You shouldn’t have to hide your age to be considered for the jobs you’re perfectly qualified for, but in an AI-filtered job market, you do need to be strategic about how you present your experience. Photo: Stock.
The increasing reliance on artificial intelligence in hiring can often rule out older applicants, even if they have decades of relevant experience. Leah Lambart suggests a resume refresh to beat the ageism barrier.
Ageism in hiring is a real and frustrating challenge faced by many mid-career and senior professionals.
I regularly hear from clients aged more than 50 who are struggling to land interviews, despite being highly experienced, capable, and motivated. Often, the issue isn’t their skills but rather how they are presenting themselves on paper.
Unfortunately, resumes unintentionally reveal age-related cues that can trigger conscious or unconscious bias by Applicant Tracking Systems or by younger hiring managers.
While we can’t change systemic issues overnight, we can change how your experience is framed and perceived.
Here are three smart, ethical resume tweaks we use with our clients to help them get past the filters and into the interview room.
Remove graduation dates older than 15 years: Listing your graduation year, particularly when it’s 20, 30 or more years ago, can lead to immediate assumptions about your age.
Unless you’re applying for roles where the date of qualifications is essential, it’s completely appropriate and ethical to omit older graduation dates.
I suggest you still list your degrees and diplomas, but just focus on the qualification itself, not the year it was awarded.
Focus on the past 10 to 15 years of relevant experience: Hiring managers want to know what you can do today, not necessarily what you did in the 1990s.
I recommend summarising or removing roles older than 15 years (unless absolutely relevant), and instead highlighting key leadership capabilities — the impact you have had in your most recent positions and key technical skills required for the role.
Older roles can be grouped under a short ”earlier career summary” section, if necessary, without diving into detail. This keeps your resume concise, modern and strategic.
Lead with outcomes, not just job titles: Many seasoned professionals undersell themselves by simply listing job duties. Instead, show the impact of your work.
Ask yourself: What results did I drive? What processes did I improve? What teams, revenue or projects did I impact? For example: Managed a team of 10 staff; led a high-performing team of 10; increased client satisfaction scores by 25 per cent in 12 months. This shift helps you appear as a strategic contributor, not just someone who’s done the job for a long time.
You shouldn’t have to hide your age to be considered for the jobs you’re perfectly qualified for, but in a competitive, AI-filtered job market, you do need to be strategic about how you present your experience.
With this approach, you can stand out for the right reasons and not be filtered out for the wrong ones.
At Relaunch Me, we have helped professionals aged 40, 50, 60 and beyond modernise their resumes, showcase their unique strengths, and approach the job search with renewed confidence.
Leah Lambart is the founder of Relaunch Me, based in Victoria. She helps people find the work that they were meant to do. She can be contacted at [email protected]. This article first appeared on Leah’s blogsite.
