Bad Job Search Advice Commonly Given To Age 40+ Candidates In 2022

Some of the worst job search advice give to age 40+ candidates is also the most common advice given.

Chances are, you're probably using this advice, because you hear it everywhere. And every day it's causing you to lose interviews when you're qualified.

Hiding Your Age Through Specific Exclusion:?You've been taught to hide your age on your resume by excluding specific information, in an attempt to get through Applicant Tracking Systems and pre-screening. Specific Exclusion doesn't work and it causes you to actually lose opportunities. Here's why the most common Specific Exclusion tactics fail.

Hiding Early Career:?Excluding your early career on your resume causes employers to ask "what's he/she hiding - their age, or something worse?" Hiding early career is exactly what candidates do when they're trying to hide really bad things early in their career - stuff like theft, fraud, or jail time, firing, or a really bad exit. Even if the mistakes of your youth didn't land you in jail, it's dumb to make your resume look like you might have something bad to hide. Why would a recruiter, HR rep, or pre-screener recommend you for an interview, when it's part of their job to screen out potential problem employees, like ones who stole or landed in jail?

Hiding Graduation Year:?Hiding graduation year also makes an employer wonder what you're hiding, and could also indicate hiding really bad things (see above). It could also indicate that you didn't graduate, or didn't attend at all.

Why Is Such Bad Advice Given So Often?:?The reason you're given this bad advice is to avoid being screened out by ATSs that can be used to screen for a date prior to a target date, as an estimate of age. But what you haven't been told is that ATSs can also screen out candidates who exclude information (like dates) when expected. Even if you pass ATS screening, human visual prescreening can easily pick up specific exclusion - it stands out like a red flag.

Best Case Scenario:?You excluded information to hide your age and get a face to face interview. In a stressful situation, with a skeptical audience, do you really think you'll look 5, 10 years younger (or more) than you really are? It's even worse on Zoom interviews, that add 10 pounds to all of us. Most age 40+ job seekers can't fake their age successfully, but instead create a first impression of "What else are you hiding" and distrust. If you can't establish trust in an interview, you might as well not have shown up.

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.

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