Do These 9 Things On Your Resume To Reduce Ageism Bias

Many clients come to me concerned that employers are excluding them from consideration for jobs due to their age, specifically being older workers. While ageism is hard to prove, it does exist and is a reality for many older workers. 

That is why it is crucial to diminish the possibility that your resume highlights information that either a recruiter or hiring manager will use to reject you from the hiring process because of your age. This does not mean your experience is not important. It means that you need to be strategic in what you include and don’t include on your resume and how you present the information.

Here are nine things to do on your resume that can help if you feel you are qualified for the roles you are applying for but believe ageism is causing you not to get interviews.

Nine things to do to reduce ageism bias.

Don’t start with years of experience.

I see so many people start a resume with their years of experience. 

“With 25 years of experience…” or “Versatile and proactive (job title) having 20+ years of experience in…”

I am going to be blunt. Experience in itself does not make you qualified for a job. You could have 20+ years of experience where you were a mediocre performer during the whole time. Let’s face it. We have all seen people that have been at a job a long time but have been marginal performers at best. So have recruiters and hiring managers. More than the amount of experience, they want to know how you performed. It is better to talk about what you have accomplished or are known for rather than years of experience.

Note: While this advice is true in most areas, there may be some jobs, such as in research, academia, or medicine, where your years of experience could be an essential factor in whether you are selected to move forward in the hiring process. If you are unsure what to do, ask a professional that does hiring or career coaches in your industry.

Remove dates of graduation and move the section to the end.

How can recruiters and hiring managers tell your age? By counting back from your college or high school graduation date. This is not foolproof, but anyone that wants to know your age can get a good estimate by counting from your graduation dates.

Also, unless your resume is for jobs in academia or other areas where your educational credentials are a prime qualifier for a job, you should have your education section towards the end of your resume and clearly marked. The reader will know to look for it, but before they get there, they will see other information to show your value as a future employee.

Note: If you have recently received an education degree relevant to the work you do or want to do, then it may strategically make sense to showcase it in your professional summary or a separate achievement section. You may also want to show your graduation date, in this case, to show your up-to-date knowledge.

Remove Your Street Address, Add Your LinkedIn Address.

Once upon a time, correspondence between applicants and organizations happened via snail mail. An employer needed to know the street address of an applicant. Those days are long gone. All correspondence is done via email or text. Only when hired does the employer need a street address for payroll purposes. Therefore, when you put one on your resume, it makes you seem dated. All you need to put on is your city and state (or province). I will usually put a postal code, as some Applicant Tracking Systems let users find applicants in their system within a radius of the postal code. But street addresses? Nix them.

While removing a street address, be sure to add your LinkedIn profile’s URL. Many employers will want to look at your profile, so make it easier for them by hyperlinking to it on your resume. If you do it, though, ensure you have completed your profile sections.

Concentrate on quality and relevant information, not everything and anything.

When you’ve had a long career, there’s a tendency to highlight all that you’ve done, because it was significant for those organizations. But your resume can then become a laundry list of information as a result. But here is the thing. Your targeted employer may not care about some of what you write on your resume, since it does not provide any additional value. 

Your resume writing strategy needs to start with what this employer needs to know about you so they know you can solve their problems. If you do not understand what employers will find of value, then do research. Ask people. Find out the issues in the industry. Look at job descriptions for the type of roles you desire and see what they want the individual to do. Then go through everything on your resume and ask this critical question—does this provide value to the reader? If it doesn’t, take it off.

Emphasize Knowledge of Latest Technology, Not Old Technology.

You might have had expertise in Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010 or VB.NET, and you think it is important to highlight this on your resume. But, in truth, they are obsolete technologies. Putting them on your resume will date you. Only put those technologies you know that are currently used and of value to an employer on your resume.

And if you are not current on the latest technology used in your field, then make sure you stay competitive in the job market by learning the newest technologies. Many paid and free resources are available on the web to help you stay current. Older workers are often viewed as not being technologically savvy. Showing you know the latest software and technology resources can help dissuade an employer that you don’t know or can’t use the newest tech.

Choose your email address wisely.

Did you know your email address can tell people how old you are? When individuals first got web-based email addresses, who were the common providers? AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail. You may have gotten one of those email addresses and still use it for your email. But if you put one of those email addresses on your resume, you are likely indicating to the reader that you are an older candidate. Changing your email address is a quick fix if you think you might be impacted by ageism. As of 2021, here were the most popular email providers: Google Gmail, Outlook, ProtonMail, Apple Mail, and Zoho Mail. If you want to keep your old AOL email address for your personal business, fine. Make a new email address solely for your job search.

Only add relevant jobs to your resume.

My first job out of college was as an Economist for the US Department of Labor. After finishing my first job as a Recruiter, I eliminated this job from my resume. Why? Because what I did was irrelevant to the work I wanted to do. Was it hard to delete those three years? Yes. But as a Recruiter, I knew that future employers would not care about that work because it was unrelated to what I would be doing going forward.

Many older job seekers make the mistake of listing every position they ever had on their resumes. A rule of resume writing is only to put information on a resume that is relevant to the employer. That goes for jobs as well. A good rule of thumb is to go back no more than 15 years in your career. Most information earlier than that will no longer be relevant since how you did your job then would be different than how you would do it today (different processes, different technology). The only caveat to this is if it is standard practice in your desired industry/profession to include your entire work history or if a job earlier in your career is relevant to what you want to be doing. You could include an older job in those cases, but this will not apply in most circumstances.

Make sure the resume is in a modern format (no objective statement, reference information)

If you have been using the same resume format since 2010, this could be dating you. Resumes change with the times, like everything in our lives. Items that were standard many years ago are now considered passé on a resume. So make sure you ditch those objective statements (now replaced with a professional summary) and the “References Available Upon Request” statement, which is assumed. Also, unless a hobby is somehow relevant to prospective employers, do not waste precious space on this type of section on your resume.

Stop using “seasoned” on your resume. 

I see this all the time. The job seeker uses the word “seasoned” on their resume to indicate that they are experienced in a role, industry, or specific skills. But “seasoned” can also make you seem old. Instead, what you want to use is “expert, ” “professional,” or “skilled.” They show your value in the indicated area but do not have any connotation associated with age.

Conclusion

Your resume can do much to help – or hurt – your chances of getting the job. It's important not to make mistakes that will eliminate you from contention for a job as early on as possible. Your resume must present you in a way that shows how hiring you will benefit whoever is doing the hiring, so make adjustments by cutting out anything that isn't relevant and highlighting your value. You might boost your relevance to hiring managers above your competitors, which could allow you to get the call for an interview.

For those that don’t know what should or shouldn’t be included on your resume, read How to Show Your Value During Your Job Search.

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.