying with the company for a shorter period
of time as compared with younger workers. Older
workers are also viewed by employers as less
productive and less able to engage in physically

demanding work than younger workers (Henkens,
2005).
Although most of these stereotypes have been
disproved in the literature, employers continue to
believe many of them and often make their hiring
decisions accordingly (Berger, 1999, 2004). The
key reasons that employers cite for not hiring older
workers relate to beliefs concerning their lack of
computer literacy, followed by lack of other appropriate skills, lack of appropriate qualiﬁcations,
and difﬁculty adapting to varying work settings
(Marshall, 1996). Employers’ stereotypical attitudes have also been linked to poor opportunities
for training, promotion, and retention of older
workers (Chiu et al., 2001). Another study that
speciﬁcally examined the relationship between employers’ attitudes and their behaviors toward older
workers also found a direct association between
the two in relation to hiring, training, and advancement opportunities (Taylor & Walker, 1998). Further, Taylor and Urwin (2001) found that older
workers participate less than younger workers in
employer training programs due in large part to an
age bias in employers’ decision making. In addition, stereotypical attitudes of employers have been
tied to negative views concerning the retirement or
retention of their older employees (Henkens,
2005). In fact, employers who have less personal
contact with older workers have more negative attitudes toward them than employers who have
more personal contact with older workers. This
could suggest that although employers may be
positive toward older workers already employed
by their organization, they are negative toward the
recruitment of new older employees. Employers’
attitudes toward older workers also vary signiﬁcantly according to company size, employers’ age,
and employers’ gender, with older female employers from smaller companies displaying the most
positive attitudes (Berger, 1999).
Although there is a growing body of literature
on employers’ attitudes toward older workers,
there is a lack of research that examines older
workers’ perceptions regarding ageism. However,
according to a national American work and career
survey of more than 2,500 individuals aged 45–74
years, 80% of individuals who are searching for
employment feel that age discrimination exists in
the workplace (AARP, 2002, p. 66). Also, 15% of
older individuals feel that they were not hired for a
particular job because of age (AARP, 2002, p. 13).
Findings from the survey speculate that older
workers’ perceptions about age-related barriers to

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reemployment are a reality due to the increasing
number of complaints about age discrimination
made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In fact, between 2000 and 2002, complaints increased by 25% (AARP, 2002, p. 14).

Managing Attitudes and Behaviors
Concepts that are taken from the symbolic interactionist framework are used in this article to
gain a meaningful understanding of individuals’
motives, behaviors, and interactions (Blumer,
1969). In this perspective, individuals are seen as
having agency and as engaging in mindful interaction and self-reﬂexive behavior. Therefore, individuals act, they do not simply respond, and they
make choices within the constraints of the broader
social context. Under the symbolic interactionist
umbrella, Goffman (1959, 1963) has demonstrated
the importance of stigma, identity, self-presentation,
and impression management through his dramaturgic perspective. The concept of stigma refers to
“an attribute that is deeply discrediting” (Goffman,
1963, p. 3) and results in discriminatory attitudes
and behaviors being directed toward the stigmatized
individual. More recently, the conceptualization
of stigma has been redeﬁned as existing “when
elements of labeling, stereotyping, separating,
status loss, and discrimination co-occur in a power
situation that allows these processes to unfold”
(Link & Phelan, 2001, p. 382).
In relation to identity, Goffman (1963) described three types of identity that are used in the
developmental process: “felt identity,” the meaning attributed to one’s own identity; “presented
identity,” the view of oneself that is projected to
others; and “social identity,” the meaning that
others attribute to the individual. He argued that
one’s presented identity can be altered to meet the
needs of any given situation. By using certain techniques, individuals actively control the image they
are projecting to others (presented identity), to obtain a desirable social identity. Goffman’s (1959,
1963) use of the term “impression management”
explains how individuals present themselves to
others by conveying certain images that they consider appropriate in a given situation. In this way,
individuals can manipulate the presentation of
themselves displayed to others and create a distinct
“deﬁnition of the situation” (Thomas, 1972) to
sway others’ perceptions of them in a positive direction. For example, in their sociological study of
the process of becoming doctors, Haas and Shafﬁr
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

(1991) discussed medical students’ “constant need
to create and manage the image of a competent self
through the process of impression management”
(p. 74). Thus, the importance of managing selfpresentations is a well-developed concept in many
realms of the sociological literature. With respect
to aging, research on older widows has shown
that to avoid being stigmatized and maintain a
positive identity, the women “suppressed” evidence of age (Matthews, 1979, pp. 74–75). “People have time allotted to tend to physical and
mental needs . . . to cover potential age stigma
signs, such as wrinkles or gray hair, by surgical intervention or hair dyes” (Luken, 1987, p. 185).
Thus, research suggests that individuals use certain
management strategies to avoid being classiﬁed as
“old” and being stigmatized by others.
Studies indicate that impression management
tactics are often used in the context of a job interview (Delery & Kacmar, 1998; Rosenfeld, 1997).
More speciﬁcally, Delery and Kacmar showed three
types of impression management techniques that
are useful in an interview setting: (a) entitlements
(taking credit for a prior work-related success), (b)
enhancements (making statements reﬂecting one’s
own positive attributes), and (c) self-promotion
(highlighting strengths in relation to those required
by the ideal applicant). Their research considered
the importance of applicants’ age in an interview
setting but only included participants with a maximum age of 38 years and considered age to be an
advantage in relation to having more experience
with the interview process itself. Other research indicates that individuals use impression management strategies when they perceive that discrepancies
exist between the feedback received in an organizational setting and their desired social identity
(Bozeman & Kacmar, 1997). When discrepancies
do occur, individuals acquire alternative techniques
to use and then wait for additional feedback, which
determines the future interaction between the participants. Accounts (Scott & Lyman, 1968) and
disclaimers (Hewitt & Stokes, 1975) are also used
in the employment context (Bozeman & Kacmar),
to avoid negative stigmatization and negotiate
identity in relation to past and future behaviors.
Thus, although previous research has not focused
on older workers seeking employment, it does suggest that certain strategies are particularly useful
for enabling individuals to focus the interview on
their strengths and positive attributes.
Despite these ﬁndings, there is a lack of research
that seeks to understand older workers’ experiences

