Age discrimination? - being asked my graduation date by job agency

AskAsk

your CV needs to contain dates.  that puts into perspective how long / how much experience you have in a particular role.  it also stops people lying on their CV, which some people do, as when you are asked for specific dates, it is more difficult to lie or if you do, it is easier to incriminate yourself.

i wouldn't worry too much about it, it is quite standard to disclose dates.

Barny1979

silverwhistle said:

Barny1979 said:

If you get shortlisted, they'll work out your approximate age easy enough anyway when they meet you.

Yep, in which case why not save yourself the considerable effort of preparing and getting to an interview where you have no chance? 
But if you tell them and they still invite you the odds are greater that you _do_ have a chance.

Or as you have put the relevant number of years experience they know what to expect

[Deleted User]

You answered yourself in the first line, as you have said "reputable recuitment agency". You've just got someone who likes to be thorough in who they represent and probably doesn't want to look silly in front of their paying client by not having what they know may well be asked. In 2018 20 years after leaving school I thought I'd try leaving out the GCSEs which I highly summarise was far more interesting for the year of leaving school was known at least - it got picked up as not a good idea for all manner of reasons, so it didn't last long! It was like the first thing hiring managers / recruiters spotted.

General_Grant

Undervalued said:

74jax said:

I'm not sure how it states your age? 
Is the position one where its essential to have the degree? Could it be the degree 10yrs ago doesn't stand as well as if it was 3yrs ago maybe? 
At my work we had people of all ages doing our degrees, all would have graduated in the same year, with vast ages. 
GCSEs yes, you tend to do them at the same age, but degrees can be at any time with any job. You could have done it 4yrs ago and still have a20yr work history. 
I'd just ask why they need to know the year, and not the uni (to see the standard of degree) it's an honest question. 

It pretty much tells them the candidate's maximum possible age but obviously they could be significantly younger if they went to university as a mature student.

It pretty much tells them the candidate's minimum possible age. 
Eg graduated in 1991, probably born no later than 1970 and therefore at least 50 now.
But could be born in 1950 and still be a new graduate in 1991.

Brynsam

tacpot12 said:

you could say you don't want to have to go to the trouble of scanning your certificate unless that are interested in you enough to commit to interviewing you.

How much effort is it to scan a certificate - but they haven't even asked for that, just the year of graduation. It's an entirely reasonable question, because if the discipline is relevant to the job, it indicates how up to date your academic knowledge is.

phill99

I think you need to address your paranoia before you continue your job search. 
There are many reasons why they want to know when you graduated. And they would be lucky to work out your age from just that as people graduate at different times in their lives. It may well be that they are doing due diligence on you to see if you actually attended the course and have been awarded the degree that you claim to have. A request to the Registry of a University will confirm that you are legitimate (or not). 
There are a lot of people out there who claim to have degrees/qualifications, but they don't.  

Conrad_Hart

Ella_fella said:

Am not sure about the merits or demerits of this, was approached by a reputable recruitment agency about a new role, sent over CV a couple of days ago to them for submission to their client.
Got email back at the end of the week asking can I give them my year of graduation as their client may possibly query this? I deliberately leave year of graduation off so it doesn't get used as a factor to exclude me on age basis. They also asked about my employment history before my last job listed for same reasons as above, my CV covers my previous 20 years work experience.

I personally don't want to be obstructive with the agency but don't see the relevance of when I graduated unless it is used as a discriminating factor and also don't see the importance of listing non relevant jobs more than 20 years ago as my CV would be over 3 pages long unless again it is used for the same purposes?
I haven't gone back to the agency yet but was looking for some thoughts. 

I would just tell them. At the end of the day you can´t change your age and as others have said on here unless you´re lucky enough to have great genetics and look really young the employers will be able to tell approximately what age you are as soon as you walk-in (and if they are ageist then you could basically have just wasted some of your time).

How old are you by the way? I ask as I am more than seriously thinking about going back to education in September (I´ll be 34 by then, shock!) and I must admit I do ´worry´somewhat about being the oldie in the class with a ´bunch of kids´ and more so when I think about any future graduation date (if I do indeed go down that route) where I will more than likely be 37 (or even 38) which is possibly far too old to have the best chance of getting a ´new career job´´, when there are going to be zillions of young and hotter whipper-snappers applying for the same.

At the same time. What is my other option? Plastic surgeries and a fake passport?

GHolmesAdmin

The thing to say is 'I'm happy to give you that information... but erm is my age important to you?' making quite sure to sound mystified that they have asked. If the answer is yes then they are discriminating, if the answer is no then just say 'I don't think it's salient do you?'

k12479

GHolmesAdmin said:

...if the answer is no then just say 'I don't think it's salient do you?'

To which the agent may well reply: "No, I don't, but how much experience you have in graduate-level roles is.".

If, after that exchange, you still don't provide the information and somehow the agent goes ahead and submits your CV to potential employers, then HR or the hiring manager will likely do their usual skim reading, notice standard information is missing and wonder "Why no date? What's this person hiding?", swiftly move it to the reject pile and move on to the next CV.