<p>Back on layoff, and looking for gainful employment. Check this out…an employer is not permitted to ask an applicant’s age, so now they’ve figured out another way to get around that - exact wording “must have a minimum of 2 years experience, but no more than 10 years experience” - unreal! </p>
<p>That’s okay–I worked for two years and took the next 30 off…</p>
<p>I agree. It is crazy. In some fields, ads blatantly say “no graduates prior to 2007 (say) will be considered.” It is truly infuriating. I don’t know how companies get away with it.</p>
<p>OMG!</p>
<p>I guess I am lucky I was “only” in my 40s when applying for jobs and got some wonderful ones. It is very challenging – sometimes they don’t want the young ones but they rarely want us older ones either. When I hired on call staff, my most reliable employees were about my age–40s and 50s. The younger ones were NOT reliable and would flake out on me and leave us short-handed without much concern about our organization.</p>
<p>Could you consider working at a temp agency and working your way into a job you like? Independent contracting?</p>
<p>That is ugly… This doesn’t get around that particular problem, but one thing I did was change my resume recently from a chronological order with dates to “specific experience” sections with more detail available on request. I put the length of the experience on each, but left some off (about 10 years worth!). And I took off the years I graduated from college, too. Phone/email started to pop within a week of making those changes… </p>
<p>How do you hide dates on LinkedIn ? Not asking for myself but in general. </p>
<p>You just do not enter them. 
Or you make your profile semi-hidden.</p>
<p>I have not found a way to hide college graduation dates on LinkedIn (and I sent some kind of contact email complaining about this to them, too). For experience, I just left some of the older stuff off. My profile is not searchable, I am mostly linked with people I actually know, and it isn’t a problem with them (so far). But I do accept some links from recruiters… </p>
<p>Interesting… I just ignored the dates, and my LinkedIn has my degrees but no dates.</p>
<p>I don’t have linkedin account and hopeful don’t need one in the future but In the past I left everything on and still found work. </p>
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<p>This was about 2 years ago and I haven’t changed my profile lately, maybe they took my suggestion. :D</p>
<p>And of course don’t forget that Employers can and do ask the Date of Birth at some point in the process (not sure how the online part goes today). Kind of easy to figure out the age when you know the Date of Birth and the Date of graduation(s). </p>
<p>^^^ I am pretty sure you won’t need the date of graduation(s). ;-)</p>
<p>They ask on the application but that is almost the last stage for the job offer.</p>
<p>I tailor my resume to the position, but my last excellent job (the last 8 years) I was in my late 40s. Things are crazy different now! Ugh, I’m already hating the process. I’m still hopeful the layoff is temporary. The last 2 (same firm) were, but one was 11 months, and the last one was 4 1/2 months. Just can’t get over the tactics employers use to shut (or open) the door. Don’t even get me started on how I feel about linkedIn - wow.</p>
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<p>I think that calls for a legal challenge.</p>
<p>Why do you think companies don’t want older workers? If a job is worth x to an employer, but someone with tons of experience wants x plus 50% I can see that being an issue. What are other hurdles? </p>
<p>I agree on filing a complaint on “no graduates prior to 2007” – I’d apply for the position anyway, and then file a complaint with the EEOC and possibly your state’s department that covers employment rules. Some states have even more restrictive requirements than the feds.</p>
<p>(And even though they aren’t explicitly limiting this by age – you could have gotten your degree two years ago – it clearly would have a disparate impact on older applicants.)</p>
<p>They get away with it when they’re not concerned about a person’s age as much as they are by the amount of money they would have to pay a person with X years of experience. That’s just a financial decision, not true ageism.</p>
<p>Note. I point this out as someone whose 22 years of experience makes it virtually impossible to change jobs and remain in my field.</p>