Your Resume and Your Age
The format and contents of your resume say a lot about your age. Age discrimination is a fact of life in today’s job market. This goes both ways for the young and the old. I want to discuss the signs that you are over 50 years of age and, hopefully, get you past the initial gatekeepers who might think you are too old.
Home Address
For many years, we sent our resume and cover letter through the mail. We put our home address right on the top. Fact is, there is no longer a need to put your home address on the resume anymore.
There are other reasons not to include your home address:
- Economic profiling
- Length of commute
- Personal safety
If the employer needs your home mailing address, they can ask for it.
(More: Is the resume still relevant)
E-Mail Address
One sure sign that you are over 50 is to have an aol.com e-mail address or even an e-mail address from your cable provider like rr.com on your resume.
Either sign up for a Gmail address or get an e-mail forwarding service from:
- A professional society – I have had e-mail addresses from IEEE and ACM both technology associations
- Your Alumni Association – I have an e-mail address from my Northwestern Alumni Association
- Get your own domain – I have one client who acquired his full name as a domain name like MarcMiller.com
All of these options say something about your professional brand.
I always recommend using a separate e-mail address for your job search.
(More: Social Media Strategy – My Resume)
Listen to the most recent episode
Home Phone Number
Who under 45 years of age still has a home phone? We ditched our home phone five years ago, and I am quite a bit older than 45. If you still have a home phone and do not want to give out your cell phone number, get a Google Voice number. Put the Google Voice number on your resume as your cell number. You can set it up so that it will ring on multiple phones (both home and cell). It can be configured to transcribe the message, and then email and text you the transcription. Some of the transcriptions can be really funny. I had one recruiter leave me a message and her name was transcribed as stressed out waters.
Double Space After Period
I am going to go out a limb and declare that putting two spaces after a period is obsolete. It is how most of us were taught to type on a typewriter. Therefore, most of us who do this (I have taught myself to stop putting two spaces after a period and it was hard) are over 50 years of age.
Over the years, I have heard that this has been used as a method of screening out older candidates.
Skills
Limit the skills you list on your resume to current and relevant skills. I have seen many technical resumes that list every system, software program, and technology that the applicant has ever worked on.
I could list that I wrote MS-DOS control programs, wrote machine level code developing word processors, managed IBM mainframe computers, and lots of other obsolete technologies. Unless I was applying for a position that required these skills, all it tells the reader is I am over 50 years of age and maybe older.
Look at your resume—what does it say about your age? Show it to others and ask them what it says about you.
Age discrimination is a fact of life in the job market today. You do not want to be filtered out by the staff who are screening initial resumes and lose the opportunity to demonstrate your talents and skills.
By the way, I chose to use resume rather than résumé in this article for the purists.
This post is part of a weekly series on the Personal Branding Blog.
You can read the original post on the Personal Branding Blog.
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Thank you, Marc, for making statements on facts that I overlooked in creating my resume. I work in a Mortgage House, no longer contract for all Lenders. I hope to post for different positions and creating the resume is a must for the position. I appreciate your candid reviews and chose to follow you:) Happy Friday!
Thank you for the kind words. Good luck with your job search.
In regards to the Google Voice number, I discovered that when people use my GV number calls often don’t ring through. Sometimes, I get the messages three days later too. It’s been very flaky. That won’t impress a prospective employer. I don’t know what you can do about that. The only solution I can offer would be a cheap cell phone with prepaid time that can be discarded later, if you really want to keep everything job related separate and don’t have a cell number. The other good point here is that employers expect to get rather immediate responses. Check messages at lunch or breaks and make a quick call or email to set up a time to talk further.
Also, I’ve run into forms that require the home phone number to be filled in. In those cases, I put the cell number in that field too. It’s obvious to the HR person that you only have one phone, and it’s a cell phone. Now that many people have more than one cell number too, I think assuming a number listed as a home number (land line) is a bit presumptuous, but I know the forms and screening systems take a decade to catch up. Good tips.
Penny,
I have had pretty good luck with Google Voice. I will periodically not have it ring but I was immediately texted with their message and had the Google Voice App say message me that there was a missed call.
