How Your Age 40+ Resume Smells Like Deception

You're not alone ... most age 40+ job seekers have been taught to make this mistake.

The reason why your resume will almost always smell like deception when you're over 40, is because you try to hide your age on your resume. Outplacement, most career coaches/authors, and most resume writers encourage this deception, telling you it will help beat ageism. This rarely works because it's based on a misunderstanding of how employers screen for age, and your deception is easily caught.

Employers can smell the stench of your age deception in a number of different ways ... here's how:

1. ATSs Can Screen Out Deceptive Resumes: Employer resume screening databases can be used to screen out resumes that exclude information, like dates, where they are expected.
2. Stands Out Like A Red Flag To Readers: By the time a recruiter, HR rep, or hiring manager gets to the part of your resume that shows your early career and education (the things you hide), they're now paying attention and reading every word. When you exclude dates it's a red flag to someone who is used to reading resumes. Also, it's part of recruiters'/HR reps' jobs to screen out candidates who are hiding information.
3. Makes You Look Untrustworthy: Your readers can see that you're hiding something, but they don't know why. But guess who else hides information early in their careers? Candidates who are trying to hide jail time and other really bad things also create gaps, and hide them by excluding dates - You're presenting yourself in a similar way.
4. Ruins Your Interviews: I've never yet seen a candidate that can pull off a 5 year age difference in person (and it's worse on video), certainly not 10, 15, or 20 years. When your resume gives employers the perception that you're younger and then you show up ... and you're not ... it almost always ruins your interviews, because you can't build trust when you're caught in deception.

You can do better and you need to do better to find a great job when you're over 40. Let me show you how to change your resume so that it gets employers excited, because they see you as one of the top candidates.

Good thing there are much more effective ways to beat ageism than being deceptive in how you describe yourself, when you're in your 40's, 50's, even 60's.

During my next free Resume Webinar, Beating Job Search Ageism, I'll show you different resume/interview/job search strategies that will help you sell yourself more effectively. I'll teach you how to make age your superpower and employers will clearly see that you're worth higher compensation than younger candidates. No matter what your compensation requirements, I'll show you how to prove to employers that you're a steal, compared to the impact you can deliver.

When we're done with that, I'll teach you other ways to overcome age bias, so you can accelerate your job search so much, you can find your next job faster, easier and more successfully in 2025 when you're 40/50/60+.

Join me Thursday morning 2/27/25 at 11:00am ET/8:00am PT or Friday morning 2/28/25 at 11:00am ET/8:00am PT for my free Resume Webinar - Beating Job Search Ageism (enroll at https://x.resumewebinar.com/Registration at no charge) to learn how to overcome job search ageism and find your next job faster in 2025.

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