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during the job search process. This article is part of
a larger research project, which examined the
meaning and import of age in the job search process (Berger, 2004). The majority of participants in
this project experienced ageism when looking for
work. The present article examines how these participants manage this ageism when searching for
employment. To do this, I draw on data from 30
semistructured interviews with older unemployed
workers. More speciﬁcally, this qualitative study
addresses the following research questions: Once
older job hunters perceive they have been discriminated against by potential employers, do they develop speciﬁc management techniques that they
feel help them in the job search process? Are these
techniques similar to the ones used by younger
workers or are there speciﬁc age-related techniques
that develop during the job search process?
Methods
This study used a qualitative methodological
approach that allowed for a direct examination of
older workers’ experiences in the job search process. The use of qualitative methodologies allowed
for the subjective meanings and interpretations of
my participants’ experiences to be revealed in a
way that is often not possible through quantitative
methodologies (George, 1990). This study also
used the grounded theory approach (Glaser &
Strauss, 1967) in an attempt to let the data generate the theory, and thus, initial research questions
were reformulated as the study progressed to better reﬂect the emerging data.
The data for this study were drawn from semistructured interviews with 30 unemployed individuals aged 45–65 years. Individuals became
unemployed for a variety of reasons, including
corporate downsizing, layoffs, or desire to leave
their previous place of employment. I also conducted 35 hrs of participant observation in three
older worker programs in the greater Toronto
area to help provide a context for older workers’
experiences. Human Resources Development Canada (1999) created these programs to assist older
workers in their job search process by providing
them with speciﬁc workshops to meet their needs.
These workshops covered topics such as interviewing skills, personality assessments, computer training, résumé writing, and speciﬁc sessions on
understanding the myths and realities of being an
older worker. I recruited most of my respondents
by attending these workshops (n = 20) and posting

recruitment advertisements in older worker programs (n = 4) and in employment agencies geared
to all age groups (n = 0). To obtain participants
who may not have sought out speciﬁc employment
assistance (anticipating that this may lead to distinct results), recruitment advertisements were also
placed in community centers (n = 1) and libraries
(n = 0) in a major Canadian city, in a monthly
newspaper aimed at individuals aged 55 years and
older (n = 3), on a university Web site (n = 0), and
through personal referral techniques (n = 2). To be
included in my study, participants had to be between the ages of 45 and 65 years (in congruence
with the deﬁnition of older workers given in the
majority of literature), actively searching for work,
and unemployed for 3 months or longer. (The stipulation that individuals must be unemployed for 3
months or longer was used because individuals unemployed for less than this may still be highly distressed from losing their jobs and may not have had
the opportunity to develop age-related management
techniques for their job search.)
The interviews conducted in this study lasted
from 45 min to 2 hrs. The ﬁrst 8 interviews were
conducted in 1999. An additional 22 interviews
were done in 2002 to expand the initial research
project. (As the unemployment rates were similar
in 1999 and 2002 [7.6% and 7.7%, respectively],
I do not believe that the economic conditions differentially affected participants’ ability to secure
employment in the two time periods [Statistics
Canada, 2004a, 2004b]. Further, due to the qualitative nature of this project and the related focus
on individuals’ meanings that were attributed to
their experiences, the fact that data were collected
at two different time points is not perceived to have
altered the ﬁndings of my study.) Prior to conducting the interviews, the study was approved by the
McMaster University Research Ethics Board. Interviews were held at a variety of locations (including
older worker programs, community centers, libraries, and coffee shops), depending on individuals’
personal preferences. A semistructured interview
format was used to guide the interview along several key areas, as well as to provide enough ﬂexibility for the participants to discuss issues freely that
arose during the course of the interview. The interview guide included questions on demographics,
employment background, perceptions of age discrimination, feelings related to these perceptions,
and strategies used to gain employment. With consent from the participants, interviews were taperecorded and later transcribed verbatim.

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The sample for this study included individuals
who varied by age, gender, marital status, ethnic or
religious background, country of origin, education,
income, and length of time unemployed. Just over
half of the participants were aged 45–54 years (n =
16) and the remaining ones were 55–65 years (n =
14). There was an equal number of men and women in this study and the majority of participants
were married (n = 16). The remaining participants
were divorced (n = 6), never married (n = 6), or
widowed (n = 2). In terms of ethnic or religious
background, the majority of participants indicated
that they were atheist or preferred not to answer
this question (n = 16). The remaining respondents
varied in their ethnic or religious background. The
sample was quite well educated, as the majority of
the participants had a college or university degree
(n = 19). In terms of participants’ personal income
before they became unemployed, individuals who
were comfortable disclosing their income were quite
dispersed among the income categories provided to
them in the interview, aside from the lowest income
category ($19,999 or less). Participants were also
asked their personal and family income level since
being unemployed; however, only a small number
of participants were willing to provide this information. The length of time that individuals were
unemployed also varied substantially, ranging from
3 months to 6 years. The most common length of
time unemployed for the participants was between
6 and 8 months. The occupational backgrounds of
the participants interviewed were quite varied. Occupational categories represented in this study included administrative, construction, consulting,
education, engineering, executive, ﬁnance, food and
service, health care, human resources, law, management, sales, marketing, and television and ﬁlm.

Data Analysis
The data were coded according to several key
themes, which were broken down further into
various subthemes and subcategories (Taylor &
Bogdan, 1998, p. 142). I used three stages to analyze
my data based on the grounded theory approach
(Strauss & Corbin, 1988). First, I used open coding and explored preliminary themes that emerged
from the data. I then used axial coding, which allowed me to create a framework involving these
themes and helped me to identify and link more
speciﬁc subthemes and subcategories. Finally, I
used selective coding, which involved conﬁrming
and reﬁning my initial set of codes.
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

