Age Discrimination
It seems that looking too young or too old is a concern of workers at each end of the age spectrum. In an attempt to avoid any premature judgments of hiring managers, co-workers, and bosses, career counselors encourage workers to focus on skills as opposed to age. Some possible tips are deleting the graduation date from your resume, dressing differently, or making the effort not to discuss world events that might give away your age.
The more established job seekers could remove parts of their resume more than 15 years old in addition to their graduation dates. A great idea is to emphasize any technological skills you have to dismiss the stereotype that older workers can't work with technology; also try not to mention any companies that have been obsolete for many years. Finally, resist the temptation to talk about world and business events that occurred too long ago.
Younger workers face just the opposite problem of mature ones. At work, they should avoid more youth-related subjects such as "cool new clubs". A better conversation may arise from more general topics that can include everyone's opinions. Use correct English and try to avoid "like" and "you know" from your speech (most of us are guilty of that). Before meetings, organize your thoughts, and anticipate questions and develop quality answers for them. Also, list your educational qualifications at the bottom of your resume, while highlighting your work experience.
I hope no one out there is experiencing age discrimination, but if you are, I hope these suggestions will help you overcome it.
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