Age 40+ Wake Up Call You Get When You Hide Information On Your Resume

If you're over 40 and excluding resume information to hide your age, this is your wake up call.

This practice almost always backfires on you, creating a lot of risk for very little return. Selectively excluding information almost always causes you to be rejected for jobs when you're qualified.

Most career coaches, authors, outplacement advisors and resume writers advise excluding information to hide your age on your resume. These advisors will tell you early career and graduation dates aren't important, that they can be used to screen you out, or call it an ageless resume.

The theory behind this is that dates can be used as a way to screen out your resume.

While it's technically true that Applicant Tracking Systems can be used to screen out resumes with a date earlier than a target (to estimate your age), but very few employers actually do this. In reality, screening out due to dates leaves digital evidence of age discrimination, so HR departments won't take the risk of getting their company in hot water with the Department Of Labor.

But ATSs can be used to screen out resumes that exclude information (like dates) and visual resume screening catches date exclusion (it sticks out like a red flag). This makes your resume look like you're trying to hide something really bad (ex: really bad ex-company exits, theft, fraud, or jail time), because candidates trying to hide really bad things exclude the same information to hide their past mistakes.

In the best case scenario, you get a face-to-face or Zoom interview. But when you've given the impression that you're 5, 10, 20 years younger than you really are, you set an expectation you can't live up to in an interview. So instead of creating the first impression that you're awesome, instead your first impression makes the interviewer (or hiring manager) ask themselves what else are you hiding, since you've clearly been deceptive about your age. Employers don't hire people they can't trust, and it creates a common reason age 40+ candidates fail to advance, to be finalists, or to be hired.

I help people solve the most difficult job search problems, including getting past ATSs, ageism, remote positions, product/job function/career/industry/ geographic change, job search acceleration, unemployment, "bouncy" recent career path, job search turnaround, seeking raise/promotion, industry in decline/consolidation, long term gaps, family leave, or other of the most challenging job search issues.

Join me for my next free Resume Revolution! webinar (enroll at https://x.resumewebinar.com/register for no charge) to learn how to overcome tough job search problems, and accelerate your job search.

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