This article is part of a larger research study containing six main research themes. “Management
techniques,” the focus of this article, was one of my
six key themes, which was broken down further
into three subthemes and nine subcategories. After
reading through the data and recognizing similar
statements from various participants in terms of a
pattern beginning to present itself, I created a
theme, subtheme, or subcategory. For example,
looking at the theme “management techniques” as
a whole, I began to notice some common strategies
that participants were using in an effort to ﬁnd employment. I divided these strategies into three subthemes based on “preparation for the interview,”
“impression management during the interview,”
and “alteration of employment.” I then more closely examined these subthemes and found that within
the subtheme “preparation for the interview,” various patterns began emerging, such as “physical
preparations” (related to appearance), “training,”
“résumé modiﬁcation,” and “mental preparations.” These became the subcategories. Two subcategories also presented themselves with respect
to “impression management during the interview,”
which I grouped into “clothing for the interview”
and “youth-oriented language during the interview.” Finally, the third subtheme, “alteration of
employment,” was broken down into the subcategories “alteration of employment goals,” “alteration of employment type,” and “alteration of
geographic location for employment.” I developed
codes (e.g., 1.1, 1.2) and recorded them on the
transcripts by hand and then I loaded the data into
the qualitative analytical software program QSR
NUD*IST (Non-Numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing). This program
allows researchers to code large amounts of text,
which can then be stored according to themes and
accessed easily in the future. Thus, once the transcripts were loaded into QSR NUD*IST, I entered
the codes I had created by hand so that when I was
ready to write about a particular subtheme or subcategory, this software would highlight these previously coded quotations.
To ensure trustworthiness of the data (Lincoln
& Guba, 1985) or accuracy of its interpretation,
several techniques were used. First, interviews were
transcribed verbatim by a research assistant, and I
then checked them independently for errors. Second, although I coded the data myself, themes that
emerged were shared with my peers and only ﬁnalized once this consultation took place. At that
point, a consensus was reached that these themes

321

accurately represented the data they were describing. Transcripts were also reexamined on several
occasions to conﬁrm accuracy of the themes that
initially presented themselves. Finally, I continued
to recruit participants until I felt that no new
themes were emerging and data saturation was
achieved (Patton, 2002). It is anticipated that by
using the methods previously described, the transferability of my ﬁndings (similar to external validity in quantitative studies) to other research
contexts will be heightened (Lincoln & Guba). In
addition, member checks, a technique that involves
the corroboration of preliminary ﬁndings with research participants, were used early on in my study
to ensure the credibility (similar to internal validity
in quantitative studies) of my ﬁndings. These member checks involved follow-up telephone conversations with several participants. During these
conversations, I suggested speciﬁc themes that
were emerging from the data and asked respondents if these themes accurately reﬂected their job
search experiences.

to offset negative stereotypes. These techniques involve participants attempting to counteract employers’ ageist stereotypes by maintaining their
skills and changing their work-related expectations. The second type of technique used by participants was “concealments”—strategies used to
hide speciﬁc information (i.e., age). These techniques, developed to conceal age, included participants altering their résumés, physical appearance,
and language used.

Counteractions
Skill Maintenance.—The ﬁrst age-related management technique used by respondents to counteract employers’ negative attitudes toward them
involved keeping up-to-date with training. This
technique was used by the majority of participants,
slightly more often by women as compared with
men. Overall, they felt that employers did not want
to invest the money and time in training older
workers:
They look at a person and—this has been told to
me point-blank by human resources people—they
look at people as a monetary investment. They invest a certain amount of time and effort in training a new recruit—the higher level of the recruit,
the more expensive the time in training. And they
expect to get back ten times their investment, or
else it isn’t worth it to them to hire them. So if
they spend a year acclimatizing me, training me,
getting me integrated into the system, then they
would expect to get ten years of proﬁtable time
out of me. Now, if I am 50 years old, they look at
me as a poor prospect. Even at 46, they were looking at me as a very poor prospect. (man aged 52)

Results: Managing Age Discrimination
In the job-seeking process, participants felt that
prospective employers used various mechanisms to
discriminate against them that reﬂected negative
stereotypes with respect to skills, training, adaptability or ﬂexibility, and ﬁnancial costs. Further,
participants felt that employers examined their résumés in a discriminatory fashion (i.e., choosing
candidates to interview based on the year their degree was received or the number of years of experience they had), that the job interview was a
mechanism for employers to assess the age of job
candidates, and that ageist language was used during the hiring process. (For more detail on participants’ perceptions concerning age discrimination
in the hiring process, see Berger [2004].) As a result of these negative experiences, the vast majority
of individuals in this study developed speciﬁc strategies that they felt helped them avoid being stigmatized as old when searching for employment.
Although it is recognized that most individuals, regardless of age, use various management techniques during their job searches (e.g., wearing
appropriate attire, preparing mentally for an interview), the strategies that I refer to in this section
are management techniques that are related to age.
I have grouped these techniques into two categories. The ﬁrst type of technique used by respondents I refer to as “counteractions”—tactics used

Respondents kept their training current to avoid
being classiﬁed as “out of touch” by potential
employers:
Any training going on, I signed up for it, and I did
it. You know, when it came to computer training,
I was one of the older ones. Everyone realized it,
but I’m computer literate, so that’s not an issue. . . . I have also gone for all the training on
how to job search. They have my résumé, a follow-up letter, and the whole bit—doing it professionally. (woman aged 60)
I went to the University of Toronto to take some
courses to update my knowledge. I also go when
different organizations offer speciﬁc workshops
that I am interested in. (woman aged 56)

Despite the recognized importance of keeping
training and skills up-to-date, many of the participants were very frustrated with their current inability to pay for the training needed to obtain

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I have changed majorly since I took the training
[provided through the older worker program]. . . .
There were a lot of books available there. There
was a lot of advice given. . . . I went to the centre
and every day I learned something new. (woman
aged 50a)

employment and described a type of “catch-22”
situation during our interview:
I need the qualiﬁcations, but I need money to get the
qualiﬁcations, but I need the qualiﬁcations in the
ﬁrst place to get the job to have the money. It’s kind
of like a catch-22. It’s very similar to the 17-year-old
fresh out of high school who can’t get a job because
he doesn’t have any experience and doesn’t have
any experience because he can’t get a job. It is the
same kind of catch-22, only 35 years later. (woman
aged 53b)

Interestingly, what was previously considered an
advantage by participants—having job security by
remaining in one job for a long period of time—
was now something that they believed was hindering their job search success. To overcome this
newfound limitation, participants felt that they not
only needed to update their skills but they also
needed to mentally alter their expectations to ﬁnd
work. Participants’ changing expectations will
now be discussed.

