4 Tips to Combat Age Discrimination When Job Hunting

4 Tips to Combat Age Discrimination When Job Hunting 4 Tips to Combat Age Discrimination When Job Hunting 4 Resume Tips to Combat Age DiscriminationEven though age discrimination was officially banned with The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) employers can still trash resumes based on perceived age with impunity.Here are 3 resume tips to help baby boomers remain competitive in todays job market.1 Dont Include Your Graduation DateThe ProblemIf your graduation date was sometime during the Cold War, it will tip off the hiring manager to your age immediately.The FixThis fix is easy dont write in your graduation date.2 Sculpt Your Professional ExperienceThe ProblemYou have to write the dates of your work experience so you cant fudge it easily like in the first tip. Obviously, if your first work experience was in 1980, youre going to give yourself away again.So what can you do?The FixIf you have a lot of job experience, you actually have a lot of flexibility to make your resum e look young while still impressing the hiring manager.The key is to eliminate older work experience, and focus on the last 10-15 years even if your prior experience was impressive. The hiring manager will do mental math and assume that you possibly started working 10-15 years ago, and be more inclined to interview you.But what if your older job experience is both impressive and relevant to the job youre applying for?If you feel like it absolutely must be included on your resume, you can create a combination resume. Include highlights from your previous work experience in the Qualifications Summary part of your resume, and then only list your later work experience in reverse-chronological buchen under it.If youre looking for a new job but staying within the same industry, an experienced applicant doesnt necessarily have to include much older experiences, such as entry-level industry jobs they did after graduation. By only including the last 10 years or so of highly relevant experie nces, it is difficult to determine an age, but easy to recognize the applicants value.3 Look Youthful on Social MediaThe ProblemWelcome to the 21st century, where privacy is a joke and hiring managers are going to Google your name. How are you presenting yourself on social media.The FixIf you have one, put up a professional looking photograph of yourself at a younger age. Dont go too far out of bounds, but dont worry it is definitely acceptable to bend perceptions a little bit.Do this especially on Linkedin, where it will be very easy for hiring managers to match your face to your name, and your prior work experience. Facebook, Google Plus, and other social media networks are more flexible, because there is at least some plausible deniability.This logic extends to adding a photo to your resume as well. If you were thinking of including a resume picture, dont because itll be an immediate giveaway to your age.4 Keep Yourself Up To DateThe ProblemYou have licenses or certificates that you earned years ago and if you dont have computer skills to include in your resume, youll be dating yourself.The FixStay current and up-to-date on certifications. If you include a certification date from a long time ago it will be a dead giveaway as to your true age. Staying current means staying employable.Dont forget to include knowledge of current software and web applications. If you need to brush up on your skills, or just learn how to be handy with basic applications such as PowerPoint and Excel, consider enrolling in a nighttime class.Best of luck on getting the job, and staying forever young.