Congress outlawed discrimination by employers against employees or applicants over the age of 40, with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (the ADEA). Amendments to the act in 1974, 1978, and 1986 raised and then eliminated the mandatory retirement age for most workers and extended the act's coverage to most employers.

It is now widely accepted that the ADEA was successful in eliminating the most common forms of age discrimination, which had to do with discrimination in the retention and firing of employees, and in the provision for employee benefits. However, it is also widely held that the ADEA has not been successful in eliminating age discrimination in the hiring of employees.

In fact, allowing age to be one of numerous relevant factors in the hiring decision is not, on its face, discriminatory. This is an important fact for older candidates in the job market to realize and accept. Do not delude yourself by thinking age is not a factor, and do not feel sorry for yourself because it is.

We all recognize that the hiring process is very subjective. Age is just one factor. As I have noted in other articles, the first five minutes of an interview is the most crucial, and many hiring (or, alternatively, not hiring) decisions are made in that first five minutes, regardless of age consideration.

Furthermore, employers generally are looking for a combination of education, experience, skills, knowledge and “soft” traits that ultimately drive their hiring decision. So there are ample areas for an employer to conclude, fairly or not, that a younger candidate is a better match than an older candidate.

And, if the employer has even the most basic commitment to the concept of return on investment in human capital, they want most new employees to be trainable and promotable. The costs of training an older employee can be a cost that is not necessary when hiring a trained younger employee; and the probability of promoting an older employee may be much lower than the probability of promoting a better trained, and perhaps more career-minded, younger employee.

So, if you are a job-seeker who believes that your age (in the over-50 age group) is a serious hurdle to finding your next job, how are you going to deal with resume-based age discrimination?

First of all, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Chances are, if you are over 50 and currently unemployed, it is not because of something you did or did not do. You may be a victim, but you likely have not been victimized. So, spend one final day feeling sorry for yourself, then tomorrow start feeling good about what you have already accomplished in your career.

Second, take a hard look at your resume and decide what personal information you will and will not disclose about yourself. There are recruiters that I know, and there are resume writers that I know of, that believe the best tactic to use to avoid resume-based age discrimination is to remove from your resume any information that would indicate your age. For example, do not put the year you graduated from college on your resume. Also, if you have more than 15 or 20 years of experience, show only the first 10 or so years of experience. The rationale for this is that the last 10 years of experience is all that is relevant in any circumstance. I do not believe in that approach and will not represent a candidate who uses that approach. However, this article is not a discussion of that subject so I will not dwell on it. I will only say that I have never found a hiring manager that was duped by this approach, and I know many who were offended by it. But, make your own decision on that.

Third, take another hard look at your resume. Does your resume talk about what you have done in your career? Or, does it talk about what you have accomplished in your career? Generally, the word “done” means that something is completed. For example, if you managed an accounting department, or perhaps reworked a process, you have “done” that.

The term “accomplished” incorporates the concept of having done something successfully. And, in business, because we generally measure success in either dollars or percentages, when you have accomplished something successfully it is important to quantify the accomplishment in dollars or percentages.

If your resume describes only what you have done, and does not list what you have accomplished, you are ignoring the most important reason an employer would want to hire you – which is that you can bring a track record of accomplishments into the new job, and instill in the hiring manager a high degree of confidence that you can duplicate those accomplishments for him or her.

Accomplishments are most easily communicated by describing what you have made, saved and achieved in your various career roles. I call these MSAs. Powerful MSAs set you apart from your competition and give the hiring manager the reason to talk to you – to invite you for the initial interview.

Hiring managers are also interested in your knowledge, skills and abilities. These are known as your KSAs. A well written resume that clearly describes your KSAs and MSAs, and that articulates a concise resume objective, will create a Value Proposition for you. This Value Proposition conveys to the hiring manager the benefits of hiring you. And, rather than your Value Proposition being offset by your age and experience, your Value Proposition takes advantage of your age and experience. Helping the Hiring Manager to see your Value Proposition is up to you. The Hiring Managers will not do that on their own, nor should they have to. That is your job.

So, back to the issue - How to Deal With Resume-Based Age Discrimination. The simplest, most effective way to make sure that age is minimized as a factor in the hiring decision is to have an Impact Resume that sets you apart from your competition, creates a Value Proposition for the hiring manger to see, and motivates that hiring manager to give you an interview that the other candidates are not getting.

For more information on Impact Resumes, please go to my website by clicking on the link shown below.