If you’re older than 40, chances are good that you have wondered, at least once or twice, “Are they overlooking me because of my age?” And, unfortunately, chances are also good that they are.
So here are some tips so you can get in front of employers instead of getting weeded out before you have a chance to impress them.
1. Make sure your online presence is up to date. Is your LinkedIn profile current and professional? Is your headshot recent? Have you made note of your tech skills? As much as possible, keep your profile updated and fresh.
2. Update your email! Nothing will make potential employers think you’re out of touch like a Hotmail or AOL address.
3. Optimize your resume for applicant tracking systems (ATS). Become familiar with what an ATS is and how it’s used, and tailor your application materials accordingly. The job search has changed in the past 10 years.
4. Stay informed about current resume formats. Things have changed recently, and you don’t need an objective or a section on your hobbies and interests. (As a colleague once said, “It’s not that they don’t care about those things, it’s just that they don’t care about those things.”)
5. Consider eliminating dates that are more than 15 years old. They don’t necessarily need to know when you graduated, for instance, or the actual date range of an older experience. If you’re drawing attention to something you did 18 years ago, instead of saying exactly when you did it, you can just put “5 years” in your dates field, for instance.
6. Update yourself on industry- or role-appropriate technology. Outdated technical skills are one of the primary concerns prospective employers have about people they consider older, so the more you can demonstrate that you’re not out of touch with that stuff, the better.
7. Work your network! Your existing contacts and new ones. People hire people, after all, so if you’re known to people who can impact hiring inside an organization, your chances of getting asked in for an interview are much higher.
