De-age CV

LegacyUser

I am thinking of De-aging my CV so that I appear to be mid 20s instead of late 20s. So I would be wiping 3/4 years of work off it. I finished college as a mature student.

A problem with this I think is that I may apply for jobs at companies where I have previously applied (and all work experience would have been shown in these applications).

Plus there is the small country thing (i.e. people talk) so maybe its better just to be honest.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Agent_47

De-aging CV's is the in thing now, last set of applicants I interviewed there were no DOB on them all just the experience , dates in those jobs and at University.

TG1

I wouldn't bother... If you get called for interview or if anything is said it will only lead to recruiters wondering why you wanted to hide it.

For most jobs having had a few extra years to mature and accept responsibilities and learn about professional behaviour is not a bad thing. 22 year olds are often not as attractive a prospect to recruiters as they like to think they are!

Grandpa Hassan

Really bad idea. You don't put your date of birth on a CV anyway and if you start lying about the dates you were at school / college or dates of your work experience, you'll get found out I guarantee. I don't get why you'd want to

Iwasfrozen

De-age CV wrote: »

I am thinking of De-aging my CV so that I appear to be mid 20s instead of late 20s. So I would be wiping 3/4 years of work off it. I finished college as a mature student.

A problem with this I think is that I may apply for jobs at companies where I have previously applied (and all work experience would have been shown in these applications).

Plus there is the small country thing (i.e. people talk) so maybe its better just to be honest.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Don't do it, the interviewers aren't stupid they'll know you lied and it will hurt your chances.

Shadow1983

I wouldn't bother, just don't put your DOB on your CV. I never have. Anyway, if you're successful & get a job it's more than likely to come up & then they'd wonder if you'd misled them about anything else.

NIMAN

I don't think you need to put your dob on any more, companies cannot discriminate on age.

Eoin

Agent_47 wrote: »

De-aging CV's is the in thing now, last set of applicants I interviewed there were no DOB on them all just the experience , dates in those jobs and at University.

Not stating your age is different though. Wiping some work experience off to look like you're in your mid-twenties instead of late-twenties makes no sense to me, unless it's to hide a lack of career progression or something.

De-age CV

De-age CV wrote: »

I am thinking of De-aging my CV so that I appear to be mid 20s instead of late 20s. So I would be wiping 3/4 years of work off it. I finished college as a mature student.

A problem with this I think is that I may apply for jobs at companies where I have previously applied (and all work experience would have been shown in these applications).

Plus there is the small country thing (i.e. people talk) so maybe its better just to be honest.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

You are not legally obliged to put your age on a CV so remove it completely. Think about it an employer cannot discriminate against age so don't give them the opportunity to do so.

Although in many jobs now you have to provide ID to prove your citizenship for compliance reasons AFAIK

I guess it depends on how you go about it.

Work done before you went to college might not be relevant and might be making your cv overly long or cluttered.

I don't think I have the year I graduated on my cv and I dropped the work I did before my first professional role. I am older than you though.

Eugene Norman

I think the OP is thinking about listing his relevant college and work experience, rather than his pre college work which probably isn't relevant. Most people do that ( I worked in a pub and a supermarket before and during college but I don't list that now). Then with no date of birth he is letting the interviewers work it out. They can't ask.

I don't necessarily see the point of lying about his age necessarily but he doesn't have to list irrelevant experience either.

TG1

Eugene Norman wrote: »

I don't necessarily see the point of lying about his age necessarily but he doesn't have to list irrelevant experience either.

Irrelevant experience doesn't need to be on a CV but the op mentioned working for companies they are applying to before they went to college.

This absoloutly needs to be on a CV, if they leave it off and a recruiter spots it the CV will go in the bin as it will be presumed that they don't want to ve associated with the previous work they did.

TG1

TG1 wrote: »

Irrelevant experience doesn't need to be on a CV but the op mentioned working for companies they are applying to before they went to college.

This absoloutly needs to be on a CV, if they leave it off and a recruiter spots it the CV will go in the bin as it will be presumed that they don't want to ve associated with the previous work they did.

He said he had applied before & included all the work experience in the first applications - they didn't say they worked there.

Jim2007

NIMAN wrote: »

I don't think you need to put your dob on any more, companies cannot discriminate on age.

