3 Ways to Make Your Resume Age-bias Resistant: It’s not complicated.

Last week, Lynne Williams, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Groups sent me an article that reminded me it is easy to develop an “ageless” resume. Her tips align with the tips I have been giving on this blog and elsewhere, and the best practices we follow when drafting resumes and LinkedIn profiles for clients. Specifically:

1. Use a Gmail address,
2. Avoid “outdated” resume sections and templates, and
3. Take old and irrelevant jobs off the resume.

While the best practices we’re sharing are written with seasoned professionals and executives in mind, they apply in many respects to anyone. All jobseekers, we believe, should have resumes that make contacting them easy, use modern formats and content, and do not include irrelevant information.

Use a Gmail account.

A basic marketing rule is “make it easy for the customer to buy.” Another tenet of marketing and job search is that “first impressions count.” For jobseekers this means making it easy for the prospective employer to contact you. A widely accepted way for you to do this is to use a Gmail address. We have occasionally encountered situations where servers block other email domains such as AOL or Yahoo!, so the best practice is to avoid taking a chance.

Additionally, AOL, Yahoo!, and certain other email domains have been available since the 1990s. Prospective employers and industry contacts may immediately form a first impression that you are an “older” worker, or at least someone who uses outdated technology.

Also, use a “professional” address. Some version of your real name will usually work as a screen name. If Gmail says your name is “unavailable,” adding a middle initial or number will normally resolve this issue. For example, one of my email addresses is franklgrossman@gmail.com. Save the whimsical screen names for personal emails. Clever sounding email addresses, like clever voicemail and answering machine outgoing messages may also look like a throwback to the 1990s.

And, of course, do not use your work email for job search. Employers can look at employee email, and prospective employers will question your judgement and your awareness of today’s business practices.

Avoid “outdated” formats.

There are lots of old resume templates online, and even built into word processing software. They often feature sections for your job objective, and “references available upon request.” Additionally, they can be difficult for prospective employers to process, and difficult for you to edit. Hiring managers and HR professionals will also recognize old and outdated templates that suggest you are a “seasoned” worker.

It is no longer good practice to state a job objective. Employers are interested in the results you deliver rather than what you want to do. For example, a client once gave me a resume that stated their objective was to be “a computer programmer.” The experience section listed a range of administrative roles but no software development skills, education, or experience.

Another outdated and pointless practice is including a “references available upon request” line at the bottom of a resume. It wastes space. You will not be considered if you do not provide references.

Resume templates can also cause problems. The best practice is to start with a blank word document instead of using a template your software offers, or a template you downloaded. The applicant tracking systems (ATS) behind online applications may have difficulty reading resume templates, too.

Most resume templates we have encountered were built with embedded MS-Word tables. You can edit them by making the tables visible, and then customizing them. Editing the tables takes time if you are not an expert, and you still may not get the results you want. Also, if your first-choice employer’s system cannot interpret the table correctly, it’s a wasted effort.

A modern resume is no longer a document that you can “set-and-forget.” Employers expect you to make adjustments for each job target, and sometimes for each job you pursue. As a result, it is crucial to design a document that you can readily edit.

When you start with a blank page instead of a word processing template you accomplish at least two things. You avoid building a resume that looks outdated, and you create a resume that employers will process accurately.

Remove old and irrelevant jobs.

A common resume issue is that experienced workers build on the resume they used after their first job. They continually add to the document. Eventually, this kind of document reads more like an obituary than a resume, runs for several pages, and goes back to the student jobs and college clubs they served in.

It’s difficult to prescribe hard-and-fast rules for the number of years or the number of jobs your resume should cover. Public employment programs I’ve worked and consulted for usually asked their clients to drop jobs that were more than 10 to 15 years old. This makes sense in many cases because technology has changed so rapidly that the skills needed for a job 15 years ago may differ from the skills needed now. Large New York law firms, I’ve been told, may require college degrees for mail room jobs, presumably because the job has become more complex than it was in the past.

Firm rules don’t always work for determining whether or not a job or project remains on the resume. For example, an engineer who built a unique gadget that flew on the Space Shuttle 30 years ago had a good case for finding a way to put that experience on his resume.

Jobseekers may also want to exercise judgement when deciding whether or not to include jobs that are not on their career path. Side-hustles such as driving for Uber would not be relevant if your day job is, say, yacht leasing. But it might be relevant if you are a professional driver. And if your side-hustle filled a pandemic employment gap, you may want to include it.

Put simply, the first job you landed after college is probably not relevant—especially if it was a stepping-stone role you were not at for very long. You may want to consider including a survival job or volunteer role when you need to fill a recent employment gap.

Concluding comments Cookie-cutter resumes and firm resume rules won’t work for those who want to avoid ageism. The best practice is to keep the content and format simple so you present an “ageless” resume that will help you pivot as your job target and other circumstances change.