Avoiding Age Discrimination
Age discrimination is against the law and it’s nothing to worry about because it doesn’t happen… except of course in the real world.
Surefire giveaways you may be out of date:
About that resume objective you worked so hard on!
Here are some tips to help you make sure your resume is up to date and not sabotaging your quest for a new job…
DATED SECTION: Delete it! Your “Resume Objective” section is all about what you want! Recruiters and hiring managers don’t really care what you want! They care about what they want!
They clearly want to know [quickly] what you can do for them, so your “Resume Objective” is a time-waster.
Perhaps you think this is too cynical? Let’s face it, “Resume Objective” sections stopped working a decade ago and they don’t work now. Here are two more reasons: generic and boring.
Generic because if everyone has an objective statement, every hen in the yard looks the same. Recruiters much prefer to see that “not only do you meet their requirements” but you have “value-added” skills, a differential!
Boring because it’s about what you want and not about what they want.
Replace the “Resume Objective” with a personal branding statement. Shoot for a one-liner underneath your job-target title that quickly tells what you are bringing to the table. (3 lines max)
Focus only on relevant achievements to the position – recruiters pride themselves on the ability to scan your resume in 6 seconds. You can’t change the dreaded 6-second scan so think about what should leap out!
Tip on getting quickly to the point in your branding statement:
If a lot of people could say the same thing, it’s a blanket statement and you shouldn’t use it.
DATED PUNCTUATION: I learned to type on a manual typewriter a long, long time ago in a place far, far away. Maybe you learned on an IBM Selectric. Nothing says “old” like reading a document that has two spaces after the ending punctuation, period, question mark, etc. The introduction of word processing ushered in proportionally spaced fonts and the need for the two spaces became obsolete.
DATED LANGUAGE: Change it! Next time you update your resume, remember to update your writing style. You can make yourself look younger by projecting energy and speed. Here are some tips that you can implement today.
Starbucks Test. The goal here is conversational writing. This doesn’t mean a cavalier or sloppy style. For example, if you were setting in Starbucks with a friend and read them your resume, could you do so without starting and stopping? Did you sound conversational and natural??
Your natural written voice sounds younger and stronger than a “professional resume” tone. If you hesitate or backtrack, rewrite your text at those stopping points. Your goal is communicating with the reader in a professional favorable manner and, not to present yourself as only a series of bullet points.
Use E-Prime to deliver speed, strength, precision and a youthful mode
The Power of E-Prime. E-Prime is a way of speaking that avoids the use of “to be” in any form. Used in a resume the subliminal result leaves the reader with a sense of speed, power and energy. A most worthy goal for your resume!
The e-prime strategy (it means English-Prime) is to minimize the verb “to be” and all it’s variations: “be, is, am, are, was, were, being and been.”
Example: Instead of writing “The gun was loud,” replace the verb phrase “was loud” with a more descriptive phrase that uses a more specific verb, such as “boomed”:
- Average: “The gun was loud.”
- Better: “The gun boomed,” or “The gunfire boomed.”
Every time you replace “is” or “was” — or any variation of the verb “to be” — you increase writing energy and improve writing precision.
Actors can use this tool to examine their characters and explore what they really mean to say when they speak. Writers can use E-Prime to avoid miscommunication and other flaws in getting their message out.
The Hemmingway App. This is a free app that checks spelling and grammar and analyzes your writing for readability. Suggestions for improvement appear with the results.
This is a good tool to use when transitioning your writing to E-Prime. You can drop your entire resume or any document into this online app and the results and suggestions are usually amazing.
A Flesch-Kincaid grade level score pops up as well as other readability data and a character, word, and sentence count. Very useful for achieving a certain writing style.
The E-Prime tactic improves everything you write, not just résumés. Only one drawback – E-Prime is very time-consuming to write because it forces you to think through every word.
Don’t be a windbag. Get to the point using shorter words, shorter phrases, and shorter paragraphs. Break long blocks of text into smaller bites. Inject a break after four of anything. After four bullet points, go to a new subheading. Subscribe to little bites, not an attempt to feed the entire pie in a single bite. Remember, you have about 6 seconds to communicate, don’t waste it pontificating and rambling.
Use active voice not passive voice. Wherever possible, write in the active voice (direct) not the passive voice (extra words).
Example:
Active voice is simple, direct: John nailed the board.
Passive voice, same meaning, extra words: The board was nailed by John.
Note: See E-Prime above.
Time gaps. Don’t leave education dates off of your resume. Its been suggested by some resume writers as a method of downplaying how long ago you graduated.
This is a bad idea. Did you earn your degree 15 years ago and began working in your current career track the same year? You will actually raise questions about your age by not including your degree dates.
The dates on your degree tend to close the “loop” and eliminate age-related questions in the mind of the resume recipient. But if you leave the dates off, the recipient will assume you are hiding your age and are older than your work experience indicates.
The exception may be using a cutoff point. If you have shortened your resume to the most recent 10, 15, or 20 years, and your most recent degree was earned years before that cut off point, it is probably in your best interest to leave the dates off the resume.
A variation of the humblebrag: Subtly, in your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile touch on achievements that illustrate a high energy level, strong technical skills, and adaptability to change.
Avoid the Functional Resume style. A chronological resume captures your work experience under each job you have had, from most recent job to oldest job. A functional resume groups your skills by job function or expertise, and then lists your jobs near the bottom of the document.
The problem with the Functional Resume is their effectiveness was intended to be in hiding gaps or other employment factors inconsistent with the job being applied for.
Recruiters are well aware of this and when presented with a functional resume tend to immediately search for the hidden weak spot which can result in actually highlighting the very thing you are interested in glossing over, in this case, age.
Summary. In summary, review your resume and consider adopting this smart list:
1. Resume Objective section – replace with Personal Branding Statement
2. Dated punctuation
3. Use the Starbucks test for writing style and implement E-Prime
4. Use the Hemmingway app to test your changes
5. Don’t be a windbag
6. Use active voice in place of passive wherever possible
7. Consider a cutoff point rather than risk showing time gaps
8. Master the humble brag
9. Don’t use the functional resume format
10. Avoid more than 4 bullet points, switch to numbers or subheadings
-Glenn M Sitter
https://sslduck.com
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