Both older and younger job seekers need extra help when it comes to finding meaningful work in today’s market. Less than 50% of those over 55 have been re-employed since losing their jobs in the recent recession. At the same time, more than 50% of recent college grads remain unemployed or under employed.

Graduate to a Great Job: Make Your College Degree Pay Off in Today’s Market shows that aging Boomers can learn from the experiences of their children when it comes to effective job searches. Here are five lessons older job seekers can use.

1. If you think you won’t get a job, you probably won’t!

Today’s job market is so competitive that you can’t succeed with this kind of negative attitude. Gen-Ys who are successful are relentless in their efforts and do everything they can to stay positive about the long-term outcome. This means, first, setting realistic expectations. Today the average job search for a new college grad is about eight months. Many Boomers don’t understand how dramatically the job market has changed in recent years.

The fact is the economy is not growing nearly fast enough to absorb both the younger and older people looking for work. This means competition is much more intense for what jobs there are. Like new college grads who succeed in finding a good job, unemployed Boomers also need to develop realistic expectations about how long a successful job search could take. In the process, you must also use every trick in the book to stay positive about the outcome.

2. Being uncertain about what you want to do is the new normal.

In my case studies of 30 “successful” recent college grads, more than 50% finished school not knowing what kind of job they wanted. Given the changing nature of the workplace – more virtual, global and technology-driven – a lot of aging Boomers are also unsure of what kind of job they want next. That’s because their old career has probably become unsustainable. Both Gen-Ys and Boomers need to be prepared to invest time and energy figuring out specifically what they want to do and where hiring managers will value their contributions. Organizations today have no interest in job candidates who are not clear about why they’re applying for a specific job. You must be able to articulate the strengths you would bring to a position. The shotgun approach of spraying out resumes is a total waste of time for job seekers of any age.

3. Experience – What’s your sweet spot? Gen-Ys can’t have enough, and boomers often have too much

Employers in all sectors are looking for experienced candidates who can hit the ground running. This is the biggest change for new college grads. Employers often won’t hire Gen-Ys without experience. And usually the only way to get it is through unpaid internships, which are replacing entry-level jobs in many organizations.

Older job seekers have a different problem. They need to find situations where their experience will be viewed as an asset, not an expensive liability. “You spend your whole career trying to get enough experience, then you wake up one day and you’ve got too much,” said one 59-year-old lawyer in my study Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? To find those situations, unemployed Boomers need to identify organizations who will let them volunteer to demonstrate their value and fit with the culture. Face it, very few companies are comfortable bringing in a 55-year-old intern. Bottom line: while Gen-Ys are struggling to get experience, older job seekers must be creative in how they package and present what they know how to do.

4. Master new job search technologies – what you don’t know will keep you unemployed

Ironically, lack of technology knowledge is now keeping Gen-Ys, as well as Boomers, unemployed. There’s technology to “do a job” and technology to “get a job.” They’re different and you need to know both to compete in the job market. Ironically, my research shows most Gen-Ys don’t understand how to use technologies to their advantage in job searches, even though they seem tech savvy. Like Boomers, for example, Gen-Ys have to learn the tricks of using LinkedIn to identify potential employers, specific individuals to network with, and to research interviewers before meeting with them. Both older and younger job seekers are also likely to be ignorant about the demands of “applicant tracking systems” (ATS). This technology is now used widely by organizations to screen your resume and to determine whether you even get considered for a job interview. Most people don’t know how to adapt their resumes to get through these systems. LinkedIn and ATS are just two of the growing list of technology tools job seekers of all ages must master.

5. Network, network, to get work.

Probably the hardest thing for Gen-Ys to learn is how important networking is for their job search success. Those who land great jobs today learn to build and leverage networks in ways they never imagined. The problem for many aging Boomers is they have let their useful networks atrophy over the years. They are also likely to be missing the personal connections needed to succeed in new fields they want to explore. And Boomer’s networking skills have gotten rusty. For job seekers of any generation, no skill is more important than effective networking in today’s market.

Boomer and Gen-Y job seekers face some different challenges because their skills sets, levels of experience, and perceived long term potential for an organization. But both are finding job searches particularly difficult. While their starting points are different, each generation can both gain useful insights from the experiences of the other in learning what it takes to be successful in the post-recession workplace. For more on Boomer challenges, download my free study Buddy, Can You Spare a Job? The New Realities of the Job Market for Aging Baby Boomers.