23: Why You Shouldn't Drop Dates and Experience from Your LinkedIn Profile and Resume

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If you're approaching 40 or you're perhaps a little, or a lot, beyond it, have you ever gotten the advice from a well meaning friend or colleague that you should time-sanitize your resume or LinkedIn profile?

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When I say time-sanitize, I mean that you should remove the dates from your education entries and maybe cut a few of your earlier jobs, the goal, being that dropping a few dates and removing a few jobs will make it harder to guess your age and you'll be more marketable in an ageist industry and you'll possibly prevent yourself from being screened out by AI before you even get a chance to speak or meet with a human.

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This kind of advice is really common, but I think it's more harmful than helpful.

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Not too long ago, I worked with a woman who was a highly experienced manager, who had been given just that kind of advice from well meaning friends and colleagues.

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And I can tell you that it caused more problems than it solved.

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Stick around, and I'll share why I think that's the case, and what you should do instead.

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The people who write job descriptions and make hiring decisions, and probably AI too if it's involved, can be ageist.

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It's true.

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I'm not going to deny it.

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But is the answer to that challenge to try and hide your age and experience by removing dates from your education and cutting a few of your earlier jobs so your career appears to be shorter than it really is?

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So many people do this.

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So many people are given this advice.

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I see it all the time as a coach to mid and senior-level executives, primarily MBAs, who have a wealth of experience and perspective, but are worried they'll be shut out of opportunities because of their age.

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So they try to soft pedal or hide it by removing the dates from their education entries on their resumes and LinkedIn profiles, and they even remove a few or more of their earlier jobs, often the ones that established them in their respective industries.

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So the question is, does this actually work?

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Do people in their 40s and 50s who follow this approach have access to more opportunities than the people who don't and make their graduation dates public and list all of their jobs, even if they were 15 or 20 years ago?

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I haven't done a study, but I can tell you what I've seen repeatedly over more than a decade of coaching MBA alumni and also working as an executive recruiter at a top firm.

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And the answer is, no surprise, it doesn't work.

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And it's actually self-destructive.

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I've seen time and time again that people who try this still don't get the traction they're after.

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They become less visible and attractive to the gatekeepers who really matter, and the whole situation leads to a downward spiral of frustration and self-doubt.

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They start to wonder if they're even marketable, and it shows in how they present.

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Rather than coming across as confident, experienced and optimistic traits you'd probablybe looking for if you're making a consequential hiring decision they present as a little worn out and defensive.

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It's hard to cover for that, even if you're aware that you might be coming across that way.

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In the introduction, I mentioned that I had recently worked with a highly experienced and capable woman, probably in her 50s.

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I asked her if I could reference her story in this podcast episode, and she said yes, because she thought other people needed to work through this, just like she had in our coaching session.

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Like many other clients I've worked with of a similar age and experience level, she had removed the dates from her education and pruned a few jobs from her resume and LinkedIn profile.

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Her reasoning, backed up by advice from people she knows and maybe even a recruiter or two, was that it would open the door to opportunities in a professional environment where youth and lower salary expectations, especially in the digital age, might be valued more than experience.

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The reasoning, at first glance, it seems sound.

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You just want to get your foot in the door, especially if your materials are going through an AI-enabled filter before you can even get the attention of a human being.

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But if you take the time to think through this, the weakness in the approach and how you present becomes pretty apparent.

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First, if you're at a mid or senior level in your industry and you're looking for your next role, your target gatekeeper shouldn't be AI, a filter, an algorithm, whatever.

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The roles you want at your level are filled through networks and relationships, whether those relationships are yours or they're facilitated through executive recruiters in your industry.

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You know, the network.

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If you have a strong network and are visible enough in it, then opportunities will tend to find their way to you, as opposed to you having to seek them out and compete against an endless supply of applicants.

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And the people in that network, the real influencers and decision makers, are going to value experience and perspective.

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That's what we were looking for when I was an executive recruiter filling senior-level positions.

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And if you remove the signals that you have that experience and perspective from your LinkedIn profile and resume, then you're making yourself less attractive to those critical decision-makers.

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Don't do it! And here's another thing to think about.

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Let's say a recruiter does find you and engage you in a conversation about your experience.

