Subj : Re: Resume questions, how convey? (was: How much should I charge fo...)
To   : comp.lang.lisp,comp.programming,comp.lang.java.programmer
From : gds
Date : Thu Aug 25 2005 06:10 pm

(Followups reset)

darrell@does.want.spam.com (".") wrote:
>On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:
>> Only an idiot would make it that easy for a potential employer to see
>> that I'm over 40 and toss my resume in the trash without even glancing
>> at the rest of it. You want me to be an idiot, I presume?
>Why would you presume Tim X wants you to be an idiot? If you talk to me
>that way I'd drop you in my kill file. People here are trying to help you;
>they have nothing to gain from it. Why would you assume they are trying to
>make an idiot out of you?

I have heard varying opinions on whether one should put something on
their resume that indicates their age, such as the year they graduated
from college.  I have decided that since (1) I can't hide this
information from anyone who really wants/needs to know it, and (2) it
might actually be valuable to an employer to know when I graduated, in
order to have a frame of reference about my educational background,
I'll include it.

>Besides, if I apply to a company and hide information from them I'd feel
>I'm already off to a bad start with them. I've seen that finding good
>people is hard. Why would I eliminate someone just because they are over
>40? Why would you want to work for a company that discriminates against
>the elderly?

Personally, I would not want to work for such a company.  I suspect
REM is in a far more desperate situation, so such a company might be
attractive to him if they would hire him (after learning he is capable
of doing the work, but before learning how old he is).

>If you are in your 40s then you were an undergrad in the early 1980s. Why
>are you talking about something you did in the 80s? When you get the
>interview and the employer looks at you they are going to wonder why you
>are talking about things that happened two decades ago.

I've heard mixed opinions here also.  In some interviews I've had,
questions were asked about things I'd done in the 1980s that were
pertinent to the work the company was currently doing.  In other
interviews, no one cared about anything that I'd done prior to the
early 1990s.  I think it behooves someone to put things on their
resume that are pertinent to the work the company is doing, even if
the work was done more than five or so years ago.

--gregbo
gds at best dot com

.