Today more and more resumes I receive have one major flaw. One that I would like to discuss which happens to be the topic of age. Who out there is advising job candidates to hide their age? Has hiding your age on your resume ever worked for someone? Listen it’s stupid to broadcast that you have 20 plus years experience, because all that’s saying is “hey don’t look at me”. Hiring authorities aren’t dumb so listing your first job as being the Controller isn’t tricking anyone to call you. What do you think goes through their head about that? “Oh the dude must be a prodigy” “WOW right out of school he was hired as the controller”. And oh yeah, the big kahuna is when you glance down at the education and the dates are missing. What’s that all about? Perhaps it was just an oversight? Certain dates we don’t forget LIKE WHEN YOU GRADUATE FROM SCHOOL!!! I am aware that there is a recession but this tactic is not going to help you.
So guys and gals listen UP because you are wasting your time. If you happen to get lucky because the HR person is brand spanking new and they call you to come on in for an interview. The gig is up when you fill out an application, or its when you trip over your cane in the interview room.
Listen, I know this is a serious issue and I’m trying to make light of it by pointing out the obvious that doesn’t seem to be obvious to some.
Age discrimination is without question a real issue, however it goes both ways. There are companies out there that want to hire older workers. In fact they prefer it! So use it to your benefit. Don’t play into it by leaving things out.
Tom Watson last week almost won the British open at age 59. I must admit I couldn’t believe that his age was all they talked about. I understand that competitive sports is dominated by the young, but Golf on the other hand??? Granted when you get older your not as strong and you lose some flexibility but after all it’s just a game. He can drive the ball as far as anyone he just needed to sink that 8 foot put. When these guys turn 50 they enter into the senior tour. Perhaps the work force needs a senior tour. Something beside being a Wal-Mart greeter or shelling out samples at Costco.
I personally believe that experience in the work force is more valuable than what a newbie has to offer, except a newbie comes at a cheaper price. Remember that your desire to earn more comes at a cost to the company you work for. From day 1 you and your company have different and conflicting goals when it comes to your income.
So what can you do about this situation?
Keep your resume short to no longer than 2 pages. You don’t want people falling asleep reviewing your resume so keep it relevant to your most recent jobs. Put your dates on your resume including your undergraduate degree. Be aggressive with following up on your resume with phone calls. Make sure that you have high energy when speaking with someone live. If your having resume tracking issues go sign up for MyJobCAST.com and start using it for FREE!
Stop making your age an issue. Make it your strength. Stay current with technology and all it has to offer. Do not avoid CHANGE! Embrace it and be flexible. Lastly, you need to understand that not every new job comes with a raise! You might want to start thinking about cutting your personal expenses and figuring out how to make ends meet with less. I would have to say that 99 out of 100 people do not realize how short careers are. More and more people think that their pay will continue to increase and all I can tell you is it doesn’t. Control what you can control and plan! Unless you work for yourself corporate America does have short term problems for long term careers.
This is excellent advice. Flexibility and creativity are critical when thinking about acquiring a job later in your career. Age and experience can be an issue, in part because younger (hiring) managers can be intimidated.
Just want to second that there are employers who prefer to hire “older” workers. At my nonprofit, we advertise broadly and will of course consider anyone that meets qualifications, but one angle is to keep our eyes out for someone in the last third of their career; someone who brings much experience, is not anxious to move to the ‘next good thing,’ and who might even retire with us.
As a business development manager in a creative staffing firm in NYC, we see, hear and epxerience ageism and it’s undertones. It is our job to provide the best candidate for the job, no matter what year they graduated.
Since we primarily focus on the freelance market we do recommend that candidates list only their last ten years of experience with dates and anything else as “other clients include:” or “other experience”. We NEVER suggest lying on a résumé. We encourage people to keep their portfolios current as they are, or should be, a living extension of yourself. Gone are the days of the black vinyl portfolio with acetates. Your book should be crisp, clean, minimalist and well thought out, coupled with well layed out PDF or easy-to-navigate web site. No piece that is dated should be older than 4 years old. Your résumé and personal presentation should reflect those principles. These fundamentals can apply to any industry. Your stories should be to the point, your presentation focused, your listening skills crisp. Practicing these priciples will not only make you ageless, they will make you a stand-out.
I like the ‘playing to your strengths’angle. Certainly, experience and honed skills will serve you well at this stage. And, reality checks regarding salaries is a necessity, especially during a recession.
On the other hand, sometimes the energy and enthusiasm that comes with newbies is hard to resist.
Your advice is right on, so then when it comes to advertising your graduation dates or other age revealing information, what if anything should that person add to offset this issue?
You’re right in that mature candidates should stop making age an issue and focus on what they can offer but there is no harm in simply minimizing the attention to the age. When 1970′s dates are plastered all over a resume, my focus does tend to shift. I suddenly pay less attention important details and inadvertantly start critiquing the resume and think “Don’t they know better?” I see their marital status. I see their hobbies. I see church activities. Who cares?!?! Tell me about your accomplishments. Tell me about how you can add value to my organization!
I’m a dissenting voice. Truth in advertising: I am not a recruiter.
1. Knowing that you are an older worker and knowing exactly how old are two different things.
2. Expectations matter as much as age–I let the internal recruiter and/or hiring manager know two things:
a. I plan to retire in 10 years, so they think, “Oh, he’s 55,” which automatically shaves at least 5 years off my age–and I have them tell the hiring manager.
b. I am upbeat and dynamic but I cannot change the effect of time and gravity on my face.
If I put the year I graduated high school or undergraduate college, I lose that advantage of shaping the expectations.
I also weed out those managers who are uncomfortable supervising Daddy because I don’t want to waste my time on a recruiting trip to see them nor do I want to report to them.