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Then, they realize that you haven't given them the full story and all the details.

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So, an alarm bell goes off in their head, and they have to start digging for the information about your early career and education.

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Not exactly a great way to start off a relationship that needs to be built on trust.

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Recruiters, they don't like mysteries or surprises when it comes to assembling and presenting candidates for their clients.

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Second, let's say, for argument's sake, some sort of ageist filter is involved in screening out candidates above a certain assumed age and you manage to get past it.

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What happens then?

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You get to meet with the person, or the people, who set that filter up in the first place.

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And at some point, they realize your true age and level of experience, and you've probably just wasted a lot of energy, both physical and emotional, only to be rejected politely or maybe even just get ghosted.

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What's the point in that?

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If the gatekeepers to the role feel they need a younger and maybe cheaper person in the role, for whatever reason, you're not likely going to convince them otherwise.

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And if you try to do that by obscuring some of the information about your background and experience, you're going to come across as evasive at best and more than a little defensive.

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Third, if your age and level of experience are a problem in the recruiting process, then won't the deck be stacked against you if you manage to get past the filters and gatekeepers and talk yourself into an offer?

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The doubts among your colleagues will still be there despite them having made an exception to what they thought were their recruiting criteria.

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Now, I'm not saying any of this is fair or ethical, but why would you want to put yourself in a situation where people are expecting there's a high risk of you failing or that you're probably just not worth the investment for whatever reason?

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Instead, I'll go back to my first point and add to it.

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You want to work with people who are attracted to your age and level of experience and think it's an advantage or even critical to success in the role they're looking to fill.

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The positions and those people are out there.

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They just don't post those jobs on LinkedIn.

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They're asking around in their networks do you know anyone who would be a good fit for this role?

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Someone who has the depth of experience and a high degree of confidence in order to pull it off.

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And if you've time-sanitized your resume and LinkedIn profile, then you're not going to present as that person.

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At least not at first.

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I know I sound a little worked up about this particular topic, and yes, I'm in my 50s, so I'm not exactly unbiased.

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But I do know how things work behind the scenes when it comes to recruiting, and I've seen time and time again that people often make the wrong assumptions about that process.

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So let's get back to that client I worked with recently.

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When we first started talking, she had obviously lost a lot or all of her confidence.

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Her job search had gotten off to a relatively slow start.

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They often do when you're at a high level of seniority.

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She had also been applying to a lot of roles on LinkedIn, quite a few of them a step or two below where she should really be, and there wasn't much response.

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So she assumed it was a problem related to her age and level of experience, and she time-sanitized her LinkedIn profile and resume to get a foothold.

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And still, crickets.

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So how do you think she felt?

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Applying to all of those roles, some too junior for her, and still no response.

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It completely sapped her confidence and her energy, and it showed.

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She wondered if she had just aged out of the marketplace.

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From my perspective, she obviously hadn't.

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It's just that she was marketing herself to the wrong gatekeepers, the tech-enabled filters instead of her extended professional network.

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And she was doing it with the wrong positioning, which was presenting herself as someone more junior than she really was.

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So she got lost in the void of online applications and wasn't capturing the attention of the gatekeepers for the more senior roles for which she was a better fit.

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So if you think that keeping your education dates and early roles on your LinkedIn profile and resume is going to make you less attractive or even unmarketable for certain roles, then I'd suggest you just accept it.

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You probably don't want those roles anyway.

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They're likely too junior for you, and you'd probably be a little resentful and underpaid if you ended up in one of them.

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And the people hiring for the role, they'd have their doubts about you before you even start, and they probably wouldn't have your back.

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Instead, reach out to your professional network to raise your profile and be top of mind.

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Promote your full experience and perspective with pride.

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Make it visible so that you're easily found and identified by the people who will value it and ultimately be the gatekeepers for the opportunities you really want to be considered for.

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I guarantee you, the positive feedback loop that will result will improve your sense of value and relevance and your confidence.

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And it will show.

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If you found this episode helpful, share it with a friend or colleague who might have also gotten the well-meaning but misguided advice to present as younger and less experienced than they actually are.

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And don't forget to subscribe.

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See you soon!