If you have an education here [Canada] you can
reach whatever you want. But I have no money to
take courses to upgrade my education from [my
previous country of residence]. It is not a nice feeling. It is unpleasant and very difﬁcult. . . . I am
planning to learn more and get a Canadian license
but the problem for me is money. If I can get a job
and start to work, I will be able to save money and
get a license. (woman aged 45b)

There were three groups of women and four groups
of men who shared the same age in my study. To
distinguish between participants, I have used the
letters “a,” “b,” and “c” after their ages. A few of
the participants mentioned that they were doing
volunteer work, in the hopes that this would help
them gain reentry into their desired occupation:
We both [she and her husband] are volunteering
and always keeping busy. This allows us to improve our knowledge. . . . And I am reading every
day on the computer to improve my professional
skills. (woman aged 45b)
I have worked for two years as a volunteer. . . . I
am probably too chicken to get a [paid] job because I haven’t worked in a while. (woman aged
56)

Volunteering was viewed as a temporary (and
undesirable) solution to prolonged unemployment;
yet, participants felt that this would help them update their skills or keep them current and hoped
that it would give them the chance to get a foot
back in the door.
Another way that participants were able to update their skills was by attending workshops held
by older worker programs:
I never really used the Internet very much where I
worked ‘cause you know, you were busy with your
other things. . . . They [older worker program]
spent a lot of time on computer skills, like using
Word and getting on the Internet. (man aged 62)
I was advised to go for that [older worker] program. . . . I needed some updating in my computer
skills because the courses I had in computers was
from more than 20 years ago. (man aged 57b)
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

Changing Expectations.—Another way that
participants attempted to counteract employers’
ageist stereotypes was in relation to their workrelated expectations. Most respondents (men and
women equally) changed their employment expectations with respect to altering their original
employment goals, the type of employment being
sought, or the geographical location of the place
of employment. First, a third of participants indicated that they altered their original employment goals. Second, a majority of participants
changed the type of employment they were seeking (i.e., monetary remuneration, career change,
employment status). Finally, one third of respondents also considered geographical relocation to
secure employment. Although these mental strategies may be applicable to all individuals regardless of age, older workers have had to use these
management techniques to heightened degrees
due to the experience and higher salaries that are
often associated with advancing age. Thus, once
older workers perceived that their age was a barrier to reemployment, they soon realized that
they could no longer have the same expectations
they once had if their main goal was to secure
employment.
In terms of employment goals, although monetary rewards were viewed as important to a
degree, satisfaction and fulﬁllment with work
were seen as the primary motivators in seeking
employment by some of the participants in higherincome brackets. For example, according to one
respondent:
You know, I’m not an entry-level person, and I
don’t expect an entry-level kind of remuneration.
Not that money is the most important thing to

323

me—satisfaction to me is as important or more
important at this stage of my life than money.
(man aged 52)

never make that kind of money again. (man aged
50c)

This tendency may assist older individuals in their
job-seeking process, as employers often cite higher
ﬁnancial costs (associated with employee turnover,
salaries, and beneﬁts) as a reason for not hiring
older employees. Respondents described how they
came to this realization:
The end result for me is to ﬁnd a position. I’m not
ﬁnding a position. The end result of a company is
to make money. They think they are going to
make money off younger people better than they
are going to make money off an older person because they think that the younger person will be
with the company longer and is going to be able
to produce or beneﬁt revenue for a longer period
of time. It’s not true. An older person doesn’t
make the mistakes of the less experienced. So, the
learning curve is a lot shorter. But they don’t look
at that. They don’t look at the result’s line. (man
aged 52)

I am trying now to shift my focus. . . . I am trying
to diversify. . . . It has been very difﬁcult to get
interviews, so now I am trying to look into other
areas. (woman aged 50b)

Although a change in career was not their preference, many respondents realized that this sacriﬁce
had to be made at some point in their job search
process. Some individuals even deliberated between returning to their previous careers with lowered salary expectations and changing careers in
the hopes of achieving any level of ﬁnancial stability. This decision was not an easy one, as many
participants soon realized that once they left their
original career, they would have great difﬁculty reentering it at a later date. For example, one, woman who was a dental assistant explained her current
predicament:
I am looking into—I mean I’m not really sure that I
would be just as good doing other things and I’m
thinking why should I waste 25 years of training. . . .
I have set up a deadline for myself that at least by
the end of January if I do not get a job as a dental
assistant—I never thought I could think along the
lines and I’m still not happy doing that—but I just
might consider other jobs. . . . But then that’s where
the problem lies, that if you go into other things, it’s
that much harder to go back. If you go for an interview and the doctor’s asking you what you are doing and you say, “I’m in a bookstore” or something
like that—“So why are you applying for the job? I
can have 20 assistants that are actually assistants.”
So that’s the dilemma there. (woman aged 50a)

I think salary is a barrier because employers think
we expect more money. (woman aged 45b)

It follows that many of the respondents realized
that receiving the same level of ﬁnancial compensation as they had prior to becoming unemployed
was not necessarily feasible and thus lowered their
monetary expectations in relation to the type of
employment being sought. For example:
I know that I will take a lower [pay] rate to come
in [to the labor force]. . . . You just have to keep
going, you know. Lower your expectations, unfortunately, and just keep going. . . . It seems the
longer you’re unemployed, the more you can rationalize it. You don’t feel any better, but you just
sort of, like I said, you lower your expectations
just basically to get back into the job market.
(woman aged 58)

Expectations may also change in relation to the
status of employment that is being sought. Many
older individuals decide (voluntarily or not) to
work on a contract or part-time basis with various
organizations. For example:

Thus, job advertisements stating lower salaries, a
mechanism that participants believed employers
used to discriminate against them, would no longer be considered a barrier to these respondents.
Furthermore, after long periods of unemployment, many individuals begin to consider a change
in career or industry to gain reentry into the
workforce:
The frustration is immense because you keep
sending your résumés back out to the same people. . . . I’ve been about 18 months out of work,
and a couple of months ago I decided I’ve got to
switch this trade. That’s when I considered bartending. . . . Then I decided on this building
maintenance course. . . . But [it is hard] knowing
that no matter what industry I go into now, I’ll

I would accept part-time work, and at the moment
I’m doing some consulting work for a boutique; it
gets me out of the house. (woman aged 60)
There are some jobs that admittedly the salary is
not what I want, but right now, would I take a parttime job? Yes. . . . Right now I’m willing to listen to
any offers that come around. (man aged 62)

Although the security of full-time employment
was not present for these individuals, participants felt that they were able to display their
strengths to employers, which may ultimately
lead to more stable employment for them in the
future. Many participants felt that changing their
own “deﬁnition of the situation” (Thomas, 1972)
from unemployed to semiretired helped them

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accept a possible change in the type of employment
that was being sought. For example:

I’m willing to do practically anything to work
rather than not work. (woman aged 64)