I applied at a Home Depot in Dallas and the young lady who was in charge of hiring asked me if there was a b in plumbing ? And yet she was a manager really funny
Edwin,
They are thinking of eliminating spelling in elementary schools because of spell-check. Scary!
Marc
Loved the comment from Edward about spelling. Mention spelling and grammar to certain “younger folks” and they’re ready to cart you off to the nearest old folks home. For me, it still matters. And even though I’m “older,” I still influence my clients’ hiring decisions if they ask me to review resumes or interview candidates. Marc’s tips on freshening up a dated resume are all on point.
Good advice on some finer details. I can say that many employers are looking for the grizzled old guy that has been pulled through a knothole backwards a few times. I appreciate the tips to stay ahead of the younger guys and always embrace learning new things.
Good article. I’m glad to hear someone else who agrees that we should lose the mailing address on the resume! I have long thought the mailing address obsolete since most communication is electronic at this point. Your article offered many good points to consider when a person is evaluating their resume.
Diane,
Thank you for the kind words. When I was researching this subject, I found several articles that stated the primary reasons not to give it were
Economic profiling
Length of commute
Personal safety
I now have a client who is getting questions about the commute. She did not put this on her resume but it was brought up in the first interview. This allowed her to address the commute issue rather than be filtered out.
If omitting personal address on a resume, should addresses be listed for previous employers?
I guess my question to you is who asks for addresses for previous employers?
Marc: You do realize that no hard we in Human Resources try to keep age discrimination from entering our companies, it still does exist. Once they send the resume, the “Baby Boomers” can still teach the others coming up about handling certain situations that are NOT in a book. Well, now I’m the “Baby Boomer” and with previous employers they thought I was old and hints of “retiring”. I am not old enough to retire yet and have a few good years left. Any suggestions besides a new makeover (not ready)?
Donna,
I would focus on your LinkedIn profile, and growing your online network. Your resume will not get you your next job. You network or a relationship will get you your next job. Let me know if you want some help in doing that.
Agreed that we live in a time when jobs come through networking, in particular when 80% of the resumes submitted don’t make it past the computerized pre-screening and are not seen by a human. So we wake up every morning and our top priority is networking, networking, networking. Understood.
But here is my question. On my LinkedIn profile I have tried to avoid connecting/inviting people I actually do not know and have never met, never worked with etc. and therefore would not know what to say to them. I also have very reluctantly accepted invitations from LinkedIn members I do not know (unless they were recruiters or head-hunters). I always ask myself how being connected with me in this virtual world will have any use other than growing the numbers of “contacts” on LinkedIn. And how would that ever help in my job search or them in theirs? By my experience, being connected with someone on LinkedIn with no personal relation whatsoever will rarely ever get one a job. Even a recruiter will need to meet you at least once in person so that there is a half-decent chance to be presented to a client on a career opportunity.
Marc, what is your take on this? Does virtual networking get us anywhere here?
Thanks in advance.
Marc,
I appreciate your offering here. Yesterday I updated my profile and added that I am retired, even though I am still seeking new employment beyond an arbitrary age. I am still too young to “retire.” My mind says so, and so does my body. Volunteering is great, I did that extensively in my younger years. My LinkedIn profile has set off links to way too many volunteer positions. Sometimes it’s best to “keep on keeping on!” So the profile changes again today, and, with a prayer, will be more effective.
Lawrence,
Good luck with your updates!
Reading your post I was mentally checking off everything I had wrong with my resume. “Check”, “check”, “check”! I’ve got some major revisions to make! You’ll notice I didn’t double space!
Read your article as I was viewing my resume. I only have to brush up the skills.
Thanks, Marc.
Glad you found it useful!
Marc
That makes me go back to my resume…double space I use this often and never understand why. Because of typewriter. I learn this thing an I am mid 40’s.
Charles,
You are not alone in not knowing how you got into the habit.
the double space after a period is still in use in legal documents such as contracts. I have seen it time and time again and always feel tempted to delete those …. thanks, Marc, I always wondered what this is about. Also gives me an indication how old the other of the that document is. Not that it makes a difference in my job search.
I also doubled-checked. No, I don’t have double space behind a period in my resume.
