Resumes - Should You Hide Your Experience?

Resumes Should You Hide Your ExperienceWhen putting together their resume, many older candidates sometimes try to "hide" their experience using all kinds of creative tricks and tactics.
            
Does this make sense? Is it something you should try also?
            
Well, here's my advice:

Don't do it. For two important reasons:
            
First -- hiring managers and HR reps aren't stupid. They can spot right away when a candidate is trying to hide their age, they know how to verify it quickly using Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and it's a huge turn-off.
            
(HR reps especially hate it when candidates treat them like they're stupid.)
            
Second (and most important) -- it leaves your confidence in tatters.
            
Just think about it for a second:
            
Let's say you sent out a resume to a hiring manager, and you successfully managed to hide that you're on the more experienced end of the scale. While you're sitting outside, waiting to be called into the interview, you're going to fret about how the interviewer will react when they see you.
            
If the interviewer is visibly disappointed, that anxiety you'll feel is going to play with your head and undermine your confidence in a big way.
            
Look, it's true that there are many hiring managers who won't give a candidate a second look once they clock that she's over a certain age.
            
But you don't want to work for these people anyway.
            
And it's also true that there are many -- and I mean many -- that value experience and are actively seeking baby boomers to join their team. (HR reps have caught on to the fact that too many millenials lack the basic skills they used to take for granted in candidates.)
            
If you try and "hide" your experience, these employers -- who, by the way, are often great organizations to work for -- might ironically pass you over for someone they perceive as being more experienced.
            
For this reason, I advise you to wear your experience as a badge of honour. Be up-front about the experience you bring to the table.
            
That way, you'll disqualify the employers that would be a bad fit anyway, and when you walk into that interview, you'll feel confident and relaxed because there won't be any surprises -- for you, or for the interviewer.

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Alan Carniol

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.