I sort of call myself semi-retired ‘cause that
means that I could tolerate, say, a lesser job than
I had before. Like part-time work or something. . . . When I ﬁrst looked [for a job], that’s
what I told people—that I wasn’t anxiously
looking. Like when I say people, I mean the
neighbor I bump into on the street, or something,
wondering why I was home during the day. (man
aged 60)

Many of the individuals in this study were also
quite willing to move to another geographical location to ﬁnd work:
Don’t just depend on Toronto, Mississauga,
Brampton, or York, because there is nothing out
there. And you gotta have your mind made up to
want to leave your home and to be traveling wherever the job is. . . .You have to try all different
angles. (woman aged 59)

You know, I almost made up my mind that this is
semi-retirement, but I’m not ready for it, I’ll tell
you. (woman aged 60)

Individuals reconceptualized their status from unemployed to semiretired to provide a new and
more acceptable social meaning to their current
situation, similar to ﬁndings reported in the literature on displaced workers (McMullin & Marshall,
1999).
Despite making drastic changes in monetary,
career, and employment status expectations, participants were still unable to secure employment:
I’d like to have full-time but if like I could only get
part-time, well, I would do that, you know, in the
interim. . . . I’d take another job. Like I even applied at different places like IGA and Blockbuster,
you know, I would take something like that, you
know, just to be working and doing something.
(woman aged 53c)
I’m willing to try anything and I’m not asking
30 dollars an hour, what I used to make before,
I’m not asking that. I’m going to go for—how
much is minimum wage—six eighty-ﬁve? I’m
willing to start with that if the job is normal and
I’m capable of doing it. I’m not picky. I’m not
asking this kind of wages, minimum wage is going to do it. I’m going to be there. I’m going to
try. (man aged 56)

However, several participants noted that although
they would personally be willing to relocate to secure employment, they felt that the needs of their
families would best be met by remaining in their
current geographical location. For example, despite the hardships that they had encountered since
immigrating to Canada, some of the participants
felt that there would be better long-term opportunities for their families if they remained in Canada
due to the educational system or a general feeling
of safety and security:
I would have, you know, left the country [if] I
didn’t have the problem of my daughter studying
here. It’s only for her that I continue to stay here.
(man aged 57b)
We came to Canada because of the dangers of living in [my previous country of residence]. . . . My
husband was a big company director and I was a
medical doctor and now we are both unemployed
and on welfare. . . . We can’t ﬁnd work here. We
have been unemployed for ﬁve years—since we
have been in Canada. (woman aged 45b)

I’ve junk-mailed every employer out there with
my résumé—even survival jobs where I went to a
car dealer and wanted to be a lot person—you
know, park cars, take them in and get them
washed, vacuum them out, and that kind of
stuff—even to get minimum wage. And I can’t
even land that ‘cause they look at you and go—
“What is your problem?” You know, it’s just
tough. (man aged 46b)

Making these extreme changes in their expectations without success (i.e., securing employment)
was obviously quite disturbing to many of the
respondents. In fact, many of the comments
made by the participants conveyed both a sense
of desperation and a sense of adaptableness. For
example:
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

When I started my job search. . . . I placed that
restriction—my job search parameters—and then
realized it. I used to say, “I want only full-time
and I want it downtown.” Then I said, “I want
full-time but I’m willing to stay anywhere in
greater Toronto or contract in greater Toronto.”
So now it’s full-time, part-time, or contract anywhere in Ontario. . . . And this month I’ve
also begun sending résumés off to the [United]
States. . . . So now I’ve widened my search. . . . So
we’ll see. (man aged 62)

The changes in mental expectations described in
this section were deemed necessary by the participants to try to overcome some of the stereotypes
associated with being an older worker, such as
higher salary expectations. Unfortunately, making
these mental adjustments did not help participants
secure employment, so many of them felt that more
drastic measures were needed to conceal their ages
to potential employers. The analysis now turns to
these types of management techniques.

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Concealments
Résumé Modiﬁcation.—It should be recognized
that stereotypes can also be positive, and some of
the participants felt that they possessed certain
positive characteristics that are associated with being older. For example, the experience that comes
with age was recognized by one respondent when
describing her previous work situation:
I mean, there is no substitute for experience. . . . It
does make the work that much more efﬁcient; that
much more professional. Honestly, I think a lot of
people—say, my age—when they go to an ofﬁce
and see a person my age, they would say “Okay,
this person knows what she or he is doing. It seems
that they’ve been doing this for a long enough
time.” (woman aged 50a)

I changed my résumé somewhat to exclude the
number of years I’ve worked and said, “I have extensive [experience].” . . . Even though—I guess
now everybody who uses “extensive,” they [employers] say, “Oh. This guy’s got 20 plus years.”
(man aged 62)

Participants also indicated that they switched the
style of their résumés from chronological ones to
“functional” ones, where the importance of skills
rather than speciﬁc jobs or years in the labor force
is highlighted:
I changed my résumé around. I was using a chronological résumé at ﬁrst, but for the last four
months I have been using a functional one. (man
aged 50a)

While some participants tried to emphasize positive stereotypes associated with older workers,
such as loyalty and experience, many were not able
to do this due to a variety of reasons. For example,
assuming that age and experience go hand in hand
reﬂects a gendered bias in that most of the women
in my sample had less paid work experience than
did the men, due mainly to raising their children.
Thus, they were not able to highlight to employers
one of the few positive stereotypes associated with
older workers in the same way that men could do
so. See McMullin and Berger (2006) for more details on gender differences in the route to reemployment for older workers.
However, having experience can also be a negative thing:

I use a particular style of résumé that emphasizes
skills more than the number of jobs or length of
time that I have been in certain jobs. (man aged
50b)

Responses from the participants made it increasingly clear that “de-emphasizing age” was a strategy taught by personnel at the older worker
programs:
At the [older worker program] they helped me
modify my résumé—to de-emphasize age. . . .
They would tell us don’t give them [employers]
any more information, basically, than is necessary.
Like sort of just give them your last 10 years of
work, let them see you versus, you know, putting
down everywhere you’ve worked for the last 30
years or 40 years. (woman aged 58)
I was taught [at the older worker program] that
when you send a résumé, you don’t put the date
you graduated from school . . . or stuff like that.
So they really don’t know how old I am when I
send them the résumé. (woman aged 55)

