My CPRW (Certified Professional Résumé Writer) called me at 2:00 today and we spent about 15-20 minutes on the phone. She had the current version of my résumé, of course, so wanted to know about my career intentions and if I was flexible in terms of industry and size of organization, was there any measurable contribution highlighted in my performance feedback that I hadn’t already included on my résumé, what would I call out as my key managerial/leadership strengths, and was there anything else that I would like to convey. That was about it, I should have something next week.
She did say that typically they exclude any employment history older than 10 years due to concerns about age discrimination, etc. I only have my last three jobs on my résumé but together they span 19 years as I was at the most recent company for 15 years. So I am not entirely sure how she is going to handle that situation but she said she has ways to address the issue. I think she may present my career history in more of an executive bio fashion. Who knows, but that’s her job to figure out!
The age discrimination thing is a funny topic as employers are not allowed to question you on the subject but all jobs are posted for on-line these days and they ask for education history which includes graduation year so they can figure out someone’s age to within +/- 2 years. They need that info for background checks. Its a strange legal subject.