109: Mature Aged Student Nurses - Grad Success Series
Mature Aged Student Nurses - Grad Success Series
In the nursing industry, there is a common misconception that being a mature-aged candidate is a disadvantage when applying for jobs. However, in this episode, I challenged this belief and highlighted the advantages of being a seasoned human in the nursing industry.
I addressed the myths surrounding age and experience in the field, arguing that ageism is not prevalent in the industry. Instead, I emphasized the value of life and career experience for mature-aged job applicants.
In conclusion, the nursing industry needs to shift its perception of mature-aged candidates and recognize the unique strengths and skills they bring to the table. Make sure to listen to the full episode as I offer valuable insights and perspectives on how to harness life experience and maturity as a superpower in the nursing career.
Key takeaways:
02:42 - Addressing the Myth of Being "Too Old"
06:14 - It is your Superpower
07:19 - Transferability of your Skills
11:55 - Moving Forward as a Mature, Seasoned Human Being
15:22 - How to Sell Your Skillset and Stand Out as a Mature Job Seeker
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**This transcript was automatically generated using Descript.**
There are people that are like 90, that feel 12, like it's just a number. It literally is just a measure that we made up at some point in. So don't make that mean anything about you. Don't make that mean that you are less than or incapable or disadvantaged, or it's gonna be harder.
Yeah. Maybe it, things do take a little longer to learn. Maybe you are a little slower than you used to be. That's just part of being human Hello, and welcome back to the High Performance Nursing Podcast with the Graduate Nurse Success Series. I'm very excited today to talk to you about being mature, aged, or as I like to put it, seasoned, seasoned human. Right. So let's talk about why being mature aged is your superpower and why there is so much misinformation out there around age and being mature aged as a student nurse, e n, rn, and why?
I actively choose not to believe any of it to be true. let's dive in. Alrighty. So the first thing I want to talk about is some of the myths that you've probably heard. So you've probably heard a lot of misinformation online in the industry and on your placements in the hospital setting. Right? And a lot of it comes down to this whole idea that if you are somebody that's not 21, you're mature-aged, and that you are too.
Quote, unquote, too old to be joining the industry and that it's just gonna be so much harder for you to get your dream job. And that , panels, they really do favor the young nurses because they're just easily influenced and easily molded and you know, they can't be bothered taking anybody that's got their own opinions and yada, yada, yada.
Are you feeling me? Have you heard this? Have you even maybe thought this or believed this to be true? Hopefully today I can give you some behind the scenes perspectives and some optional thoughts for you to carry forward that will hopefully influence your beliefs about your ability to succeed because you my friend have a unique superpower, and it is life.
Life experience, transferability of skill, maturity, commitment to your work, resilience. All of the things, whether you agree or not, it is there and that is your unique superpower. That is what sets you apart from the other people that are applying.
Now, let me address these myths before I. This idea of being too old, right?
Like too old for what? Who says I'm too old? Obviously you don't believe that to be true cause you're training and you're killing it and you're doing the work. Amazing. Remember saying, I'm too old. Or hearing other people saying, you're too old to do something, is their problem. If you internalize that and absorb that as your own belief, then that's your problem to deal with.
And we've gotta work through that so that when you go to the interview, you're not sitting there. Oh my God, everybody in the room is like 12 and I'm 40. What am I doing here? Am I in the right place? Am I gonna be disadvantaged? Because remember, our thoughts create our results. So we don't want to introduce any of these thoughts into our brain that are not gonna serve us and move us towards our goals.
Now I hear a lot of people say the panels want youngins. They want the, that's what we'd say in Scotland Youngin. We want the young folks to come in because they're really easily influenced, they're coachable and multiple, and they haven't really stepped into the world of life yet. You know, they're still quite early in their career, but I mean, I disagree.
the generations coming up now. They like know what they want. They're super clear. They are sitting in a place where they're like, hold on a minute. No, I'm not putting up with this. They're resistant. Okay. All of these things are amazing, by the way. I love all of them, but it's not factually true that everybody is the same number one, and it's not factually true that.
Like young people. I've sat on a lot of panels and I have never, ever heard ageism come into the conversation. Never. Not even subtly. And I've seen a lot of posts online recently. This is what triggered this, and I've been meaning to do one of these. I've had lots of messages about doing a mature age student podcast, so I wanted to do it, but I've seen a lot of messages online where people really buy into this narrative.
And they're so triggered by it and they really believe that young peoplehave more advantages over people that have more years on them. I don't understand that method or logic of thinking. I don't believe that to be factually true. Most people in the industry that are in senior positions are older.
Isn't that evidence there to prove that? Maybe the opposite. I'm not here to debate that or discuss that to date, but I want you to start getting curious about this. I, for one, have never sat on a panel. I've sat on panels for grads right up to,cncs. And NUMS. I have never heard. Age being brought into the mix.
There's never been a subtle little conversation off to the side like, oh, they look a little old. Doesn't happen. Okay, we're not allowed to do that. And we also, on the other end of the spectrum, don't go well, not just too young. I mean, I've probably maybe heard that version more than I've heard. They're too old.
