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I hear you but with dating! Just broke off a relationship and I’m 39 (and a straight woman in Chicago who doesn’t want to have kids). 🤦♀️
I’d always rather have a more experienced person on my team, so hopefully the right shops will see your experience as an asset. (Look client side too if you have interest.)
Sending you love Account Sup 2! I bet you’re a real catch.
I’ve trimmed older gigs off of my resume - small regional agencies prior to me getting to the “big name” spots.
I don’t think that hurts, and it gives the impression of being younger without having to lie about your age.
I’ve been blessed and started off at big name shops. Hurts to trim it off
Who are they to tell you you can’t identify as a different age. It’s your truth. Fthe man. F trump. F Putin. F the chicago police ...F capitalism . Sorry I have issues. F issues
That’s the only way to stay employed in this industry. But my reco is to use this opp to get out of this dying industry. Go to a consultancy, in-house or tech, all of which are stable and growing.
Yes, that would be crazy. Just call yourself a CD and start looking at smaller markets/shops.
Agreed
They can't ask your age....so don't offer it up. No need to keep every job on the resume. Start with the most recent ones....let them assume what they want. It's worked for me 😊
This is literally a TV show called Younger
Yup and that show makes me so mad because I have so often wanted to pretend to be 28 so I could get a certain job but there’s this thing called drivers licenses and passport or social security card you have to give to HR. Yet somehow she still gets away with her entire office including her boss thinking she is 28, not 40 🙄
But background checks....
Did time as a junior at BBDO 😩
That would be crazy, yes. If I had to guess, it’s not your age so much as it’s the money you demand now. Start asking for what you made as a 30 y.o. and I bet the offers start rolling in.
Why don’t you dress up as a woman while your at it? Or pretend to be British?
🙀
I love all the “If you’re book’s good, your age won’t matter” comments. What a fun fairytale. But it’s not always true. Even moreso for women.
@ACD that’s one advantage women have - usually take better care of their skin. As a dude, nobody ever said “use moisturizer and sunscreen” when I was younger.
You can be old or look old and won’t be a problem, as long as your book looks fresh and updated with some nice famous work done in the last 1/2 years.
I have yet to run into a 25 year old CD... I don’t feel like 40 is old... while your age may come up in background checks, HR or a recruiter should never be mentioning your age to a hiring manager—isn’t 40 and up part of a protected class? Would seem risky for HR or recruiter to disclose and allow it to be a factor in whether or not you’re qualified for the job...
By the time you’re giving a social security number, aren’t you 95% of the way to signing an offer anyway? It’d be one thing to meet you and think “He’s too old for us.” It’s another thing to meet you, like you, start a process to hire you, and then change their minds based on your date of birth.
Age is not your problem right now. It is just harder to get a job. Stop comparing yourself to your past self, it is not going to get you where you need to go.
The concept you all are talking about is “passing” you can try to pass as white if you are not or straight if you are gay or young if you are not but I don’t think tackling ageism starts with passing. Ethnic minorities talk about code switching so not to say some of that might not be applicable here but as we think about bias we need to think about the broader implications of our strategies to overcome.
I shaved off a few years so I’d appear about five years younger. The biggest thing is removing the year you graduated college.
I’m the same! Was wondering about that! I am almost 40, but look 30. Was thinking of reducing stuff on my resume and LinkedIn too! But I don’t think I would lie to HR though. I just try to omit my age, like don’t ask, don’t tell. But my resume is long and I worry about it too!
Jeez you're lucky. I look mid-40's but im mid 30's. I also have attitude of an 8 year old.
Are you... me?
You don’t need to include everything on your resume such as the year you graduated and every job since you graduated. You can pare it down.But you also don’t need to flat out lie about your age. I don’t believe they can ask in the interview. Let them fall in love with your work and get you in the door to see if you’re a good fit. Sadly it is my experience that it is harder to get a full- time agency job as you get older, speaking as a creative in her mid 50s.. It’s a business of ideas and perceptions so you have to give yourself every advantage. In my opinion don’t lie about your age but be careful how and to whom you volunteer it, such as talking about when you graduated or how old your kids are or even chatting about older music. Sometimes people will try to find out your age in sneaky ways.
I highly recommend the show “Younger” on TV Land, which is about precisely this topic. (Spoiler alert: it seems stressful.)