May I be very rude, and point out that obvious reliance on spell-checkers can also be in indication of age, or perhaps rather, youth. I am sure you don’t really take any notice of who the “others” of documents are! Note also the double spaces make a paragraph easy to READ, which is quite important if you are a human being.
Removing the address is probably a good thing to do as it just looks archaic. Use of the mobile number is obvious, and I would ask if I really even have to specify that it is “mobile”; does anyone use a non-mobile phone anymore?
But I am not sure how you can really disguise age when you list your education; an undergrad degree is generally attained between the ages of 21-23. (Unless it is clear in your resume that you did something else prior to that, such as military service, etc.) SImple arithmetic will give the applicant’s age within a year or two.
Ah, the double space. Look at any book and you will see that the space between sentences is greater than the space between words, although it is not a double space. If resumes really are being screened for double spaces at the end of sentences (and this seems reasonably possible), and those with double spaces after sentences are being dropped, then you should avoid that company as their screening is incorrect and shows a lack of knowledge or attention to detail, or both. If screening for correct typesetting is really taking place, then only those resumes with an em space (yes, that is the correct word, “em”) should be getting through. And there is no excuse not to use an em space; it is a standard MS Word symbol that can be inserted. And anyway, who sends (or posts) Word documents anymore? A protected pdf file should be your standard.
David,
A lot of recruiters prefer MS Word resumes. They can take notes in the document while they are talking with you.
Yes, the reason for double-space after period has to do with readability, and the typewriter’s approximation of the em space. So I still use it, in the same way that I try to use appropriate capitalization and spelling, even though those skills seem to be waning among the general population. “Who has time for that?” Since I don’t work in publishing, I don’t take the trouble to put in true em spaces.
In regard to document format, I prefer to submit in pdf, just because it’s less likely to get altered or mangled when someone opens it up. I submit in Word format when specified.
Now what does it say about the employer when the application web page specifies ONLY .doc format, and not .docx?
Thank you Marc,
reading your article made me to review my resume again and again. We take for granted the different ways that now days we can be discriminated.
Could the recruters know my age by using this this e-mail address?
My guess is no.
Great article. Some words of caution and wisdom. The address thing is true. I live in a city about 25 miles from the nearest major city that has a similar name to a city about 65 miles from the nearest major city and employers/recruiters often want to know why I’m looking for work so far from home. I only list one phone number: the one I can be reached at, which is, of course, my mobile (DON’T use the work cell: it’s outdated now). I don’t give it out until I’ve been asked for it. Unfortunately Microsoft uses a hokey domain name for its email accounts (live.com), but I don’t think it’s much of an issue. I like it better than Gmail because I am an MS Office guy and it integrates well with Office Online. As far as hiding your age, I colored my gray hair once, then forgot about it and got a haircut at lunch and, surprise, I came back to the office gray. Also, face-lifts are not cheap. Rather than lie about my age, I hide it…on page 2 (concise list of previous employers and education). Very few people read page 2.
Marc, thanks for speaking so candid. Actually, after tugging with many clients, I am apprehensive to say these things (old aol email addresses, addresses, and overall having to overhaul their brand so thoroughly …. I have been trying to be polite. So now I shall just forward your article to them and let you share this with them. Smile ! Thanks Debra Ann
Debra Ann,
Thanks for the kind words. This post went viral when I posted in on LI Publisher in October. What drove people crazy was two spaces after a period.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that age is not the issue?
Why can’t we recognize that 65 is a retirement age that made sense 50 years ago. Today, people can keep on doing great work until they are forced to quit by situations that have limited association with age.
It is time to extend our national productivity by keeping older people employed as long as they want to work.
I’m 75 and as current on technology issues as digital natives and I hope to keep on trucking for years to come.
John,
You are completely correct. However, you are getting logical. This problem is not logical but emotional.
Marc,
I am tempted to comment on the “emotional” bit, but to avoid the risk of offending the gentler readers I will bite my tongue – or… my fingers in this case.
😉
I read this thread months ago and returned today, still surprised that so few (nearly none) of the comments point out the age issue. As a 58-year old who recently graduated with my Bachelor’s degree (major/English; minor/sociology), I spent lots of hours in college researching, writing about, and discussing in seminars the manner in which great swaths of people in our country have been ostracized and underserved via racism, sexism, and classism. Earning money and accumulation of wealth are greatly impacted by these -isms. Ageism is the last bastion it seems, and ageism is still barely addressed even in theoretical academic formats.