To just look at my résumé, they know how many
years I’ve been in the business and they can sort of
deduct that I’m not 35 or 40. (woman aged 60)
You don’t know if they’re looking at your résumé
and looking at . . . like, ﬁguring you got all that
experience so obviously you got to be a certain
age, right? (woman aged 53c)

In the aforementioned examples, respondents
described how their extensive experience was
being used by employers as a way to determine
age from their résumés and subsequently identify
and select younger candidates to interview for
job openings. Therefore, most respondents felt
that they had to conceal age on their résumés
by eliminating some of their work experience,
number of jobs held, or the year a degree was
received:
I try to hide it [my experience]. Sometimes I don’t
mention my degree and that sort of thing, and I
only show the last ten years of work experience.
(man aged 60)

Thus, although some individuals may have eventually decided to alter their résumés on their own
using some of the techniques previously described, it was clear that the overt encouragement at the older worker programs was the
reason that the majority of adjustments were
made.
“Improving” Appearances.—Another way respondents felt that employers discriminated against
them related to the interview process. These individuals believed that after employers had the opportunity to see them during an initial interview,
they could immediately estimate how old they were
and only request second interviews from the
younger applicants. Several participants provided
justiﬁcation for this belief:

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The Gerontologist

What is quite interesting is that a friend of mine
who is 45 years old, about the same age as me and
who just got her degree, is getting more interviews
than me. She is only getting the ﬁrst interview
though. I am not sure if it is because the employers
assume that she is younger because of her recent
degree, but once she gets in there and has an interview, she is never asked back for a second interview. I am not sure if it is age per se, but that is
just my feeling. (woman aged 45a)

Therefore, he explained how he would dress a certain way for an interview in an attempt to “ﬁt in”
with what he believed was a young organizational
culture:
There are certain techniques that I use [in an interview] to seem younger. . . . I always wear younglooking clothes. . . . I dress in certain clothes that ﬁt
in with their company’s culture. (man aged 50b)

We [she and other older workers] get interviews
but not jobs. . . . When they [employers] look at
you, they decide. (woman aged 53a)

Thus, another type of concealment used by the majority of participants—by women far more often than
men—was to portray a “youthful” appearance to
potential employers. Several of the participants referred to physical preparations for the job interview.
For example, many men and women acknowledged
dying their hair prior to an important interview:
When I actually get an interview, . . . I dye my
hair. (man aged 50b)
When you look around you and you see the faces
getting younger and younger, you know you’ve
got to keep it up. Even if you can’t afford it, that’s
the one thing you need is your bottle of dye.
(woman aged 58)

Several men also considered using a toupee if they
were balding and shaving their beards to appear
younger, despite the fact that they did not necessarily agree with this or acknowledge that this was
their idea in the ﬁrst place:
They want to see me have a full head of dark
brown hair. Maybe I should go to Honest Ed’s
[discount department store] and buy a nylon toupee. That would improve my appearance, don’t
you think? (man aged 52)

Another strategy that respondents used to maintain youthful appearances was to make a concerted
effort to maintain their health. Thus, although many
of the participants encountered changes in their
mental health following experiences with age discrimination and prolonged unemployment (see
Berger [2006] for more detail on the psychosocial
consequences of perceived age discrimination), the
majority of participants were in good physical
health prior to becoming unemployed and remained
this way following unemployment. In fact, several
of the respondents felt that their physical health had
improved since they became unemployed. For
example, when asked to describe his health since he
had become unemployed, one individual explained:
My health has improved quite a bit because I’ve
got back into a running program. . . . My previous
job, you know, they wanted the 60-hour weeks. . . .
So physically I’m doing a lot better and my eating
habits have improved. (man aged 46a)

Other respondents expressed how they felt fortunate that they did not physically look “old” due to
their good health and thus felt they did not have to
alter their physical appearance to avoid experiencing age discrimination from employers:
I guess [in relation to] how I look—I really haven’t
had that kind of age discrimination. I think that
when I go to a [work-related] event I always look
good, so I think that also helps a lot. (woman aged
50b)

People say to me, because I’m bald, “Why don’t
you get one of these wigs?” or whatever you call
them, or “Why don’t you shave your beard?” I
have had my beard all of my life—since I was 20.
It was never a problem, so why is it a problem
now? (man aged 50a)

Appearance-wise I ﬁnd I’m okay . . . to be able to
say, “yes, I’m still capable of working; I don’t
have a cane yet.” (woman aged 58)

Similarly, several respondents mentioned that after
going to job interviews, they recognized the importance of “ﬁtting in” to an employer’s organizational culture, which essentially meant giving the
impression of being younger:

Finally, it should be noted that not all the participants agreed with modifying their physical appearance to obtain employment. Some individuals
actually were quite against this active age concealment behavior. For example:

I think that the organizational culture in an organization is very important. You need to ﬁt into the
company’s culture. Many companies have youthoriented cultures and they may only hire someone
who ﬁts into this culture. (man aged 50b)
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

327

I have grey hair and I refuse on general principle
to dye my hair. . . . I don’t want to cater to this. . . .
I can see the reaction of people to somebody who
has dyed hair—you know they dye their hair blond
or whatever—they tend to think of them as
younger and prettier and so on and I refuse to do
it. I’m stubborn that way. It’s costing me I know

What I talk about is really youth-oriented. I make
sure I discuss very physically active kinds of sports
and I mention various social groups that I have
joined. (man aged 50b)

but I don’t believe in catering to that. I don’t believe the color of your hair should be an inﬂuence
on how people treat you. (woman aged 53b)

It is clear that this woman felt very strongly about
not wanting to conform to society’s expectations
regarding her physical appearance; yet, she also
recognized that this conviction may be harming
her job search success.

