Age vs Experience - Age Discrimination?

sams247

I recently applied to a job I am well qualified for, have all the experience they need, have all the qualifications and I got an immediate rejection email saying I was not suitable. I felt my age was against me as most of their employees seem to be young, so I reapplied and adjusted my qualification dates to make it looks as if I was 30 years younger, but had to cut out all my experience over the years as this would have told them how old I was. I got an immediate interview date.

This is beyond crazy. How can it be that without all the experience I am worth an interview, but with it I am not? Shouldnt my work life count more than my lived life? Isnt this purely discrimination about my age?

I wont go to the interview as obviously once they see I am not young and experienced I wont get the job!

vroombroom

This is happening to my mam.

My mam has recently just turned 60 and got made redundant a few months ago as her job as a manager.

She doesn't put her DOB on her CV but from the dates of her first job and qualifications, you can guess. She's been very successful in getting interviews but she never gets the role and like you - has the experience and qualifications that they need.


It's awful, just awful.

FBaby

It is very different not being offered an interview and being offered an interview but not the job. If they are truly discriminating against age, as seems to be the case with sams, then why would they bother to actually ask people to come for an interview.

Could it be that your mum just doesn't interview well despite her experience?

vroombroom

FBaby wrote: »

It is very different not being offered an interview and being offered an interview but not the job. If they are truly discriminating against age, as seems to be the case with sams, then why would they bother to actually ask people to come for an interview.

Could it be that your mum just doesn't interview well despite her experience?

I would hope not lol - she has worked in training and assessing for the best part of 30 years. Part of that was helping to get people practicing for interviews. But I know what you mean.

FBaby

Then there was that lovely cheerful lady on the Apprentice whose job was training people to do presentation and was utterly rubbish at it!

Not saying it is the case for your mum as obviously don't know her, and also, might be that she interviews great, but in the end, other candidates have something extra.

I have interviewed people where it was a case of picking the least bad amongst many poor applications, as well as picking the absolute top amongst all impressive candidates.

Takeaway_Addict

sams247 wrote: »

I recently applied to a job I am well qualified for, have all the experience they need, have all the qualifications and I got an immediate rejection email saying I was not suitable. I felt my age was against me as most of their employees seem to be young, so I reapplied and adjusted my qualification dates to make it looks as if I was 30 years younger, but had to cut out all my experience over the years as this would have told them how old I was. I got an immediate interview date.

This is beyond crazy. How can it be that without all the experience I am worth an interview, but with it I am not? Shouldnt my work life count more than my lived life? Isnt this purely discrimination about my age?

I wont go to the interview as obviously once they see I am not young and experienced I wont get the job!

On the face of it there is a possibility it could be age discrimination but be wary about accusing of this directly.

If you don't want the job then perhaps send them an email and ask why one CV got accepted and the other didn't...there maybe a valid reason (for example, you could have had to many different jobs over a certain time period on your first one but not on the second)

sangie595

sams247 wrote: »

I recently applied to a job I am well qualified for, have all the experience they need, have all the qualifications and I got an immediate rejection email saying I was not suitable. I felt my age was against me as most of their employees seem to be young, so I reapplied and adjusted my qualification dates to make it looks as if I was 30 years younger, but had to cut out all my experience over the years as this would have told them how old I was. I got an immediate interview date.

This is beyond crazy. How can it be that without all the experience I am worth an interview, but with it I am not? Shouldnt my work life count more than my lived life? Isnt this purely discrimination about my age?

I wont go to the interview as obviously once they see I am not young and experienced I wont get the job!

Your view is "well qualified" for the job. Could the employers be "over qualified" for the job? If they see that you could be doing much better, then they may be concerned about this being a stop gap until something better comes along. Or maybe they wanted someone with less skills and qualifications who could grow into the job - and gets paid less while they do? Just because you cut out all your experience doesn't mean they were looking for someone younger. Perhaps they preferred someone without as much experience.

pioneer22

sams247 wrote: »

I recently applied to a job I am well qualified for, have all the experience they need, have all the qualifications and I got an immediate rejection email saying I was not suitable. I felt my age was against me as most of their employees seem to be young, so I reapplied and adjusted my qualification dates to make it looks as if I was 30 years younger, but had to cut out all my experience over the years as this would have told them how old I was. I got an immediate interview date.

This is beyond crazy. How can it be that without all the experience I am worth an interview, but with it I am not? Shouldnt my work life count more than my lived life? Isnt this purely discrimination about my age?

I wont go to the interview as obviously once they see I am not young and experienced I wont get the job!

Hi,

This could potentially be age discrimination if the experience was similar.

Same as having 2 CV's one with the name of John Smith one with the name of Ramula Abdula Mohammed, John Smith gets an interview the other doesn't.

My advice:

Still go for the interview as its always great experience, but if they were discriminating would you really want to work for them?

If you took it further it would be down to the employer to show they have recruitment processes in place to prove they don't discriminate.

For example a person specification they use to shortlist applications they would have to show they haven't discriminated against you.

This is why the NHS application form on the receiving side doesnt show names or ages.

Hope this helps if you want to take it forward give ACAS a call.

Moto2

There's lots of age discrimination going on.

There was 14 of us made redundant in Sept 14, Technical Project Managers working in telecoms. All similarly qualified and educated.

The eight that are under 50 found a similar role within a month, the six over 50 struggled to even get an interview, we're all employed now but five out of the six are under-employed, in my case on less than half my previous salary and back to working on the tools.
It seems almost impossible to get heard when looking for a PM job as a 57 year old, I'm sure some jobs are worse/better than other for this, I'm good at my job but simply can't get to show my skills and commitment to an employer.

vegasvisitor

One of my friends said she felt she may have been having problems with age discrimination and an agency told her to disguise her age a bit on her CV. Good advice anyway probably! She's around mid 40s. I'm early 40s and it hadn't crossed my mind!

What age do you think is a problem? I'm talking admin/finance work - as I'm sure it varies by industry.

getmore4less

Networking the is a key component as you get older, you know more people so have more ways in bypassing the discrimination.

you do need to have networked with people that recognise you your skills.

another angle is to look for jobs that don't need a long term, contracts, interim, cover, consulting.

some places have long term needs but happy to take on someone as an experienced filler(very rare).