Results tagged “age discrimination” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

Hiring decision-makers are split on the issue of far back in your job history you should go on your resume, which is affected by the growing practice of conducting background checks. While job-seekers are concerned about being exposed to age discrimination, many hiring decision-makers, especially recruiters, are adamant about seeing every job listed from your college graduation to the present. They argue that background checks — or even just seeing you in person at an interview — will reveal your age anyway, so why hide it? Others recommend going back 15-20 years, with the idea that jobs beyond that point are likely not relevant to your next career move. If you have the opportunity to contact the decision-maker before sending your resume, you can always ask his or her preference. Another option is to include your jobs that are more than 15 years old, but list them in bare-bones fashion (title, employer, location) with or without dates of employment. You may want to title this section Previous Professional Experience. Even if you opt to leave off the dates, the recipient will at least know that you have provided full disclosure by listing all jobs. A
similar option is to insert a disclaimer statement to the effect that “additional employment history is available upon request.” See also our article, Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Strategies for Older Workers.

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Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book, Top Notch Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves: Candidate leaves jobs off the resume. While this peeve is not universal, many decision-makers want to see the candidate’s entire job history from college graduation on. They suggest a bare-bones (position/title, employer, city/state, dates) listing of older jobs under a heading such as “Prior Experience” or “Previous Professional Experience.”

Decision-makers expect you to account for all gaps between jobs. “Give it to me as straight as possible,” Former Seattle recruiter Alice Hanson said. “If you have been out of work for a year, put a bullet in that explains why. If you have multiple jobs that ended after three months, tell me you completed three three-month contract positions successfully.” Most in hiring positions want to see when you graduated college and discount the age-discrimination argument because your graduation date will be discovered anyway when the recruiting firm is verifying information. “If a company is going to discriminate, truncating the resume may get you in a door, but won’t get the person the job if they are going to discriminate,” senior IT recruiter John Kennedy said.
See all 30 peeves: executive resume peeves 1-10 in Part 1, executive resume peeves 11-20 in Part 2 and executive resume peeves 21-30 in Part 3.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.