Are you tailoring your resume specifically to the jobs you're applying for? This can be a big issue for people who have a long broad history of experience. The more experience you have, the smaller percentage of it will appear 'immediately relevant' to the job at hand. This isn't actually true of course, but it's a recruiter bias.
Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
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Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#12One theory: The Bay Area has become seriously ageist. Many people have a hard time accepting working for someone a generation younger than them, and especially hiring a subordinate a generation older than them. The people reviewing your resume and interviewing you won't say it (they're not allowed to by law) but they'll definitely be thinking it, and it ends up being a huge waste of your time. I genuinely think it's…
I thought people don't really use resumes any more
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#13One theory: The Bay Area has become seriously ageist. Many people have a hard time accepting working for someone a generation younger than them, and especially hiring a subordinate a generation older than them. The people reviewing your resume and interviewing you won't say it (they're not allowed to by law) but they'll definitely be thinking it, and it ends up being a huge waste of your time. I genuinely think it's…
I thought people don't really use resumes any more
What do they use instead?
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#14Legal matters aside, interaction is a basic human process that often comes very awkward in over excited, under pressure, small environments if someone too different from the resident crop is around. Other than that, people just won't try. You might act as a consultant and sell your time, instead? Good luck and keep going!
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#15[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#16Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#17Speaking from experience you need two resumes (I’m much younger, but with a long career). One that’s management focused and one that’s developer focused. Use the appropriate resume for the role you are applying for. Even though I’m a hands on engineer people didn’t want to consider me for roles because I had management experience and they thought the engineering role would be too boring, and vice versa. Reduce your resume to your experience from the last 10 years. They don’t need to see your first job. Don’t put dates next to your degrees. Don’t say “35 years of experience.” You have to accept that there is age discrimination but there is also manager discrimination and developer discrimination and all sorts of biases, you need to use that to your advantage by crafting resumes with different narratives, highlighting different strengths, dependent on the role.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#18Try contracts instead. Agism seems to affect that less.
I second this. I'm over 60 and looking to change jobs. I've been looking at 1099 contract work since I don't need health insurance benefits (get them through wife's work).
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#19With 35 years experience, I expect that you have a pretty wide professional network - consider whether you're using those connections to get warm introductions and pointed to good-fit jobs to the greatest degree possible.
My apologies if this is stating the obvious, but if your applications are starting with just a resume, you're already at a disadvantage at any age. And I suppose that effect only increases with years of experience and seniority of positions applied to.
Re: Ask HN: Over 60 = no engineering jobs?
#20I wonder if its ethical to change some of the dates. Eg if you graduated in 1980 it makes it obvious how old you are. If you leave dates blank it kinda doesn't make much difference, but if you said you graduated in 2000 it would mean you get an interview at least.
Edit - I get it the issue will come up at some stage. But explaining why you changed the dates later in the process is better than not getting an interview.