📬 The Elite Edge – Week 52: ✂️ The Career Cliff: Too Young to Retire. Too Old to Hire?

🔥 One year in. Fifty-two weeks of corporate truths. So let’s end this cycle with one of the most uncomfortable—but critical—topics: age in the workplace.

🚨 The Cliff No One Warns You About

At 45, you’re “seasoned.”
At 55, you’re “expensive.”
At 60, you’re “irrelevant.”

Age bias is the last socially acceptable form of workplace discrimination. And it’s everywhere—finance, tech, healthcare, media.

The brutal truth:

• Too young to retire. Most can’t afford to stop working.

• Too old to hire. Recruiters assume you’re “not adaptable” or “not a fit.”

I’ve watched executives with 20+ years of impact get pushed aside—not for performance, but because they looked like the person who used to run the show.

🥊 My Playbook: How to Beat the Bias

If you’re in the mid-career “danger zone,” reinvention is your weapon.

1. Reframe tenure → reinventions.
   “30 years of experience” sounds stale. Try: “Three chapters: scaled X, transformed Y, commercialized Z.”

2. Signal future fluency.
   Show today’s skills: AI-driven workflows, automation ROI, sustainability wins.

3. Visibility is survival.
   One LinkedIn POV post a week. One panel a month. One podcast a quarter. Extend your shelf life.

4. Audit your language.
   Kill lines like “I’m looking for my last role.” Replace with: “I’m entering my next growth chapter.”

5. Energy receipts > assumptions.
   Prove speed: “Cut cycle time by 60%,” “Accelerated GTM in 90 days.” Metrics beat stereotypes.

💡 Corporate Truth

Companies say they want “diverse perspectives.” But they ghost candidates over 50. Age is diversity, too. Don’t let them sell you otherwise.

🌐 Big News: My Website Just Launched

You’re the first to see it. 🎉

👉 www.deepalivyas.com

Inside you’ll find:
✨ My mission and why I do this work
✨ How I can help you — from executive search to career coaching
✨ New ways for us to connect, collaborate, and grow together

Take a look around — it’s built to be a resource for you.

📚What I Read This Week…

📰 WSJ: More Americans Are Stuck in Part-Time Jobs They Don’t Want — a sharp look at the rise of underemployment. Even as headlines celebrate a “strong” labor market, millions are working fewer hours than they need, juggling instability, and feeling the squeeze. A reminder: the job count doesn’t tell the whole story.

📰 WSJ: The New AI Startup Founders — a fascinating look at who’s really behind the AI boom. It’s not just Stanford dropouts and hoodie-wearing coders anymore. Lawyers, consultants, and mid-career execs are spinning up AI startups at record pace, proving that reinvention is as much about domain expertise as technical chops.

🎙️What I Listened to This Week… (Podcasts)

😂 Meme of the Week

📸 Benjamin Button at a laptop
Job req: 20 years of experience.
Also job req: “We’re a young, scrappy team.”

🎯 Bottom Line

Your career doesn’t expire. Relevance does—unless you protect it.
You’re not too old to hire. You’re only too old to coast.

You’ve got the Edge. Now sharpen it.

See you next week,
— Deepali Vyas
Your Elite Recruiter
Doing the research so you don’t have to.

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⚡ Career Game Plan LIVE — Sept 21 @ 10AM ET  🎤

You asked for it. I brought it back.

📅 Sunday, Sept 21, 2025 | 10:00 AM ET
Career Game Plan LIVE

This isn’t fluff. It’s the real playbook for:
🔥 Rebuilding momentum when the market stalls
🎯 Landing impact-first interviews (and acing them)
👀 Designing a visibility plan that actually gets you noticed

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🔥This Week’s Elite Job Drops 🔥

These openings are under the radar — not on LinkedIn, not on job boards.
I’m sharing them here first, to connect top talent with real, unposted opportunities 👇

🔥 Elite Resources

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🔥 Forget Generic — Let’s Get Personal!!

• My Website

• Book a 1:1 Consultation

• Learn more about the elite recruiter through Deepali’s socials