Jeff, you bring up a great topic regarding how to broach the age issue on a candidates’ resume. Medical sales has always been thought to be a “young man’s game”. However, medical device companies have been burned in the past by young “job hopper mercenaries” who seem to use every new medical sales job as a springboard for the next, more highly-compensated job.
At my web site a medical deice sales job board, we always recommend that all candidates’ resumes reflect their actual job history, without regard to attempting to fudge on the age factor. They will prevail for the right company.
Hi Jeff, Thanks for the post. A buddy and I were discussing the exact same thing the other day. As soon as you walk into a room, everyone and I mean everyone will notice your age unless they have blinders on and have their head in a hole. It’s reality. Like you said, dont run from it and use it to your advantage. I just wish we could fast-forward some of these narrow minded infantiles and give them a picture of them in a few years and see how it feels. I’m OLD, seasoned, experienced and wouldn’t have it any other way except one way. I would stop the timer right now. Lets be real, if we love life, we dont want it to drain from us quicker than possible. Just stop me right here at 57. Good enough for me. Ha Ha..Dreaming. Take care.
Mike
Though removing all dates may not be appropriate the preparation of a skills based, rather than cronological, resume will be of great help to the older candidate. The first page of the resume gives a sumary of skills, experience and acheivements relevant to the job your are applying for. It is specifically tailored to each role, allowing the older candidate to pick the relevant bits from thier wealth of experience. Dates reside on the second page of the document, and if you havent grabbed the attention of your audience by the time they get there you are wasting your time anyway!
I partly agree with your thoughts, but partly disagree as well. I am a headhunter and am in the position of marketing candidates to hiring managers frequently. Some things you can get away with, some you can’t.
On the subject of skills based resumes – those scream that a candidate is trying to hide something… age, work history flaws, etc. I would strongly recommend that anyone who actually wants to land a job stay as far away from a skills based resume as possible.
The bottom line is that as far as the interview is concerned, yes, an age lie will be detected very quickly. However, a resume shouldn’t be focused on giving every detail about your job history up front. It should be focused solely on making a hiring manager interested in finding out more about you. As one adds more ‘flaws’ to one’s resume (a lot of managers would consider advancing age a ‘flaw’), one must add more things to counter the perceived flaw. Accomplishments do wonders for this if they are targeted to the position you are working.
2 things that I have found NEVER work –
1. Talking about when you are going to retire up front doesn’t seem to gain traction with managers I have encountered. It just makes them think about someone older who is dreaming of retirement already.
2. Overkilling on experience – If you have already done the job you are applying for, but 5 or 10 years ago in your resume, it is important to make sure that you’re not overwhelming the manager with too much experience. If they are hiring a sandwich maker at Subway, most likely they won’t be interested in someone who has been the district manager for the past 5 years. I see a number of candidates who take desperate measures feeling that they can’t find something at their level and are willing to move backward – THIS IS THE WRONG APPROACH!! You will do much better in an interview saying “I’m an experienced district manager who happens to be older” than saying, “I’m a district manager who is willing to be your sandwich maker if you’ll just give me a chance to prove I’ve still got it.”
Finally, back to the resume, the best thing you can do for yourself is to make the longest resume you possibly can… including every achievement you can think of, every job responsibility you’ve ever had no matter how small, and keep it as a word document on your computer. When you look at a specific position, pull up that long long resume, look at the job description, and build a resume for the position you are applying that will a. show you have the skills they are looking for, b. will cause the manager to want more information, and c. is honest, but not asking for marriage before the first date. If you can’t make a resume, using recent positions, that covers the skills they are looking for in the job description, then move on. You won’t get the position anyhow and will waste time and frustration.
Interesting discussions and very thought provoking. The one thing that I believe to be prevalent with the “experienced” work force which hasn’t been mentioned to any extent is this: Corporate America has given us the axe due to our higher (and well-deserved) salaries we have earned over time. They bring in the “junior” associate with far less experiece and therefore “lesser salary requirements” to save money in this downed-economy. Sadly, it is a form of age discrimination and while the author makes many excellent points about keeping current and not making age the issue – the reality is jobs are scarce at these levels, for the salaries we were used to attaining. Thank you for the opportunity to make this point and good luck to everyone in their search.
Age has and will always be an issue when you have Human Resources departments in a “younger” age catagory. Many will follow the job description as the “Bible” and when it says “7-12 years” they consider may believe that is the Gospel. As a former HR Director I saw if many times with my staff and would have to counsel them on spending time looking at job stability, communication skills, level of education, relevent industry experiences, etc. I’ll take experience and attitude over education and age any day of the week.
Frank Gregg
GREGG & Associates
This is a curious post – for multiple reasons.
You are encouraging people to provide their real age, and in the same breath, you say: “Listen it’s stupid to broadcast that you have 20 plus years experience, because all that’s saying is “hey don’t look at me”.”
So based on your experience, someone who is 42 years old (i.e., college educated with 20 years of experience) is too old to be hired? This is rediculous. You’re feeding the fire with this attitude.
Additionally, if someone has been in the workforce for, say, 25 years, he doesn’t really need to talk about his job right out of college because 1) that experience is quite irrelevant, and 2) as you mentioned, the resume gets to be too long. So removing jobs and positions from 20+ years ago is not necessarily a sign of hiding your age, rather a matter of practicality.
Keemia, Actually putting 20 plus years of experience really is one of the dumbest things a job candidate can list on a resume. Without spending a lot of time explaining why that is it’s just from what I have seen from 10 years of owning an executive search firm.
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Your blog provides good advice, but made me concerned because I received advice from a head hunter to show my years of experience. I also received positive feedback from other head hunters and business associates.
Can you provide more insight as to why this isn’t a good move? By the way, my industry is Advertising. Thanks.
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