Should you hide your age on a resume?
Don't put your age or birth date on a resume. Don't lie about dates. You can leave off anything whose only job is to show how old you are.
Those three rules cover it. A resume is a summary you choose, so leaving something off is fair. Changing a date is not, and it gets caught in a background check.
What gives your age away
- Graduation years. Keep the degree, drop the year.
- A 30-year job list. Detail the last 10 to 15 years. See how far back a resume should go.
- "Over 30 years of experience." Say what you ran, not how long. "Managed a 14-person branch" is stronger than a number of years.
- An old email address. Some recruiters read AOL or Yahoo as dated. A free Gmail address takes five minutes.
- Old tools. Listing software nobody uses now dates you faster than any year does.
- An objective statement and "references available upon request." Both went out of style years ago.
One job seeker on AARP's community forum wrote that after months of "impressive resume" replies and no offers from more than 60 companies, they took the dates of service off, and companies that had ignored them started calling. That is one person's account, not a study. It matches what we hear.
What you can't hide, and shouldn't try to
Online applications sometimes require a graduation year or a full work history. Answer them truthfully. And the interview will show your age no matter what the page says.
So think about what the resume is for: one phone call. On the phone you can prove yourself, and a resume that reads as current is what gets you there. One that reads like 2009 often doesn't.
Can an employer ask how old you are?
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects workers 40 and older from being treated worse because of age. Asking is a different matter. The law does not flatly ban an employer from asking your age or birth date, though the EEOC says it looks closely at applications that do, because the question can be used to discriminate. Some states go further. This is general information, not legal advice. If you think you were turned down because of age, the EEOC explains how to file a charge.
What matters more than the dates
Removing years helps a little. What helps more is a page written in today's words, with numbers, about work that looks like the job you want next. That is covered in resume for older workers.
Want it done for you?
You talk through your work on your phone, and your resume writes itself on screen as you go. You see it before you pay. Dates, old jobs and today's wording are handled for you.