Being passed over for job opportunities based on age is a flat out civil rights violation. Sure, young folks face age discrimination, too, but no where near as frequently or detrimentally as older people. These days 40+ is considered too old in many hiring arenas, unless of course the desired applicant needs to have a PhD. And if you are seen as too young, you will eventually move into the most desirable age range of the times, whereas if you are already older, there’s no chance of a similar shift happening. That of course does not excuse ageism affecting the young.
The fact that so many here are overwhelmingly willing to accept tips on how to hide their age to snag a job shows just how internalized ageism is in our society. No one seems to question it, except for a few. No one seems willing to stick their neck out and say, “This is wrong and we need to stop enabling discriminatory hiring practices.” One way to stop enabling ageism in hiring is to begin calling it out and to post information about companies that we know to be discriminatory regarding age in their hiring practices.
Think about it. During the civil rights movement, laws were created to stop racial profiling in hiring and in housing, although it still continued. There was a time when people of color were not hired and were not taken to certain neighborhoods to look for homes to buy or apartments to rent. These travesties have not been completely eliminated and we still have a ways to go, yet laws exist and many people work hard to uphold the tenets of social justice regarding hiring and housing. And most companies have hiring practices committed to not discriminating on racial grounds. Even though problems of racial discrimination in hiring still exist, I can not imagine a career agency or advisor today recommending to a person of color to do whatever it takes to hide the fact that their skin is dark or their hair is not as straight as dictated by beauty trends so that they can land the job they desire.
I say it is far past the time to stop enabling age discrimination in hiring. We need to spearhead change by calling out ageism and age discrimination when we see it. We need to commit to naming names of companies when we know for a fact age discrimination is happening. We need to end the disrespectful practice of teaching older adults tricks to appear younger — whether via altering their appearance or the facts on their resume — in order to be more desirable in the hiring market.
I believe Marc has a great library of top-notch articles, information, and advice on rebranding and repurposing careers for people shifting gears later in life, and I’m grateful! I am also very passionate on this topic of age and how older people (those over 40 these days, and the age keeps dropping) are viewed in the hiring market. I believe this section of civil rights is far overdue for a sea change. Thanks for the opportunity to share my views. Here’s to a time when age will not matter and people will be valued and paid for the wisdom, talent, and skill they are able to contribute.
All best,
Anthea
Anthea,
I agree with you but….
Age discrimination is a fact of life. I have not a clue how to change that. It is very difficult to “by calling out ageism and age discrimination when we see it”. I believe I have seen age discrimination but can I prove it? Nope.
Thanks, Marc. I appreciate your reply.
It’s been the same all along when it comes to outing discrimination. Until more and more people bring their experiences into the open, we collectively ignore it. And there will always be those who say discrimination can’t be proven, even with laws are in place to protect against it. Eventually, when enough people come forward and make public their experiences with companies that surreptitiously practice age discrimination, patterns will become apparent and the law will be forced to step in. It starts as a grassroots effort and builds from there. Companies do business in bad faith all the time, finding loopholes in the law that allow them to get away with dishonest business practices that “can’t be proven” — like in the case of banks and financial institutions responsible for the economic collapse. Eventually, circumstances reach a tipping point where the citizenry is no longer willing to accept and/or participate in an abusive system that favors the few. In the case of age discrimination, the time is coming when so many people will be living longer, healthier lives and wanting to work longer, the numbers will no longer be just a few. Barring tragedy, even the young will be old someday, so it behooves us as a society to change our views, practices, and laws regarding ageism.
Athena,
I get it. The issue is age discrimination is so difficult to detect.
My last boss nixed my hiring a 55+ plus trainer because…. he just did not have the energy. Was he overtly discriminating based on age? I do not think so but he was make a discriminating decision. I liked the guy BECAUSE of his age. My boss was 20 years younger than me.
If you read the book Unretirement by Chris Farrell, he writes that eventually the job market will need older workers because the job market has no other choice. I am seeing signs in the tech community where they are will to train older tech workers because they need them. We will see.
