By: Tonya Foust Mead

The main goal of this article is to offer a 'things to do list' for the over 40 crowd or over-educated entangled in the over-under-un- employed job market. It is a companion piece to the abstract and more philosophical advice posted earlier.  Refer to the  article here.

To Do List

1. Be open to re-invention. According to Ret. General Colin Powell, "nowadays, every one of our jobs is becoming obsolete. The proper response is to obsolete our activities before someone else does. "

2. Look at your job in a different way. Based upon your expertise, what could be done differently to reduce costs, increase margins and/or improve process flows, product quality and increase customer satisfaction?

3. Can you incorporate technology into your job? Will an informative website, discussion board, webcast, social networking, database or business intelligence improve your company's reputation, ease market entry, or live 'on the ground' information to research and development? Might you use the latest financial modeling software to find pockets of excess or cash cows?

4. Is the re-tooling of your current knowledge base an option to allow you to remain employed within your current industry, or must you undergo extensive re-training for skill attainment in a totally new field? Ask these questions of yourself, you may be surprised of the results.

5. Maintain a distinct competitive edge. So you've been asked to train the 20-year old rookie? Don't show resentment. Use this as an even exchange. What can you learn from the newbie? A new management technique, mathematical model, how to build a social networking site? Yes you'll help, but you'll want to be helped to. You'll also be a little vague about the tricks you've learned over 20-40 years. So you'll smartly hold back the goodies that took you years to acquire for yourself-- its the old survival instinct that needs to be kicked in about now.

6. See your responsibilities shrinking before your eyes? Look around, find another lateral high profile task to take on. No one needs to know that you are unhappy with the changes. Go with the flow. Consider it a blessing that you are still on the payroll, your title/position is still a line item on the budget-- for now. Make sure that when the time comes, you're ready to showcase your new accomplishments and contribution to the bottom line.

7. It's Hammer time- no. It is actually time to volunteer, serve on some boards. You've done your time, you may be considered an expert in certain circles. So, get out that rusty old networking black book, call old friends and acquaintances. It's too late to network when blood is out there and the sharks are smelling easy prey.

8. Get with it. Not hip to the times yet? No one likes a 40-60 year old acting 20; but let's face it, the more you know about current events, technology, the latest fads-- the easier it is for you to condense this information, consolidate it into your daily life and shed the dinosaur image that has been falsely placed upon you.

9. Serve as the company’s resident expert on why things will work and why they won't. If you have longevity in a business, use it to your advantage. This is the opposite approach of the newbie brown-noser. Be the critical, contrarian, the devil's advocate. Every successful, vibrant organization needs one. You've earned the time, now hopefully you've got the cojones to speak out and speak up.

Think this will hurt you? no it just might save your job and/or at a minimum, restore your self respect. Ret. General Colin Powell agrees with Xerox's Barry Rand, 'if you have a yes man working for you, one of you is redundant."

10. Be your own person. The good thing about aging is that it gives you the wisdom and where-with-all to tell people to "go to blank, I don't give a blank" when you can't take it any more.

Tonya Foust Mead, PhD, MBA, MA www.ishareknowledge.com is a consultant specializing in human behavior, school and social psychology. She can be contacted at: tonya@ishareknowledge.com