CVs

[tamborine]

Had CVs today, 3 out of 5 applicants gave no date of birth, dates of qualifications and dates of work experience. Is the Employer expected to telephone them to get this info?

Have binned them.....dont have time to chase for necessary info!

n.b. Dates, dates, dates - very important.

[CheekyChops]

I read somewhere recently that people were leaving their date of birth from their CV's so that they couldn't be discriminated against due to their age.

[factor-fiction]

Yes, sadly many employers do discriminate based on age. But an employer wants dates of qualifications and employment in order to spot career gaps and can pretty easily work out your age from this info. For example when I put on an application form that I completed my degree 30 years ago. I think that gives employers a pretty good clue that i'm over 50 and possibly therefore 'over the hill'

[marval]

I had a meeting with someone from Next Step last Monday. She wanted to look at my CV, she said I should not have my age or D.O.B. on it. I was also told to leave my education history out, I am 58 BTW. All it has is a profile, ten year workable history and hobbies and interests. If I an lucky enough to get an interview, they are probably in for a shock.

[dothawkes31]

having also had to compile a CV this year i have sent mine out without date of birth, i also only included the last 10 years work history, I have had 6 interviews and 3 job offers based on phone and one to one interview, i am 53, i cannot tell whether including my age on the Cv would have been detremental to making the initial interview pile, but after that all went great.

[marval]

Well done Dot, it is good to hear news like that, especially in today's market. I gives me hope that my new CV might do the trick. I will send out as many as I can, and wait to see.

[A1Mikey]

What was the job? I think that some allowances have to be made if the position is non-office / non-computer based. If you hire a bouncer for a nightclub, will you always pick the best employee from the best presented CV?. I guess not.

[tamborine]

I dont intend to be put in a spot of interviewing someone of the wrong age group and then be sued for ageism or such.

[A1Mikey]

What was the job? There are hardly any jobs which require an "age group". Providing the person is qualified and has the required experience it cannot possible matter whether that person is 18 or 58. If the person CAN DO THE JOB age is completely unimportant.

[TTG]

I've also been told to leave dob off my cv...this from a very good agency.

[Memore]

for the record you can be sued for not interviewing unless you have a robust selection criteria matched against a person specification and the job description - as said earlier the job should be based on merit and ability and not on somebody's age - I also think it is irrelevant to put hobbies and interests on a cv as mentioned earlier as the majority of jobs do not have any relevance to what you do outside of work and the shortlisting should only be based on relevant information provided by CV or job description - marital status - children etc is also irrelevant. Phoning to get the information and then not shortlisting for interview leaves an employer wide open to being sued for discrimination

[Lea7]

I agree with some of the other answers... (working in HR myself) I have noticed many applications / CVs are now being submitted without Dates of birth... the qualification dates would show an idea of age if detailed. It's difficult to know what you're looking for and to be fair at the same time. I appreciate your difficulty.

[Addy123]

You don't have to include your D.O.B on CV's these days and as people have said unless your advert specified an age range (which has to be for a very specific reason) then there is little you can do.
I can usually work out a rough idea of how old a candidate is based on how many jobs, when they first started work, even certain terminology.

I have employed loads of people over the years, young, old, experienced, total newbies, male, female etc, because the relevant fact was that at interview i felt they demonstrated what I am looking for and would fit the company culture, and so far I have only been proved wrong twices out of about 40 hirings. In fact 99% of the people I have employed for my company are still with us, are top performers and a number of them have been promoted.
I disagree that hobbies are not important, they can tell you a lot about a person. For instance, we have a lady who in her spare time works with young children with special needs, taking them on outward bound courses etc. What this gives her is a great deal of understanding, organisation and the ability to cope well under pressure.
These assets transpose into her day to day role and improve her performance.

[dh001]

Rather concerning that some one can just 'bin' an application because they do not like the format of the CV.

[A1Mikey]

Quite right dh001 - this is probably how the french revolution started.

[bushbaby_de]

As it is illegal to dscriminate on grounds of age, many employers actively state that they do not want you to include DOB and dates for qualifications and employment, because if they don't have the info they can't possibly use it against you. Local Government states on all their application forms that you must not include this information. You may find yourself in hot water if you bin CVs for failing to provide dates

[humpy07]

Is this what they call positive discrimination?