Ever have I heard that? So here's the thing. People will always tell you that one time that somebody said something like that, it's like a bad restaurant review, right? You go to 50 good restaurants. How many people do you tell you go to one bad restaurant? How many people do you tell there's been evidence to prove that you tell more people when you have a negative?
So just keep that in mind. Same with our patients. When they come in, they have a negative experience. They're gotta tell more people about it. Most people don't say, I had a beautiful time in the war. It's, no, they'll tell you all the bad things.
So now that we've covered a couple of those myths, I want to dive into why being mature aged is like the thing. You need to be screaming from the rooftops to show the panel why you're perfect for this job. Okay?
So number one, it is literally your superpower. Why? Because you have developed life. And professional career experience.
This is not your first rodeo. This is not your first job. And employers like that, they especially like looking at applications even in this day and age, looking for consistency and commitment. And growth, right? So if you're somebody that's had lots of work, lots of jobs, that's not a bad thing at all. I've had over 15 frigging jobs and I'm not, I don't consider myself a mature age.
So it's what you make that mean. And trust me, the panel. They look for consistency. They look for commitment. But if you are a mature, age seasoned human being, you will have that through your work history. So that is the first thing. It is great. It is your superpower. I want you to start thinking about it in a way that it serves you, because it's what will set you apart from the person who is.
2021 who's applying and they've worked at Macee, which again, by the way is incredible. But I'm helping all of you on the spectrum of the human experience and the age spectrum to see what really makes you unique and different, and you all are unique and different.
The second thing that I want to talk about is the transferability of your skills.
I don't care whether you're 21, you worked at McDonald's, and whether you are 50 and you've worked in, legal in law firms for your whole life, I don't care what that is. Your job is to find the transferability in those skills. People often say to me, but my work is so far removed from nursing, know it's not.
Every job requires you to communicate. Every job requires you to use some form of it. Every job is about building rapport and connection, and networking, and troubleshooting, and problem solving, all of those things. Or nursing one-on-one. That's what we do day-to-day run. So I want you to really get curious and think about the transferability of your skills.
And this again, is what will set you apart as a mature age student that will make you more employable, more appealing, more irresistible to the employer. So have a look at what you've done in your life up until this point and think about how can I communicate this in an empowering way that shows how I can bring all of.
Over Now, one big mistake, there's a top tip I'm sidetracking here that most mature, aged, seasoned humans, complicate their applications with is. Adding everything. Putting everything in there like every course you've done, every description of every role that you've done, all of the things. Cause you think all of it's important.
And that's something that we dive into deeper in the GCLP because it's really important that we look at, if you've got 15, 20 years experience, we want to then be really critical about what we put in that two to three page resume to sing and sell your skillset. Okay? Make sure that we're not wasting space for things that are not transferrable and.
Okay, so that's transferability. It is your point of difference, and it's something that you should lead with. And the reason why is because I mentioned earlier it's about maturity. It's about that mental and emotional resilience, right? It's about just exposure to trials and tribulations. And we've all had a fair share of that, right?
But the more years you have, the more you've seen, the more you've done. So I think it's really important to acknowledge that and also bring in any of your personal experiences in the hospital. Community, private sectors, aged care setting to help influence how you communicate and sell yourself as you move forward.
So really looking at it as a strength instead of a weakness. And of course, you're bringing all of those life skills with you, right? It's not like when you become a nurse at 50 that you forget the 30 other years of work experience that you have. you're bringing all of those things, so the employers gonna benefit from that.
It's like an added bonus. I want you to think about it like this. Yeah. I'm a nurse. Three years I'm here. I've had my placements, I've done my a thousand hours. I'm ready to rock and roll, but fyi. I also have all of this other experience, and this is where mature, aged, seasoned human beings then move forward and they tend to progress a little quicker if that's what they want in their career.
For example, I worked with a nurse, a couple of years ago. She was a graduate nurse. She came in, she thought to herself, there's another myth by the way. She thought, I've gotta come in. I've gotta put in my five years, I've gotta do X, Y, and Z. And then I'll finally get there and I can do this. And I said, no.
Who's told you that? It's Rapish. Who told you that? Let's have a look at your skills and let's see what we can do. So she was at the end of her graduate year, she had spent 15 years working as a carer in disability nursing. and we saw it and we went, oh my. Why don't you apply for this senior role?
You've got 16 years of healthcare experience, not just one. And whether or not like your job prior to nursing, directly relate. It doesn't matter. Think about it through that lens, right? We work with a lot of people that are moving industry from like hairdressing, vet nursing, maybe we've had a couple of people from real estate.
We've had people from law firms. We've had, or it escapes me now and of like flight attendants, right? Amazing. Over 20 years experience and customer service. Boom. That's incredible experience for a graduate nurse cuz the panel are gonna know that you can look after people with your eyes closed. You're just adding the layer of nursing to it, right?
You've already got these amazing foundational blocks that maybe other people don't have. So really lean into that transferability of life skills that you're bringing along and start telling a story from that empowered place rather than telling it from a place where you are lacking, right?
Or that there's a disadvantage. In every way, shape, and form. I see more advantages than disadvantages. It all depends on the way that you look at it, right?