Of course they can and regularly do! Do you seriously think they will take a 50 old, it they were intending employ a 30 year old??? I always put my age on my resume (and yes I'm over 50) 'cause I could not be bothered turning up for interviews where I have no possibility of getting the job.

lukin

If you lie about your age on your CV and then you get the job you may have to give your real DOB for some other purpose while you are in the job.

syklops

I included my work experience from the last 5 years. An emploer doesnt want to go through 3 pages of work history, and remove anything non relevant to this job.

I don't know why you would want to look younger. I'm assuming this is for a software/IT role. The phrase "Its a young persons game" is a myth. Most places prefer experience, whether its technical experience or life experience over youth.

There were people who rang up Joe Duffy last week complaining they couldnt get jobs because they were too old, but I think it was more their attitude than anything else. For starters would you want to hire someone who, when he/she finds it hard to find a job, rings Joe Duffy to complain about it? Or who blames the market wanting graduates as to why they can't get a job.

Mrs OBumble

Lying vs not giving the information are different things.

Tell the truth. But don't put irrelevant stuff on your CV.

Frankly de-aging when you're in your 20s is irrelevant. Doing it in your 40s / 50s is more understandable.

Eoin

De-age CV wrote: »

I am thinking of De-aging my CV so that I appear to be mid 20s instead of late 20s. So I would be wiping 3/4 years of work off it.

OP, why do you want to do this? I still don't understand the motivation. You can just have a one-liner for jobs that you see as irrelevant, but I am not sure what problem you're solving by pretending you're a few years younger.

allandanyways

lukin wrote: »

If you lie about your age on your CV and then you get the job you may have to give your real DOB for some other purpose while you are in the job.

You'll have to give your date of birth and your PPS number to admin/payroll, so if you lie about your age, you'll soon be found out.

I lied about my age in my last job as I was 23 just turning 24, so I added a year on as it was a mid-level senior role and said I was turning 25.

6 months into the job, the head of admin asks me for a copy of my passport for check in for a Ryanair flight and I had to do a lot of backpeddling to explain why my DOB on the payroll didn't match the DOB on my passport. It didn't do any harm as I was well settled into the job by then but jaysus, it was awkward AF.

I would take heed of other posters advising you to just put a one-liner for jobs you don't see as relevant if that's what you're worried about. I worked in what turned out to be a massive scam website for my first job, so I just have the job title and the year worked there, and I've never been asked to elaborate.

Interviewers are only interested in the jobs and skills most relevant to the job at hand, so if you're interviewing for Sales, and have 2 or 3 recent, relevant jobs in same, they're not really going to care about the 6 months you spent working as a tiler etc.

Progression is a good thing - the fact that you went back to college as a mature student is admirable. If you go changing dates/doing a bit of time travel on the CV, it will inevitably raise questions and you will get caught out one way or another. I was lucky that it was only a year in the difference and nobody really cared, but depending on the company and the extent of the "de-aging" it could potentially raise questions about your integrity. Don't bother would be my advice!

lukin

allandanyways wrote: »

You'll have to give your date of birth and your PPS number to admin/payroll, so if you lie about your age, you'll soon be found out.

I lied about my age in my last job as I was 23 just turning 24, so I added a year on as it was a mid-level senior role and said I was turning 25.

6 months into the job, the head of admin asks me for a copy of my passport for check in for a Ryanair flight and I had to do a lot of backpeddling to explain why my DOB on the payroll didn't match the DOB on my passport. It didn't do any harm as I was well settled into the job by then but jaysus, it was awkward AF.

I would take heed of other posters advising you to just put a one-liner for jobs you don't see as relevant if that's what you're worried about. I worked in what turned out to be a massive scam website for my first job, so I just have the job title and the year worked there, and I've never been asked to elaborate.

Interviewers are only interested in the jobs and skills most relevant to the job at hand, so if you're interviewing for Sales, and have 2 or 3 recent, relevant jobs in same, they're not really going to care about the 6 months you spent working as a tiler etc.

Progression is a good thing - the fact that you went back to college as a mature student is admirable. If you go changing dates/doing a bit of time travel on the CV, it will inevitably raise questions and you will get caught out one way or another. I was lucky that it was only a year in the difference and nobody really cared, but depending on the company and the extent of the "de-aging" it could potentially raise questions about your integrity. Don't bother would be my advice!

Good advice.

xband

I've never, ever put my DOB on a CV.

Experience speaks for itself and its irrelevant.

I've found applying in some continental countries absolutely bizarre. I was asked for DOB ane copies of my bank statements by a Belgian recruitmenter so she could "assess an appropriate salary".