Athena, You are already calling it out with great eloquence, and we should all be in the business of calling ageism out each time we can or see it. Age spread is the new social order, it is what can make companies more competitive and needless to say socially savvy. But I need this to happen faster in my case !
I also agree with Marc below when he comments that it is very hard to actually prove the specific cases. Well then….singing out the principles and values of Age openness should be a job for all of us.
Marc,
How do you avoid revealing your age when listing a work history on your resume? No dates or time references?
Bill,
Only go back 15-20 years of job history and do not put dates on your education.
Marc, this works fine until the HR or interviewing person hands you the company job app (yes, they do still use paper apps) and INSISTS you give the dates of your education and all jobs. And at that point, sometimes I can’t remember all the exact dates and am cursing the Job Service counselor who suggested I leave all the dates off the document.
Yes, I understand but you should be able to give approximate dates, particularly if it is a paper form.
True, but my point was, isn’t this just a sneaky way for them to find out your age? There is no reason why a person holding a resume should be made to hand-write every scrap of information on a paper application form…especially if the company uses ‘bots’ and/or e-mail for the initial screening. Thanks for these good ideas!
Jessie,
They are going to find out how old you are eventually. If they want to find out they will. Read my latest post on the reputation economy. https://careerpivot.com/2016/reputation-economy-prepared/
I must say that if I am weeded out because I put two spaces after a period, the reviewers are morons and I don’t belong there anyway. Indications of carelessness and illiteracy are legitimate as are most of your other suggestions.
Marc,
Thanks for a post with clear, specific, and actionable steps to disguise, or at least delay discovery of, one’s age. We may not like what’s going on with age discrimination, but we baby boomers can still fight it!
Here’s another practical suggestion to cut the angst over the the double-space habit. Use the Find & Replace function to proof your document. Find & Replace with .
Keep up the good work on Career Pivot,
Amy
Amy,
Good idea on Find and Replace.
Marc
Oh my gosh. This is a hot topic for me. Two spaces after periods! Stop, please just stop. I just saw the post from the 30 year old. It makes me wonder who was teaching keyboarding? Two spaces went out out, yes, 30 years ago. Does that show my age? Or my knowledge? In typewriter days, you had to use two spaces. Every letter, symbol, with a typewriter occupied the same amount of space. Hence, you needed two spaces to distinguish between an end and a beginning. With the dawn of desktop publishing, each letter and symbol occupies their own space. An “i” does not hold the same space as an “M.” No more need for two spaces. The reader may not notice exactly why, but they will find only one space more pleasing to read. It’s an unconscious experience. A more favorable reading pleasure.
Outstanding article on items that broadcast your age how about displaying your social media profiles-linkedIn, Facebook or twitter feed that demonstrate a skill I would even include youtube videos anything to highlight your career and land you an interview. Right on Marc I update my software skills such as Microsoft Office Pro 365, Google Docs and Adobe applications you do not want recruiters viewing Office 2007 I sometimes wonder if the resume will be phased out in favor of a linkedIn profile or other social media.
Phil,
The resume will not go away anytime soon but it’s importance in the hiring decision has been greatly diminished.
Thanks for the great article Marc! I honestly didn’t know about the double spacing. As far as home address, I have reduced it down to city and state. What are your thoughts about that?
Aimee,
I would not even put the city and state on the resume. For example, I live in Austin and if I applied to a job in San Antonio it could be immediately assumed that I would not make the commute and kick me out.
Marc
Nice article! It was helpful. Ive seen most people include these things on their resume. Irrelevant spaces and information that is not needed is usually added to their resume.
Maryann Asemota
Good article. I have decided to leave off my exact address on my resume; primarily for privacy reasons but also so that people won’t just assume that I am not interested in a position due to the commute. That can be discussed during the phone interview (location of the position and so on). As far as how many years to go back on your resume, I would say if the experience is over ten years, but it is relevant to the position you are applying to, leave that experience in. You might try to do a summary statement at the top of your resume and then list it under Other Relevant or Previous Experience at the end of your resume. For example, I have applied to positions that state they would like the applicant to have writing experience. I just state that I was the editor of the school newspaper in college in the summary, without listing a from to date. I might but it under or near the degree section as well if that makes more sense. Hope this helps! Have a wonderful day everyone!