age on a resume

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

I went to a conference (QCon) and one of the sessions was "Getting Old(er) in Tech". Most of the session was about the importance of learning. Towards the end, he covered the resume.

Two points he made I found interesting:
1) The last two years matters much more than the rest. This is a good point for someone like me who has worked at the same place for a good number of years. To highlight what is recent.

2) He said not to try to hide age on a resume. (like omitting year of graduation.) He said in one of his job applications, he wrote the modern languages he know and then wrote in parens some older languages "but not X, Y and Z because then you'd know how old I am".

I'm curious what people think of #2. Do you think it is good to include "age indicators" like year of graduation and older experience?

Personally I think it is because they are going to meet you and see your age then. But I also see the side of it where there is fear of the resume not getting picked. Thoughts?

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

And on that note, I really like Bear's resume. He's been programming longer than I've been alive. The resume doesn't hide that. But it also emphasizes modern skills and experiences. Oh and books!

[Tim Cooke]

I'd never really considered whether exposing/hiding your age is a good thing or not. As you say, you'll be meeting people face to face at some point so kinda hard to keep the deception going.

Another thing I encountered recently with some CV's coming in for a role we had open is that the applicants address had been omitted from their resume. Apparently some people can have subconscious, or even conscious, bias towards a person based on where they live.

[Jan de Boer]

I do not try to hide it.. On the first lines there are my address data etc. and that directly includes my date of birth and nationality. I am 52. The only thing that compensates that- is my hobby's, which include running and being a trainer, from which an employer could conclude I am reasonably fit, despite my age. Of course we programmers are in a luxury position here, we can get a job fairly easy compared to other people. The main thing that scares employers away from my C.V. is something completely different. I state that I have experience in Scrum and Agile, but that I am not really a fan of it. They really do not like that. But I do not want to hide that either.

[Stephan van Hulst]

What objections do you have, Jan?

[Jan de Boer]

Agile? Stephan really I do not even want to talk about it. I had lengthy discussions about it here in the ranch, and I don't want to dig that up.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Jan,
I think that's good to reveal. You'd be unhappy on my team. Which means you'd either waste time going to an interview where this would come up. Or worse, get an offer, accept and then be unhappy.

[Jan de Boer]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:I think that's good to reveal.

Sure, euh, but... do you have any idea how hard it is to find a job without Agile/Scrum these days? I will tell you for me at least it is very hard.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Jan de Boer wrote:Sure, euh, but... do you have any idea how hard it is to find a job without Agile/Scrum these days? I will tell you for me at least it is very hard.

And yet, you don't wish to work on one of those projects...

[Jan de Boer]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:And yet, you don't wish to work on one of those projects...

Those projects is Agile projects?

Nope. I am the apostate, the unbeliever, until I am the last man standing, I will never surrender!  :-)

(About 15 years till my retirement.)

[K. Tsang]

For me, I don't say much about my contact info (just email and phone).

I list the grad year for my degrees. If I see the degree is irrelevant to the post I'm applying (which hardly happens), I can technically leave it out. I do this with my certs. I leave out certs that obsolete/retired and simply not related/relevant to what I'm looking for.

Regarding the programming languages/tech skills, I don't usually include the languages I hardly use. However, I really want to know whether the order is important or not. Say A,B,C does this mean I am stronger in A than B?

[Bear Bibeault]

K. Tsang wrote:Say A,B,C does this mean I am stronger in A than B?

I usually list them in importance order; most important first.

[K. Tsang]

Bear Bibeault wrote:

K. Tsang wrote:Say A,B,C does this mean I am stronger in A than B?

I usually list them in importance order; most important first.

Thanks Bear

[Randall Twede]

same here when i had a resume. i listed them by most experience, so java was first.

[Randall Twede]

Jan, welcome fellow apostate!
when i first found myself here at the ranch many moons ago, i posted "top down procedural programmers of the world unite!"
i have since changed my mind and love OO.