How To Combat Age Discrimination With Your Resume?

Go back 20 years and think of a time when fresh graduates would easily find an entry-level job and make their way up the ladder for the next 30-40 years before retiring. This almost never happens in the today’s job market. Earlier, employees used to stay-on with their employers for a long stretch of time, that age discrimination in hiring was not an issue.

These days, employees normally remain with a company for around two years before searching for something new. This turns into an issue for employment seekers who are 50+. When they apply for another job, the employer might ignore their profile because of the fact that they just have around 10 or 15 years before retirement. This is age discrimination. To avoid this, your best option is to remove data on your resume that gives the hiring manager an idea of how old you are. More importantly, don't take your resume so far into history that (a) the industry has changed, (b) technology has overtaken those positions and (c) more recent duties are similar, or identical. All it does is show 'age' without skills and achievements that are portable to what you would love to do next.

1. Limit Years of Experience 

Most job postings will plainly list the number of years of experience they are looking for. Along these lines, most job seekers generally mention their total experience at the top of their resume. With a few exceptions, I'll write in the brief summary at the beginning of the resume the number of years of experience, but seldom go past 15 and (virtually) never 20 years. Find a single job posting requiring more than 15 years of experience!

​2. List Relevant Experience 

Regardless of how many years of experience you have, you should just concentrate on the most recent 15 years in your professional experience section. Anything over the 15-year point will naturally date you. Also, because of continuous development in technology, your role 15 years ago isn't equivalent to same job today. Therefore, this is irrelevant and shouldn’t be mentioned on your resume.

3. Remove Outdated Programs

When you start seeking another job, you should update your resume from the last time you used it. One of the areas that many job seekers don't pay much attention to is their technical proficiencies. They will include new projects they have learned, however they won't remove old programs that are no longer relevant in the industry. This is a bad sign for hiring managers. 

For instance, if you have "Proficient in Windows Vista" on your resume, you are certainly aging yourself. Technology is continually changing and you have to do your best to stay aware of the advancements. Even listing MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint...my teenagers are proficient with those programs!
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