Ageism in resumes

Summary

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  Ageism / unconscious bias is real. If you have a long career, reduce age signals on the resume.

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  Practical ways to do that:

  • •Remove education dates, employers don’t need graduation years on the resume
  • •Limit career history to roughly the last 10 to 15 years (most relevant anyway; also keeps length to 1 to 3 pages)
  • •Use a modern email (e.g. Gmail), not outdated providers
  • •Never put a birth year in your email handle
  • •Keep the skills section current, prefer modern tools (Google Sheets, Claude, ChatGPT) over dated stacks alone
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  Interests can add personality, but avoid family details that imply age (e.g. teenage kids). Keep personal noise out.