4.26k
Should skinny down your experience to appear younger?
With so much discussion about agism and the curse of being over 40, should you remove graduation years and remove older jobs to appear younger? I see more and more job postings asking for “young and vibrant” or “Punch above your tenure” etc... Never thought I would be dealing with this!
TKMarketing Technology Leader
267
08/28/20 at 10:45PM UTC
i've shortened my resumes up to include the last 10yrs of experience. they can see more of it on LinkedIn but even there i left out some of the older stuff. i leave out graduation year and GPA when it allows cuz seriously 20yrs later my gpa hardly matters.
Anonymous
08/12/20 at 11:02PM UTC
I not only trimmed my resume down to the last ten years and removed graduation dates, I don't put any dates at all on my resume. I put the number of years I worked with the company. If anyone wants to discriminate against me, they will have to work for it...
Anonymous
07/03/20 at 2:18PM UTC
Its actually illegal to preclude any canidate for their age, race or creed. If I came across an ad that insinuates that you should be young, I would get a copy of the ad then apply. Then when they turned me down, I would sue them for every penny I could get out of them!
Otherwise I usually keep my resi at about 10 to 15 years. Prospective employers want to see longevity.
S.ALITechnology Manager | Web & Mobile App
106
07/01/20 at 1:01PM UTC
This is really sad, when I was in my 20s all the management roles were held by people over 40s. You were considered experienced and wise. Who is making the decision of not hiring people over 40's or worse laying them off? The higher end of millennial range is 40!
Heidi Schmidt
99
08/06/20 at 11:22PM UTC
And when you were in your 20s you were told you had to "pay your dues" by doing low-level work. I am interviewing with people at least 15 years younger who have had like 3 jobs in total and are a VP!! We Gen Xers were screwed! If I was in my 20s now I would have joined some hot start-ups and been promoted to a title and pay well beyond my experience.
S.ALITechnology Manager | Web & Mobile App
106
08/07/20 at 12:13AM UTC (Edited)
Is it because not enough Gen Xers on c-suit/ exec management to hire others or even they prefer some one 15 years younger? I saw lots baby boomers totally enamored with millennials cuz they know how to use tech (so do we !).
Heidi Schmidt
99
08/07/20 at 12AM UTC
I am not sure. I think it's that Millennials were able to advance quicker due to the nature of business today. Also, if they are not promoted within a year they bitch about it.
I hear a lot of people say how much they hate managing Millennials. I don't work with a lot of Boomers as I am in Ad Tech and everyone is under 40, except for maybe a few of the senior managers.
Stephanie NelsonIf you don't go in, you won't find out.
46
07/02/20 at 5:25PM UTC
It strange how it has shifted. I cannot begin to tell you how many people I have interviewed with (as in I am interviewing for a role) who are a good 10-15 years younger than I am.
Anonymous
06/30/20 at 2:49PM UTC
I had a friend that was let go last week. She happened to be on a list of aging employees. She is 42, always performed, promoted, great performance reviews. She happened to get the list by accident. Her boss wrote her a recommendation for her work. Her company was acquired by an up and coming Unicorn company that is thriving in Covid. They posted amazing earnings, opened up a bunch of new requisitions, then blocked her from getting rehired. She was given 7 days to sign her package. She is completely mortified. Glassdoor reviews are consistent, this company hates woman. Is this the new normal for women in tech over 40?
Heidi Schmidt
99
08/06/20 at 11:18PM UTC
Your friend should seek an employment lawyer if her firing was directly a result of her age. Just fyi, if you are over 40 and let go they have to share the list of all the titles and ages of the people let go. This is to show that there was no ageism for the firings.
Anonymous
08/20/20 at 1:51PM UTC
Absolutely agree. A relative at the department of labor and industry says my company offering everyone 55 or more with 5 yrs or more with the company a package to retire is ok. (A list of company divisions, department, role and age was provided to each “candidate” anyone on the list can “apply” for early retirement. But if Not enough people apply and there is a lay-off and only those on the list are who get laid off it is a major violation and calls should be made.
Stephanie NelsonIf you don't go in, you won't find out.
46
07/01/20 at 7:52PM UTC
So painful to read. And at 42. I definitely started to notice that I was getting fewer interviews right around the time I turned 45. It wasn't an obvous, wake up one day and say "Aha. Here we go!". I sat back at one point and thought about the myriad of interviews I used to schedule , tried to determine what had changed (the market? the environment? the business landscape?) and suddenly it hit me - it was my age.
I do still have experience on my resume that is older than 10 years' back simply because it is highly relevant to my background. That said I added a section called "Additional Experience" and literally just listed some things that would be like that "shiny penny". It helps me to tailor my resume for a specific job as well because I can pick and choose from those shiny pennies. There are no dates next to these. Simply the title (job or project) company (or program/initiative) and location.
Kelly ChiavariniOffice Administrator Extraordinaire
75
07/03/20 at 2:20PM UTC
Love that idea, I'm definitely going to use that!
Julie Chatman, MBA, CISMCybersecurity Strategy & Transformation
598
07/02/20 at 5:12PM UTC (Edited)
The “additional experience” idea is wonderful! I’ll be working on a version of my resume for commercial roles with this in mind. I’ll keep the unabridged version for my government applications because I think the perception that I’m a little older may work in my favor.
Stephanie NelsonIf you don't go in, you won't find out.
46
07/02/20 at 5:23PM UTC
I also do have several versions of my resume just depending upon the role. I will often pull out key phrases from a job description and incorporate that in to my resume and/or cover letter so that my expereince is that much more applicable.
And if an application asks for my college graduation years, I move on to the next application. (!)
Sweet Caroline
4.26k
06/29/20 at 1:34PM UTC
Should I also eliminate those earlier roles from my LinkedIn? Do I leave them as title only or scrap them entirely?
Stefanie HoltWife - Mom - Creative - Ambivert
36
07/09/20 at 2:47AM UTC
I was wondering the same thing. Additionally, when filling out your job history, some sites require a date so you can't leave it blank. Ugh.
Mimi BishopBiz+Career Coach for Modern Gen X Women
1.33k
06/29/20 at 12:03PM UTC
As we approach our mid-career (raising my hand here!) we need to rely more on our recent and relevant experience.
The book Comeback Careers is a great resource. In it they recommend that your current experience should be 75% of your resume and to consider grouping your earlier experience under the heading "Early Career Progression".
Jackie GhedineCoach Gen X Women|Host Modern GenX Woman podcast
6.03k
06/29/20 at 11:26AM UTC
Unfortunately, ageism is real and it's starting with women in their 40s (even more so than men). Yes to removing the years off your graduation from university, yes to removing older jobs, yes to making sure you have a gmail email (not an outdated yahoo, etc), yes to focusing on your tech skills and accomplishments, diversity and flexibility, yes to making sure every single thing on your resume has earned the right to be there.
It really is difficult to imagine that this is the case, the best thing you can do is get in the door and make them realize what they are losing if you walk out!
Rachel MinnickInnovative Nonprofit Professional/California
953
06/29/20 at 5:29AM UTC
I believe that resumes can get too long - I recently shortened mine to encompass the last 10 years since much of my earlier experience was no longer very relevant to my career aspirations. You want to give good, honest info, but not a reason to knock you out of the running because you graduated from high school 20+ years ago (so leave graduation years off).
