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Over 40 and not getting callbacks?

You're likely making a few costly mistakes without even knowing it.

In this live episode, J.T. breaks down why experienced job seekers get filtered out, and the mindset shift that gets recruiters reaching out to you.

Bring your questions and join us live!

Date: Wednesday, August 12th, 2026
Time: 2pm ET

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If you're over 40 and job searching, or you know someone who is and they've been out of work six months or longer, they need to hear this. Save this, send it to a friend, and let's get into it.

In the last two weeks alone, 32 people over the age of 40 joined my coaching program. When new members join, we run every one of them through a program we call Jumpstart. This is where we take a hard look at what they've been doing in their job search up to that point. We look at the resume, LinkedIn profile, and current job search strategy. Then we sit down and fix it together.

And here's the thing: there are four mistakes almost all of them are making. So I thought I’d share these mistakes with you and what you can do instead to be more successful in your job search.

If you're exclusively job hunting through job boards and applicant tracking systems (ATS), I need you to understand something. Right now, you have about a 0.4% chance of getting an interview that way. Finding a job that way is almost as hard as winning the lottery.

And meanwhile, you're customizing every resume. You're spending hours on cover letters. You're doing everything "right" by the old rules, and getting zero results. If you're over 40, applying online alone is not going to get you hired. I've talked about this before, and if you need a refresher, you can read more here. Just know: it's not you. It's the system. And you need a different plan.

This one stings, but stick with me. So many of the resumes that land in my inbox were clearly written by a resume writer who has never worked as a recruiter. They're built to make you feel good about your career. They are not built for what a recruiter actually needs.

They're packed with text. They're formatted in fancy ways most ATS can't even read. And the overall effect is that you look like you're trying too hard, like a jack or jill of all trades, instead of the exact match a recruiter is looking for.

Recruiters aren't rewarded for reading 400 resumes; they're rewarded for finding four people who look like an exact fit. Anything on your resume that makes you seem overqualified, too expensive, or not quite right, and you're out.

So once you're over 40, the mindset has to flip. Pare it down. Simplify it. Make it so a recruiter can skim it in seconds and think, "They've got what I need. Let's get them on the phone."

I've created a lot of free content (learn more here and here) around LinkedIn’s algorithm change that happened within the past year, because it’s heavily impacting how people are getting hired. There's a new search tool that allows recruiters to search for candidates like never before. And the way you get found by the people using this search tool means you need to build your profile in a very specific way.

There's also something else going on behind the scenes: recruiters compare your resume against your LinkedIn profile to check if the two line up, because so many job seekers have started lying to make themselves look better. If your story doesn't match across both, that's a red flag. You need to understand how all of this works, or you won't even make it into the search results in the first place.

This is the big one. Honestly, it's the biggest mistake on this list. You don't have a posting and commenting strategy on LinkedIn. Being an engaged member on LinkedIn is your new networking strategy.

You don't need to go to another networking event or industry mixer again if you don't want to. There's a 24/7 networking tool sitting right in your pocket called LinkedIn, and it's free. But you have to know how to use it.

That means showing up consistently in a way that tells LinkedIn exactly what industry you're in and what skills you bring. You're not trying to become an influencer. You're building what I call a credibility footprint, documenting your knowledge so the algorithm knows how to match you to opportunity.

When you get this right, you start showing up in front of recruiters who have jobs that aren't even posted publicly. That's the goal. That's when the messages start landing in your inbox instead of you chasing job postings into a black hole.

This is the work I get to do with my team at Work It DAILY every single day, and it's my favorite part of the job. People go through Jumpstart, they work our content plan, they meet with me and our coaches, and then it happens: recruiters start reaching out about jobs that were never posted anywhere. Because trust me, companies are still hiring. They've just stopped posting, because posting doesn't work anymore either.

If you made it this far, here's my invitation. Join Work It DAILY. We have a monthly membership, with unlimited coaching and support covering everything I just walked you through. 

It is the most powerful, effective thing you can do for your job search right now if you're over 40. Head to workitdaily.com, sign up for the premium membership, get instant access, and start with Jumpstart.

Go get ‘em!

J.T. O’Donnell

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