CV TIPS - CV ageism: Can you be the 'wrong’ age for a job?
Posted 8th February 2022 • Written by BBC • • • • •
Age-related biases are baked into the recruiting process, whether conscious or not. Should workers be cagey, in order to overcome recruiters’ biases?
Applying for jobs is generally miserable, even at the best of times. But what if you knew that simply revealing your age on your CV would send your application straight into the ‘no’ pile?
That’s the reality for many people. Age discrimination means that over-50s are more than twice as likely as other workers to be unemployed for two years or longer if they lose their current job. One study showed that a 50-year-old worker was up to three times less likely to get an interview than a 28-year-old applicant. “When you’re in your 40s and 50, mentioning your age is like dropping an F-bomb,” says 55-year-old CJ* who lost his corporate marketing job 20 months ago and is still looking for another.
It’s not just older job-seekers facing automatic rejection; young people can also be discounted for roles because of their age. Although this type of ‘reverse’ ageism is much less researched, studies show that younger workers can be considered undesirable employees, and that this can lead to them not getting hired.
Tackling the issue of age-related assumptions in the recruitment process is tricky. Some workers have come up with their own solution; 44% of over-45s admit to altering their age on their CV. Other strategies involve only detailing most recent employment experiences (for older workers), or removing age-related information like graduation dates (for younger and older workers) in order to get through initial screening processes.
A permitted prejudice?
When you apply for a job, there's no obligation to put your age or age-related indicators on your CV. Even if you do, there are laws preventing employers from overtly discriminating based on age. Yet the moment your CV hits a recruiter’s desk, subconscious biases around candidate ages are likely to kick in.
Hiring managers often don’t have time to read every application they receive thoroughly, so they often resort to making assumptions based on small details that stand out. At a certain point, the people doing the hiring are looking for reasons to say no, and age is one of them – whether consciously or otherwise.
Part of the issue is many people don’t consider ageism a problem. A 2021 research paper from the Stanford Graduate School of Business showed that ageism seems to be the only condonable prejudice. “Ageism is oftentimes a bias that doesn't even get discussed in this landscape of inequality,” says lead author Professor Ashley Martin. In fact, her research shows that those who endorse and advocate for equality are more likely to be prejudiced against older individuals.
This problem is especially clear with hiring managers. “There’s less of an idea that you’re doing something bad when you’re selecting on age,” says Lössbroek. “Many managers would feel bad saying they were selecting by skin colour, but with age, too many managers would say it’s nothing personal, it just works better like this.”
Mitigating measures
If judgements related to worker age are inevitable, is there realistically anything candidates can do to avoid falling victim to prejudices? After all, even if you strip your CV of your date of birth, there are plenty of other age-related indicators in your list of previous jobs, skills and qualifications. Some recruitment advisers suggest leaving off key dates and only listing your last 15 years of experience, but is that a real solution?
“The more salient your age appears on your CV, the more likely the one who reads it will focus on your age,” points out Lössbroek, explaining that the harder it is to find your age, the safer you are from having your résumé thrown out before being properly read. “I think there’s some value in not displaying the age explicitly, but it doesn't solve everything.”
Instead, think about what your age might suggest to a recruiter about you, and cut it off at the pass. Older applicants should, for example, emphasise their tech skills to counter possible stereotypes about adaptability. Younger workers should be explicit about problems they’ve solved, particularly ones that might appear out of their age bracket. “When you make things really clear, it becomes much harder for [recruiters] to make assumptions,” says Martin.
If candidates can catch a recruiter’s attention for the right reason, they have more chance of securing an interview and an all-important opportunity to make their case for employment in person. So, thinking about how you tackle the issue of age on your CV, both through what you chose to disclose and how you present and emphasise your skills, seems beneficial.
But companies would also benefit from scrutinising their recruitment practises to ensure biases aren’t causing good candidates to be overlooked – particularly given the tight labour market. Action from employers would do more to move the needle on ageism in employment than tweaks to a CV.
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