The #1 Defense Against Ageism in the Hiring Process: Relevance
Mike didn’t feel old. He considered himself mentally and physically active. In fact, he would venture so far as to say that he was on top of his professional game. But, based on his lack of success with his resume, LinkedIn profile, and interview answers, it appeared recruiters saw Mike through a different lens.
Mike’s resume began with “25 years of experience” and listed out-of-date technology skills, like Windows XP and Adobe Flash. His LinkedIn focused on long years of work and loyalty to his company. When asked about professional development in job interviews, he talked about trainings from more than 10 years ago.
In short, recruiters saw Mike as a dinosaur with a skill set in danger of extinction. Mike had been spinning his wheels for nearly a year because he had failed to demonstrate one sought-after, game-changing quality: RELEVANCE.
In order to become relevant and turn around his job search, Mike had to revise his resume, LinkedIn profile, and job interview answers to convince recruiters that he was now, and would remain, relevant.
Resume
Mike noted that most of the jobs he was applying for required 10 years of experience. He tagged on another 40% to show that he had more than enough experience without being overqualified, deciding to list a total of 14 years of work history in his Professional Experience section.
But, Mike had a problem: if he only demonstrated 14 years of work history, he would have to leave off some very relevant early career experience. He explored several options on how to best present this vital information:
- Create an italicized footnote that says, “Early career success as (role title) at (company name).” Leave off the dates.
- Briefly list the early work with the role title, company name, and a short statement about what was achieved there. Leave off the dates.
- Develop a full section called “Early Career Success” following the Professional Experience section. List all of this work in the same way it was listed in the Professional Experience section but without dates.
Mike had a lot to say about two early career experiences, so he chose the third option. He created the new section entitled “Early Career Success” and listed the work in the same format at the main Professional Experience section, just without dates.
In an economy where the average employee tenure is just over four years, loyalty is a less-valued trait than a growth mindset and commitment to lifelong learning. To demonstrate this commitment and boost his relevancy, Mike took some courses and certifications. Although he had yet to finish them, he was well on his way and felt comfortable listing them on his resume with a completion date of “TBC 2021” (“To Be Completed”). He also removed outdated skills and training.
Mike updated his LinkedIn Experience section to reflect his resume. Again, he ran into the problem of not being able to list the older career experience because of the dates.
To mitigate this problem, he opened his About section with his transferrable skills and motivation. He went on to mention the trainings and certifications he was pursuing. He followed that with a paragraph regarding his early work history. It started with: “You can explore my recent work history below. Earlier in my career, I…” This allowed him to share critical information about his work experience without widening the door to ageism.
Interviews
By now, age discrimination had become a thorn in Mike’s side. It had beaten him down, causing him to visibly cringe when the topic of interviewing arose. He felt trapped; even if he did everything right on his resume and LinkedIn, the interviewer would slam the door in his face on account of his gray hair and laugh lines.
I told him, “I would call ageism your elephant in the room. And, what do we do with elephants? We don’t get run over by them. We ride them!”
Getting run over by an ageism elephant means waiting for the interviewer to ask you questions about your early work history, when you graduated college, etc. Conversely, riding the elephant means bringing it up on your own terms to control the narrative.
Mike decided to quash ageism in the first two minutes of his interview by strategically positioning his relevancy during the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” question. He began his answer by illuminating his strengths and passions. Mike then highlighted how he’d been maintaining current knowledge of emerging trends through trainings and certifications. Finally, he talked about how he had cut his teeth in the field early in his career before pulling threads from his recent work history and tying them to the job at hand.
No longer were Mike’s outdated skills and technologies dragging him down. Mike’s new resume, LinkedIn profile, and interview answers inspired confidence in recruiters. They saw his ability to do the job — now and in perpetuity — by leveraging his current skills and continually pursuing new capabilities.
With ageism off the table, Mike quickly found himself with a new problem: choosing between job offers!
