Rock your best years: Overcoming ageism in the hiring process

Do you feel that you are too young or unqualified for new roles? Have you been to a few interviews that ended along the lines of, “You seem a good candidate, but we are looking for someone with a few years under their belt.”? Finding a job is not an easy task for younger professionals. Or, are you searching for a job after hitting fifty? Do you feel that you will be overlooked by hiring managers because of your age?

No matter where you are in your career, ageism is a real issue that you will face in the job market. There are many reasons why employers are prone to ageism. Let’s look at it using three scenarios:

• You are an older candidate with a lot of experience talking to a hiring manager who has only been in the field for three years. They may feel threatened by your level of experience making them look underqualified.
• You just graduated from college and applied for your first job. The hiring manager is not keen to trust your skills because they have not yet been tested in the field. So, you get overlooked and an older candidate gets the job.
• You have 15 years of experience in the industry and apply for a job that requires only 5 years of experience. The amount the hiring manager is willing to pay you will be drastically different from your salary expectations.

The takeaway from these scenarios is that employers don’t want to hire underqualified or overqualified candidates

It is quite fair when you look at things from their perspective. Hiring an overqualified candidate would mean that they have to pay a higher compensation than what they initially budgeted for. On the other hand, an underqualified candidate would drag down their team.

This is the underlying issue that comes out as ageism during the hiring process. As a job seeker, it is your duty to address all these concerns through your job application. Read this article to learn how you can write a resume when you are overqualified for the job.

Remove past work experiences from your resume

This tip is for the older candidates. Removing irrelevant past work experience from your resume will help you age-proof your job application. This will ensure that you will not face age discrimination during the initial resume screening steps. Keep only the work history of the past 10-15 years on your resume and let go of the rest.

Omit the graduation dates

If you have graduated over five years ago, there is no need to mention your college graduation dates on the resume. Doing so will give the employer the ability to approximate your age. This will make you vulnerable for age discrimination.

Highlight only the relevant information

The goal of your resume is to bring you out as the best candidate for the position, no matter your age. To do this, your resume must align 100% with the job description. Show the employer what you can offer the organization by highlighting accomplishments on your resume.