Yet ANOTHER resume question

[Platyrhynchos]

Sorry, but I have to do it because there are so many conflicting opinions on the internets.

On one's resume, should one include any year or date that would reveal one's age, i.e. year graduated high school, college, birthday, etc.? I think doing so would effectively allow the prospective employer to do a little age discrimination, free of charge.

Any ideas on this?

 

[mike311gd]

I've got my college graduation date on mine. I think it's pretty important information for a resume. So what if it says "May 2005"? If you're a strong enough candidate, your age shouldn't matter. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but it shouldn't.

 

[captzulu]

I think you should include info that'd help give people a general idea of roughly how old you are. In a perfect world, age shouldn't matter, but it does. And if a place is looking to hire someone young, it won't do either of you any good by concealing your age since that issue would come up eventually anyway.

 

[Joe Williams]

Your work experience should be a good enough indication of your ballpark age. I'm with Platy on this -- why spell it out for those doing the hiring, when they're not supposed to consider it anyway? A resume without such dates reminds them of the law and maybe keeps them honest.

If a place can only afford you if you're inexperienced (i.e., young), then it will be able to tell that from what you've done so far and where you've done it. If it's shopping for a seasoned pro, it doesn't really matter whether the gal or guy graduated in the '70s, '80s or '90s. (Just make sure they know you're comfortable with those fancy word-processing machines.)

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

On one's resume, should one include any year or date that would reveal one's age, i.e. year graduated high school, college, birthday, etc.?

I've never heard of anyone putting their birthday on a resume, to me that just wastes space where you could be selling yourself. After college people shouldn't care about where you went to HS, unless you want to show that you're from a certain area and know about local schools / pro teams, but you can do that in a cover letter or an interview.

 

[didntdoit19]

On one's resume, should one include any year or date that would reveal one's age, i.e. year graduated high school, college, birthday, etc.?

I've never heard of anyone putting their birthday on a resume, to me that just wastes space where you could be selling yourself. After college people shouldn't care about where you went to HS, unless you want to show that you're from a certain area and know about local schools / pro teams, but you can do that in a cover letter or an interview.

I would say the only time one should put their b-date on a resume is if someone's age doesn't match their experience. An example would be if you started your career late because you switched into sports writing after doing something not related to journalism. That may explain why someone 40 walks into an interview with the resume of a 23-year-old.

Other than that, I don't see a reason.

 

[awriter]

Sorry, but I have to do it because there are so many conflicting opinions on the internets.

On one's resume, should one include any year or date that would reveal one's age, i.e. year graduated high school, college, birthday, etc.? I think doing so would effectively allow the prospective employer to do a little age discrimination, free of charge.

Any ideas on this?

Don't put your birthday or high school on your resume. Your college and year of graduation will do. Also, there's only one Internet.

 

[Cansportschick]

I know that in most Canada places, they only want to look at the last 10 years of your career. That being said, when it comes to education, they do want to know the years of graduation. On my resume, since I have a couple of undergrad degrees, I actually do not have to put my high school on it. For employment, they do want to see dates of work. However, nothing to disclose age.

 

[User 4755]

No age. No high school. Just college and year degree earned, which can be a tipoff about age, or may not be, if you ended up getting a degree at age 40, which is a lot more common these days.

 

[Tom Petty]

Sorry, but I have to do it because there are so many conflicting opinions on the internets.

On one's resume, should one include any year or date that would reveal one's age, i.e. year graduated high school, college, birthday, etc.? I think doing so would effectively allow the prospective employer to do a little age discrimination, free of charge.

Any ideas on this?

Also, there's only one Internet.

let me say it for platy: that was chicken ****. ... and i have my graduation date on my resume, platy, although i don't know why, to be honest.

 

[Joe Williams]

Wondering why year of graduation even matters. So they know whether you learned with glue pots vs. Macs?

If you don't have a gap in your job history of, oh, 23 years or something, and if you are in fact working today, they probably can safely assume that you're current on technology and other contemporary issues.

Besides, if your degree was in journalism, you probably got it awhile ago anyway, given all the "mass communications" offerings now.

 

[Tom Petty]

Wondering why year of graduation even matters. So they know whether you learned with glue pots vs. Macs?

If you don't have a gap in your job history of, oh, 23 years or something, and if you are in fact working today, they probably can safely assume that you're current on technology and other contemporary issues.

Besides, if your degree was in journalism, you probably got it awhile ago anyway, given all the "mass communications" offerings now.

i agree joe. like i said, i don't know why the date of my graduation is on my resume. it just always has been. but it is fodder to discriminate against those who are older in the profession.