Participants also realized the importance of using
certain “buzzwords” (e.g., in the sales ﬁeld, what
was once referred to as a “forecast” is now called a
“pipeline”) during a job interview to illustrate to
employers that they were up to date with the language being used in their ﬁeld. For example:

The “Right” Age Talk.—The last way that many
participants attempted to conceal their age was
by managing their outward portrayal during job
interviews through language. This was done by
either using certain discourse to reframe otherwise
undesirable conversations or using “youth-oriented”
language. Turning ﬁrst to reframing undesirable
age-related conversations, one woman said:
I was told that [I was too qualiﬁed for a position]
but I turned it around because I had so much experience or knowledge in ﬁnance that—I was applying for a job in mutual funds and I said “You
are getting kids out of school who don’t even own
them so how do you expect them to sell them.”
I turned it around. (woman aged 53a)

Many of the respondents explained how they managed to avoid or deﬂect discussions in which their
age could become known to employers and explained the importance of anticipating age-related
questions during job interviews to mentally rehearse
desirable answers:

The high-tech industry has so many different skills
and languages. Like, you have to be an expert. . . .
You’ve got to really move quickly and learn new
stuff. (man aged 46a)
I think the lingo has changed considerably. . . .
There are a whole slew of buzzwords that I am
sure are being used today by corporations that
perhaps a person that was trained 20, 25 years
ago understands but is not comfortable using because it’s not in their everyday vocabulary. They
were trained with a different sets of words. . . . I
think it’s a barrier. . . . As soon as you go into an
interview and you use your own terminology, you
date yourself—automatically, subconsciously.
(man aged 57a)

This participant went on to describe a whole list of
buzzwords that he felt were being used by individuals in his ﬁeld and in human resources more
generally:
We were just discussing a whole list of words yesterday [at the older worker program]. And they
were words that I personally had not seen, let’s
say 20 years ago. Such as “telecommuting” and
“motor-skilling” and “life-long learning” and
“career planners” and “dejobbing.” This is just on
the human resources side. . . . The same thing occurred in the marketing industry in a different
way. For example, you know, having “new enhancements.” That’s one way people would refer
to things. In the old days you would just call it,
you know, “increased sales.” . . . I do believe that
it would be useful to create, I don’t know, a whole
set of words, buzzwords, that are currently in use
in an industry that show involvement and progression—at least of terminologies. (man aged 57a)

I’m not saying falsify an image [during an interview]. Be yourself and be honest. But, again, depending on the questions, you know—“How old
are you?”—rather than respond—“That’s none of
your business”—I would have said something
like—“Well, I’m old enough to have 25 years of
experience in this business,” which gives them an
age bracket and it doesn’t affect me. “As you can
see by my résumé, I have 25 years [experience], so
you know I’m not 35.” (man aged 50c)
I try to verbalize what I’m going to say to them
[employers] because they seem to do this constantly …. I guess I just sort of prepare myself
mentally for these, I call them, stupid questions—
“What are your goals, let’s say ten years down the
road?” Well, I don’t have ten years left, you know.
So you have to verbalize what you are going to
say. (woman aged 58)

Another individual used some other buzzwords to
explain his difﬁculties in an interview situation:

Several individuals also engaged in what they considered to be youthful language. For example, one
participant explained the lengths he went through
to avoid being deﬁned as “out of touch” more generally in terms of current societal trends:
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Let’s say they [employers] describe a particular
position you have to do. . . . You have to meet
“revenue targets” and you have to “integrate pricing and portfolio managements” and “database
marketing” and you have to work “retention
strategies.” . . . . Unless you are able to repeat
these words that they put in their job description, you may sound outdated. You may sound
like you will not be able to ﬁt because you don’t
The Gerontologist

understand their terminology, which is not true.
You are [just] more comfortable working with
established business terms. (man aged 45b)

Thus, some of the respondents felt they were at a
disadvantage in relation to the language being used
in their ﬁeld after realizing that the lingo they were
trained with in the past was already outdated; being unemployed for a lengthy period of time complicated the matter. They found this quite
frustrating, similar to the catch-22 situation that
they found themselves in in relation to their skills
and training. Thus, individuals felt that the only
way to maintain a current lingo in their ﬁeld was
to be employed in it, and this was not happening
for them at the time of these interviews.
Discussion and Conclusions
This study explored how older individuals’ perceptions of age discrimination in the job search
process led to the development of age-related management techniques. Participants’ feedback on
seeking employment illustrated how age became a
discrediting attribute or stigma (Goffman, 1963),
which resulted in discriminatory attitudes and behaviors by potential employers. Using Goffman’s
three notions of identity, individuals began to feel
old (felt identity) when the image they were projecting to employers (presented identity) was perceived to be that of an “older” worker (social
identity). Because presented identity can be modiﬁed depending on social context, by using the
management techniques described in this article,
participants were actively controlling the image
they were projecting to others to present a more
advantageous social identity.
Similar to ﬁndings discussed previously in relation to impression management techniques in general (Goffman, 1959, 1963) and their use in the
organizational behavior literature (Bozeman &
Kacmar, 1997), once individuals perceived that a
discrepancy existed between the image they wanted to convey to potential employers and the feedback they received (perceived age discrimination),
the vast majority of them developed alternative
management techniques that were age related to
project a positive presented identity (Goffman,
1959) and avoid being stigmatized by potential
employers. For example, most respondents altered
their physical appearance to portray a more youthful image in a job interview setting to manipulate
their self-presentations and sway potential employers to hire them.
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

Overall, counteractions were used by participants more often than concealments. Looking at
all ﬁve types of management techniques, “changing expectations” was used most often, followed
by “skill maintenance,” “the ‘right’ age talk,” “résumé modiﬁcation,” and “‘improving’ appearances.” With respect to gender differences, in
descending order of use, women were most likely
to “‘improve’ appearances,” equally used “changing expectations” and “skill maintenance,” and
then used “the ‘right’ age talk” and “résumé modiﬁcation.” For men, the pattern of usage was
slightly different. They predominately used “changing expectations,” followed equally by “résumé
modiﬁcation” and the “right age talk,” “skill
maintenance,” and “improving appearances.” I
was surprised that there were not larger gender
differences in terms of the management techniques
used overall, but it is interesting to note that the
biggest gender difference appeared with respect to
the subcategory “improving” appearances. Aged
bodies are more commonly perceived to be a barrier to ﬁnding employment for women than for
men because youth is more often equated with attractiveness for women (McMullin & Berger,
2006). As many of the women in my sample had
come to this realization over the course of their job
search, most felt the need to alter their appearance
before a job interview.
Management techniques were developed by the
participants to combat employers’ negative attitudes in relation to their skills, training, adaptability or ﬂexibility, and higher perceived monetary
costs by staying up-to-date with their skills and
training and changing their work-related expectations. In addition, participants felt that employers
examined their résumés and chose candidates to
interview in a discriminatory fashion. After coming to this realization, individuals began to use
concealment tactics on their résumés that involved
eliminating the year that they received their degree
or reducing the amount of experience (i.e., number
of jobs or number of years in a job) displayed on
their résumés to gain a more competitive advantage in the job market. Similarly, respondents felt
that the job interview and language used by employers were key mechanisms for discrimination.
By altering their appearance or using speciﬁc language to mentally prepare for age-related concerns,
they felt a more youthful image was being conveyed to potential employers.
This study contributes theoretically and substantively to the literature by applying concepts