Told her where to go!

Also what's with the U.K. public employees asking about your sexual orientation and religion on those equality forms?

I never feel very comfortable filling those in as I've no idea who has access to them.

Arbiter of Good Taste

xband wrote: »

I've never, ever put my DOB on a CV.

Experience speaks for itself and its irrelevant.

I've found applying in some continental countries absolutely bizarre. I was asked for DOB ane copies of my bank statements by a Belgian recruitmenter so she could "assess an appropriate salary".

Told her where to go!

Also what's with the U.K. public employees asking about your sexual orientation and religion on those equality forms?

I never feel very comfortable filling those in as I've no idea who has access to them.

And these people who put their marital status and number of children on their CVs..... I just dont get it

xband

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

And these people who put their marital status and number of children on their CVs..... I just dont get it

I've had a few of those send to me speculatively.

One had:
DOB
CAO Points
Marital status
Exact grades awarded for each element of the person's degree and masters (and they were not impressive, so it wasn't a boast).
A list of extra curricular activities they participated in when they were 13...


I shredded it as I considered it a data protection issue and we were not recruiting anyway.

syklops

xband wrote: »

I've had a few of those send to me speculatively.

One had:
DOB
CAO Points
Marital status
Exact grades awarded for each element of the person's degree and masters (and they were not impressive, so it wasn't a boast).
A list of extra curricular activities they participated in when they were 13...


I shredded it as I considered it a data protection issue and we were not recruiting anyway.

I got a CV like that once and a cover letter which talked about the guys son and wife.

I met the guy at a barbecue and he really wanted to work for my employer and had 20 years of relevant experience (been using linux since Kernel 0.98) so I completely rewrote his CV for him, and long story short he got the job.

I think it was just that no-one ever showed him how to write a CV before. Thats an excuse he can use as he has been working for a long time and CV soft skills were probably not taught when he was in college, but I know for a fact it is taught nowadays, so getting in terrible CVs is inexcusable for anyone under the age of about 30.

Arbiter of Good Taste

syklops wrote: »

I got a CV like that once and a cover letter which talked about the guys son and wife.

I met the guy at a barbecue and he really wanted to work for my employer and had 20 years of relevant experience (been using linux since Kernel 0.98) so I completely rewrote his CV for him, and long story short he got the job.

I think it was just that no-one ever showed him how to write a CV before. Thats an excuse he can use as he has been working for a long time and CV soft skills were probably not taught when he was in college, but I know for a fact it is taught nowadays, so getting in terrible CVs is inexcusable for anyone under the age of about 30.

It's inexcusable for anyone under the age of 50 to be honest.

syklops

Arbiter of Good Taste wrote: »

It's inexcusable for anyone under the age of 50 to be honest.

Why?

TG1

syklops wrote: »

I think it was just that no-one ever showed him how to write a CV before. Thats an excuse he can use as he has been working for a long time and CV soft skills were probably not taught when he was in college, but I know for a fact it is taught nowadays, so getting in terrible CVs is inexcusable for anyone under the age of about 30.

I had a whole module on this sort of thing in college, but after 2 years of reading CVs every day I now know the module was rubbish. My CV has changed hugely since the one I wrote for that module, and not just because of updated content. I don't think the college modules can be given that much credit!

Arbiter of Good Taste

syklops wrote: »

Why?

Because, apart from the fact that someone in their 40s or under most likely had some kind of training in school in preparing CVs, in this day and age a quick google search will throw you up dozens of template CVs

Eoin

A good CV can be pretty tricky; especially if you're in a role where a nicely presented doc is not something you do very often.

Anyway, I am all for not putting your age on the CV, but this is not what the OP wants to do.

I am thinking of De-aging my CV so that I appear to be mid 20s instead of late 20s. So I would be wiping 3/4 years of work off it.

Interested Observer

OP there are way too many problems with this for it to be anywhere near a good idea. You'll have to alter dates of your prior jobs which could catch you out when they check references. If you got an offer, you'd possibly have to provide a passport to prove you can work in Ireland so you'd reveal your age anyway.

witchgirl26

OP if you mean than you're just removing some previous work lines & not showing all your experience which might not be relevant than it's fine. I've done that before because there's no real need for an employer to know I worked in a chemist when I was 19. If you are changing dates then it's a different issue and not good. I don't think it'll help you much in the long run at all.