Over 50, Out of Work, Open to Change

Kenneth Zuerblis, the former CFO of ImClone Systems, just turned 50 and is out of work — and he could not care less. If his unemployment lasts for four years, he says, he won't be bothered at all.

Such a carefree attitude is a luxury that many other "in transition" finance executives in their 50s and 60s cannot afford, the stock-market plunge having devastated their retirement savings. In the case of Zuerblis, money is not an issue, which is why he says he is being "extremely picky" with potential employers.

And why not? That mindset worked the last time he was looking for a job, starting in 2005. That was when he left Enzon Pharmaceuticals, where he had headed finance for 13 years, a wealthy man thanks to a huge spike in the company's stock price and, hence, the value of his equity-based compensation awards. Zuerblis looked around ultra-carefully for the next lucrative opportunity, which turned out to be with ImClone in early 2008. (This was several years after the wide-ranging insider-trading scandal that earned ex-CEO Samuel Waksal a long prison term, and eventually led to jail time for media celebrity Martha Stewart.) 

Zuerblis's ImClone gig lasted less than a year, during which the CFO helped engineer the company's November sale to Eli Lilly for $6.5 billion — a figure that translated to a premium of about 70 percent above the price at which ImClone's stock was trading. Three months later, once again he left his employment with his bank account generously fattened.

Now he's back in the job market, talking to contacts about opportunities and keeping his ears open. But there is no rush. "I've had two very big winners, and I'm not willing to jump into something that would hurt my reputation on Wall Street," he tells CFO.com. "It's going to take a long time to find, I think."

For Zuerblis, a golden reputation trumps advancing age, no contest, when it comes to job search. "At 50, a reputation like I have is great," he says. "If you didn't have that, 50 is not so great."

Unfair Hiring Practices?
Indeed, despite federal age-discrimination laws, there clearly is an unwritten age bias against candidates in their 50s and 60s, particularly out-of-work ones, most observers believe.

"Hiring managers may look down their noses at people 55 or older, because of the benefits costs being higher, or a feeling that a lot of time will be spent acclimating a person who will be gone soon anyway, or a preference for someone who can still move up in the organization and is still growing," says Terry Gallagher, president of executive search firm Battalia Winston.

Those who do find work, though, may be in a good position. Some percentage of the vast Baby Boomer population will retire on schedule over the next few years, and their replacements, Generations X and Y, are much smaller in number. "You're going to see companies extending retirement ages to 70 because of the intellectual capital these people have accumulated and the dearth of people behind them to pick up the rope," Gallagher says.

In the meantime, the going can be rough. "If someone is going to discriminate against you because of your age, you just have to deal with it," says Jack Heyden, a partner at Grayhair Management, a career coaching and outplacement firm that specializes in assisting people with more than 15 years' work experience. Regardless of age, he notes, the key to landing a job is to convince a hiring manager that you are the person best able to fix whatever problem needs to be fixed.

Bound to the Windy City
Not everyone of a certain age feels discriminated against, though. One Grayhair client, Alan Milasius, says he has seen nothing to make him think that companies view people his age, 55, as past their primes. "It's not like I'm 75," he says. "I'm not pessimistic about getting something, even in this economy, although it may take a little longer."

Milasius's experience suggests that he would have much to offer the right employer. From 1997 to 2006, he was senior vice president and director of audit operations for Chicago-based LaSalle Bank. For the last two years of that stretch, he additionally served as global manager of quality assurance for LaSalle's then-parent company, the Dutch bank ABN AMRO. Before that, at First Midwest Bancorp, he variously filled the roles of audit director, due diligence manager, corporate secretary, and insurance risk manager. That followed nine years in public accounting with Arthur Young. Milasius has both a CPA and an MBA.

When ABN AMRO put LaSalle through a restructuring phase in 2006, he found himself downsized out of his job. He says he always wanted to try being an entrepreneur, so he spent a couple years attempting to get his own executive coaching service off the ground. Ultimately, the income stream wasn't enough, and he started mounting a job search in January.

Milasius's strategy includes working with Grayhair to sharpen his message to employers, and expanding his network, largely through LinkedIn, the online business networking service. He says he spends 30-35 hours per week on networking, including two full days most weeks in downtown Chicago devoted to in-person meetings with new contacts, and "has gotten nothing but positive response." About 10 more hours per week are spent evaluating job leads furnished by Grayhair and responding to job-board postings.

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LinkedIn Company Connections:

• ImClone |
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• Eli Lilly |
• Battalia Winston |
• Grayhair Management |
• LaSalle Bank |
• ABN AMRO |
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• Financial Executives Networking Group |
• Tatum LLC |
• Brunswick Corp.