So what can you guys be doing moving forward? Now that we've covered the myths and we've covered the reasons why, and they're just a couple of the reasons why you're fabulous and you need to really lean into that fabulousness to move forward as a mature, aged, seasoned human being.
what can you do? So number. You've gotta clear out your brain, you've gotta clear out your mind. You've gotta really get curious of the thoughts that you are practicing, believing about your age. I wanna put it out there. Age is just a number. I know people say that, and people say it's really easy for you and Sali, but age is literally just a number.
It's just a number number. There are people that are like 90, that feel 12, like it's just a number. It literally is just a measure that we made up at some point in. So don't make that mean anything about you. Don't make that mean that you are less than or incapable or disadvantaged, or it's gonna be harder.
Yeah. Maybe it, things do take a little longer to learn. Maybe you are a little slower than you used to be. That's just part of being human, right? It doesn't mean that you're not capable. It doesn't mean that you can't. It means that you've just gotta lean into it and really get curious about the stories you tell yourself about your age.
I was the other end of the spectrum when I first started. I was playing small because I kept telling myself, I'm too young. I'm too young. I'm too young. I'm too young to do this. I shouldn't apply for that postgrad. I'm too young. I need more time. I need more experience. Because the industry was reflecting that to me, and people tell me that I was too young.
You don't have enough life experience there. And at the time, I believed it to be true and I was like, hold on a minute. You don't even know who I am, Jane John, you don't know who I am. You don't know what I've been doing my whole life. You don't know what traumas I've gone through. You don't know what I've been tackling since I was freaking nine.
People don't know. Only you know, so you get to decide what you make that mean. And once I shed that skin and I stopped telling myself, I'm too young and I can't do this, I prepared myself forward. I was like, my age has got nothing to do with that. I was an incredible nurse unit manager at 28. I think I was great and I had great feedback.
Age is just the number. I want you to really lean into that and see it for what it is. Age is just a neutral circumstance in your life. It's the. It's just a number. That's it. Nothing more to it unless you make it a problem. Okay? so we're clearing up our thinking. I want you to start building belief in the reasons why you are incredible and why they should hire you.
Because here's what happens. Lots of people will collect all of the reasons why they won't be hired, but they do not even tease their brain a little bit with all of the reasons why they. So if you are someone that is not allowing yourself to think of all the ways in which you might be hired, that is your homework this week.
I want you to find all the reasons why. Grab a bit of paper, it's not rocket science. Write it all down and just be like right at the top. All the reasons why I would be or could be, or should be hired. And then just fill that whole page. Challenge your brain to find all the reasons why, because your brain will always find all the reasons why you can't.
Why? Because it's a safety mechanism. It's how we're designed to stay safe, stay comfortable. If we keep choosing to believe that we're gonna be disadvantaged, then in the future when we do get disadvantaged and we don't get the job, your brain's gonna go. I told you, sir. I told. It's your age, it's never gonna work, right?
But the opposite is true. You've gotta find that in your brain. You've gotta consciously create that for yourself. And then the last thing that I want you to do here is really think about how can you sell your skillset to the panel? I want you to again list that all of the reasons why you're fabulous and amazing and all of the things that you bring that make you unique.
All of the transferability, all of the life lessons, all of the, experiences that you bring that are just gonna compound the reasons why the panel should hire you. It's not enough in this day and age to just say, I've got a three year degree and I'm a nurse. Right. You have so much more than that. See how you can combine it all together and show them why you are perfect?
Make it impossible for them to say no, make it impossible for them to say no. And you do that by showing them very clearly why everything you've done up until this point, even if it's totally left field, even if you were a circus clan in Circus Dule for 20 years, and now you're becoming a nurse, there are things that you can take from that.
That. Show them why you'd be amazing. Think about it. Connection, performance, ability to communicate through your non-variable and variable communication, right? Building therapeutic rapport with a whole audience of 300 people. You can definitely do that with one person with six people. Connection to family and relatives, connection to the team, the culture, the comedy, the.
I'm just running wild here, but you see what I mean. There are so many things that you possess that you might not be seeing. Sometimes it's hard for us to see them and, that you want to uncover in this process so that when you apply, you are gonna blow the socks off, okay? If you are a mature, aged, seasoned, beautiful human being and you want all the help to come and make this happen, Come and join us in the G clp.
We would love to help you. We have helped many, seasoned human beings. I don't like signature H seasoned humans join us and they have come in and we work with them from start to finish. And we help you see what makes you unique and awesome. And we will craft your applications, your cv, your cover letter, your interview, questions and examples.
And then we will help you build belief in yourself cuz the belief is the most important. The belief is so integral to getting you over the line cuz remember what you believe you. Okay. And the panels will sniff it out. So if you are ready to rock and roll, dive in. We've got lots of programs opening as we move forward into the rest of the year, we are, we will sell out.
Our program will fill, and I want to invite you, whether you're a mature age or whether you're not a mature age. Come and join us in the G C L P and let's make your graduate dreams happen in 2023. With all the ease, all the confidence, and rinsing our brain of all of that crap around being too old or being too young, let's make it happen.
We'll see you in the GCLP.
