How to Overcome Age Discrimination on Your Resume

Age discrimination is a real problem and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon. Your resume is one of the first things that hiring managers see when they are screening applicants. It’s your first line of offense and as they say, first impressions are everything. There are strategies that certified resume writers use to reduce age discrimination on a resume.

To help, we have included 5 simple tips to help reduce age discrimination on your resume.

1. Only Show 10 – 15 Years of Work Experience

First and foremost, the amount of work experience you have on your resume is a clear giveaway of your age. This is especially true if you are including employment dates for each job. The standard resume length is 1-2 pages. If you have 10+ years of experience, it’s perfectly normal to have a 2-page resume.

Your resume is not meant to be a summary of everything you have ever done. Most recruiters and hiring managers only care about the work you’ve done in the past 10 to 15 years. If you are applying to jobs today that have nothing to do with your work experience 10+ years ago, just remove it. By focusing on the most recent 10 to 15 years of work experience, you’ll draw attention to more meaningful work while masking your age.

2. Do Not Include Dates You Attended School

Another opportunity for age discrimination on a resume is by adding dates to your education. If you graduated college in 1979, that’s probably not something you want to mention on your resume. Most resumes do not include dates next to the school attended unless you graduated in the past five years. If you attended a university more than five years ago, you should leave off the dates entirely.

3. Remove Outdated Technologies and Terminology

Read through your resume to make sure that you are not mentioning any outdated technologies. If you are savvy with Microsoft Office 1997, just list this skill as ‘Microsoft Office’ and don’t mention the year.

Talking about things like internet explorer, quill pens, telegraphs, and VCRs are also clear signs of age. Have a couple of younger professionals read through your resume. If there are things they have never heard of, you might want to consider updating the terminology used on your resume.

4. Get Rid of Your Old Email Address

For the sake of job searching, it’s important to have a modern email account. Gmail is the most widely accepted email domain. It is entirely free to create a new Gmail account and it’s not a bad idea to have an account that is dedicated to your job search efforts.

The worst email account that you could possibly have is Hotmail. Hotmail is one of the oldest email accounts and is used by less than 1% of individuals under 40 years old. If you have a Hotmail account, you are screaming, “I have been around the block a few times!”

5. Replace Your Objective With a Resume Summary

It’s important to note that summaries and objectives are not the same. Objectives, for the most part, are not used anymore. Instead, resumes use summary statements. When objectives were used in the past, the purpose was to tell the reader what kind of position you were hoping to obtain. Today, the purpose of a summary is to summarize your skill sets and explain how you are qualified for a specific job.

Most employers care more about what you can do for them, than what they can do for you. This is why professional summaries have become increasingly more popular than objective statements. If you include an objective statement and label it as such on your resume, you will definitely be dating yourself.