329

related to management techniques and the aging
process to older individuals who feel stigmatized
in their job search process. More speciﬁcally, in
relation to management techniques, previous researchers have argued that the following types of
impression management techniques have been used
in an interview setting: (a) entitlements (claiming
responsibility for a positive event that occurred in
the past), (b) enhancements (making statements
that reﬂect one’s positive attributes), and (c) selfpromotion (highlighting strengths in relation to
those required by the ideal applicant (Delery &
Kacmar, 1998). (Although this was not the
focus of my current investigation, I found evidence
that participants in my study were using all three
of the impression management techniques described by Delery and Kacmar. Many of them
made statements to me that highlighted their past
accomplishments, emphasized their positive attributes, and stressed how their work-related experience would beneﬁt them in a job situation. Further,
they explained that they would make similar comments to employers in an interview setting.) Findings from my study expand on the impression
management techniques described by Delery and
Kacmar. My research demonstrated that older
workers use these three techniques in a similar
fashion to younger workers. However, they also
use two additional techniques in an attempt to
combat age discrimination. The ﬁrst technique was
counteractions—tactics used to offset negative stereotypes. The second technique used by participants was concealments—strategies used to hide
speciﬁc information (i.e., age). The notion of concealment has been examined in the literature on
aging in relation to older widows who suppressed
evidence of age (Matthews, 1979, pp. 74–75).
However, the use of these management techniques
has not been applied speciﬁcally to age discrimination in the hiring process prior to this study. I anticipate that this contribution to knowledge can
also be applied to a broader area relating to impression management and aging more generally.
Both counteractions and concealments can relate
to behaviors that attempt to offset any type of stereotypes or hide any type of stigma, although further research is needed to demonstrate the utility
of these concepts beyond their applicability to older workers and the hiring process.
The ﬁndings from my research suggest that more
needs to be done to assist older individuals in their
search for reemployment; thus, I believe that additional interviews with older workers, employment

counselors, and employers themselves will greatly
enrich our understanding of the job search process.
These ﬁndings would help expand those presented
in this article, which could then be investigated on
a larger scale. A quantitative study that tests the
frequency that these management techniques are
used would expand our knowledge regarding structural barriers in the job search process. Examining
these strategies on a larger scale in future research
would help quantify the extent that counteractions
and concealments are being used by older workers.
This would highlight the magnitude of this issue,
which is becoming of growing importance due to
the aging of the workforce. This suggestion highlights the utility of combined research methods or
triangulation (Creswell, 1994). I suspect that the
insights into the lived experiences of the participants could only be obtained from qualitative
interviews; yet, to illustrate the applicability of the
themes I created beyond the participants in my
study, a larger-scale investigation is warranted.
Although gender was examined to some extent in
this article, the ways in which age combines with
other social structural factors such as race, ethnicity
or country of origin, and occupation in the job
search process need to be examined.
Another area worthy of future research relates
to conducting interviews with individuals who
found work immediately following unemployment
or those older than 65 years who are working past
the “typical” retirement age. This research would
provide insights into whether these individuals
have used the speciﬁc age-related techniques described in this article. This could lead to an exploration of lessons learned from “success stories” of
older workers who have succeeded in ﬁnding and
retaining employment, which could help unemployed older individuals avoid or manage encounters with ageist employers. Further, it would be
interesting to discover if these individuals are located in certain industries or occupations (e.g.,
those with less physically demanding jobs).
Next, longitudinal research is needed to follow
older individuals who experience prolonged periods of unemployment. Interviewing individuals
several times over an extended period would provide greater insight into the job-seeking process
and advance knowledge in relation to the amount
of time spent in each stage of the job search process. Further, both physical and mental health
could be assessed at various points in time to
observe speciﬁc changes and relate them to their
coinciding experiences with their search for

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The Gerontologist

employment. Thus, both long- and short-term
health of older workers could be assessed in relation to experiences with age discrimination and
unemployment.
Further research is also needed in relation to the
newfound contradiction that has surfaced during
my research. On the one hand, prior quantitative
analyses have demonstrated that employers’ attitudes toward older workers have become more
positive in recent years; yet, on the other hand, my
interviews with older workers suggest that age discrimination currently exists in the hiring process.
Although quantitative studies that document employers’ attitudes toward older workers are growing, there is little research that examines employers’
accounts of the hiring process. Therefore, qualitative interviews with employers would allow for
greater insight into the meanings that they give to
various experiences with older job candidates and
provide a greater understanding of their attitudes
toward older workers. It would also provide clariﬁcation in relation to whether employers’ attitudes
lead to the development of age-related hiring and
retention practices and policies.
In summary, research indicates that as a result
of prolonged periods of unemployment, older
workers are often considered to be “peripheral and
marginal to the workforce” (Henkens, Sprengers,
& Tazelaar, 1996, p. 575). This is due in large part
to the existence of age discrimination in employers’ hiring processes. Thus, the current societal
norms that favor youth have created structural
barriers for older workers seeking reemployment.
However, despite the existence of these structural
barriers, ﬁndings from this study suggest that participants actively negotiate age-related strategies
and thus clearly have agency in the job search process. Although the ﬁndings from this study cannot
be generalized to all older workers due to the small
nonrepresentative sample, the sociological insights
gained contribute to knowledge of older workers’
job search process and provide a foundation for
further research into this area on a broader scale.
This research suggests that there is a need to reexamine the hiring practices of employers and to improve legislation in relation to their accountability.
The Conference Board of Canada (2006) has suggested that policy makers work with employers to
make age part of their diversity strategies; yet, this
is still not largely occurring. It is only by combating age discrimination on a broader societal level
Vol. 49, No. 3, 2009

that the age-related management strategies used by
the participants will no longer be necessary.
Funding
The research reported in this article was funded by a Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population fellowship, supported by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Byron Spencer, principal investigator.

Acknowledgments
I thank Dr. Carolyn Rosenthal, Dr. Margaret Denton, and Dr.
William Shafﬁr for comments on various drafts of this article as well as the
three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. In addition, many
thanks go to the participants in this study for sharing their experiences.

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Received November 2, 2007
Accepted August 13, 2008
Decision Editor: Nancy Schoenberg, PhD

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