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I am working hard at changing my situation/identity from "I am retired now" to "I am working now."
My job hunting coach is telling all of us old looking middle aged unemployed folks that employers expect you to have a LinkedIn presence and will compare it to the information on your resume and online application. He also told us that if your LinkedIn page has a picture there is a 7 times better chance a recruiter will look at it. Verified by this website:
Honestly, I look old, out of shape and just plain terrible in my pictures. I have a few pictures of me when I was younger where I look good but they are not online.
To me the whole movement towards pictures on LinkedIn is just a way to quietly discriminate against older people and ethnic minorities. If pictures are expected on LinkedIn, and you are expected to have a LinkedIn page, then it is only a matter of time before we will be required to have a picture on our resume.
There's no doubt that discrimination happens in the workplace - heck, I was basically fast-rejected out of a "young, fast-paced company" interview process since nobody in the place was over 25 (aside from the owner) and I'm over 30!
The thing here is that there's no way to hide your experience really. Even if you only put the past 10 years on your resume and pretend the rest never happened, you'll still need to answer when you went to school or graduated college, which allows people to figure out your approximate age pretty fast... and if they are a bunch of jerks who "don't hire old people," you won't hear back from them, photo or no photo.
You probably have some reasonably accurate photos with a professional look. Just put one of those online - once you get beyond a certain age, hiding it becomes impossible, and if a company is just hiring "drinking buddies" to party with them, they won't even consider experienced workers.
Any recruiter will know your age based upon your resume. Your graduation dates, work history, the outdatedness of projects youve worked on...etc. Age discrimination DEFINITELY happens but theres literally no way to prove it in our current system of hiring. Your resume goes into a digital black hole with no way of knowing what happens behind the scenes.
I was contacted by a headhunter a few months ago and he literally told me they wanted me because I was young. He then joked that that was illegal so they use the term "up and come'er to hint to the employer that Im young.
Surely you have a picture somewhere you can use? Take some new ones with better lighting and composition. If you take enough photos, surely eventually one of them will be presentable. As the article says, "Like a house that’s on sale, the assumption is that if there’s no photo, something’s wrong."
Go to a professional photographer. It doesn't have to cost a ton and a good background and lighting can make a huge difference.
Great advice, take heart that yes, while your photo may exclude you from consideration for many jobs that those who do call you in for an interview will already be aware of your age.
Essentially you will be weeding out those who are going to discriminate against you concerning age thus saving you time and aggravation.
The job hunting support group and our leader had quite an interesting discussion about the whole LinkedIn and picture requirement issue. Here is what we decided:
It is extremely unfair that employers would basically require that people participate in a private business (LinkedIn) to be considered an viable job hunter.
LinkedIn may have some advantages but it requires (if you want to be a viable job searcher in my field) a private citizen to tell the world your entire job history. I don't want everyone to have access to my picture and job history!
While it is easy for the 20-40 year old posters on this board to say that age and appearance discrimination is a fact of life, they are not living it like I am. Yes, it is possible to hide your age somewhat on your resume and hope you will get a fair hearing once they have to talk to you after calling you in for an interview. While they may be shocked when they find out you are old once they meet you in the lobby, maybe you can get them to forget your age if you come across well in your interview. With the picture on LinkedIn thing they can eliminate anyone they don't like their look, age, appearance, or color and these folks will never get a chance to impress.
What a sad state of affairs!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eastcoasting
Great advice, take heart that yes, while your photo may exclude you from consideration for many jobs that those who do call you in for an interview will already be aware of your age.
Essentially you will be weeding out those who are going to discriminate against you concerning age thus saving you time and aggravation.
Personally I would tell him to stuff Linkedin and the photo.
I have no social media and will not get any no matter who requires what.
I glad I own my own company is all I can say.
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Exactly
