Expect Success!
The Science of the Over 50 Career Search
The career guide Expect Success! forwards valuable advice for midlife job seekers.
Bill Humbert’s Expect Success! is a practical business guide that forwards career search tips for those older than fifty.
This exclamatory text is both encouraging and given to a self-starting tone. It aims to counter the grief of job loss scenarios that occur in midlife. It addresses contemporary challenges like company closures, layoffs, and Covid-19 issues, suggesting tactics like fighting fear with action, tapping into networking, and sourcing hidden positions. Its chapters are well organized, with instructive steps and lists.
The book also includes a psychological exploration of the challenges facing job applicants over the age of fifty, including a sense of disconnect after company reorganizations and acquisitions. A strong sense of sympathy is imparted for those dealing with altered work places. Humbert draws on personal experiences to support this work, which is also peppered with other examples, as of a man who expresses shock and feelings of betrayal after being dismissed following thirty-three years with one company. These anecdotes are contrasted with accounts of successful consultations with other midlife job seekers, which are followed by complementary recommendations, as of doing away with the belief that applicants are owed a position.
The text includes concrete statistics to support its claims, including regarding the numbers of unemployed US professionals, and about the low percentage of contented workers. However, not all of the book’s points are cited on first introduction. Some points repeat—a habit excused with a note that three repetitions are necessary for retention. This is true with recommendations such as to avoid focusing on negative unemployment numbers, maintain a positive attitude, and rethink discrimination perceptions regarding fifty-plus workers. The book suggests that job seekers also highlight their valuable experience in marketable ways.
The book’s standout suggestions include positive activities such as writing down one’s skills and attributes. It takes a clear approach to discussing and promoting one’s work experience, pinpointing challenges, analyses, results, and lessons learned in previous positions. Reminders about the benefits of storytelling during interviews, and about the options of pursuing a different career or starting a new business, are present to recalibrate entrenched thinking and enlarge the scope of one’s possibilities.
Meanwhile, details about basic marketing principles are used to underscore the importance of thinking about a job search as a sales process. And there’s a sample networking spreadsheet in the book; it serves as a critical guide for establishing personal contact with potential employers. The book’s discussion of revising resumes to include keywords from job descriptions is a wake-up call for those unaware of prevalent computer scanning to filter applications.
The career guide Expect Success! forwards valuable advice for midlife job seekers.
Reviewed by
Andrea Hammer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
