Resume Omission - The Results

A couple of entries ago, I talked about potential employers and how I really felt like they may be discriminating against me due to my age. The most disappointing part of it is that I'm not, like, old old. I'm older than kids right out of college which, unfortunately, is what my industry looks for when it comes to the more entry-level type of positions. Most of them require some pretty strenuous work, usually outside in whatever kind of weather, but I'm used to that. I've done it my whole life. So they see my (most recent) graduation date, continue looking through things, and then see that I have a previous degree from years ago. Obviously I didn't get my first college degree when I was 11, so they figure out I'm not a fresh, green little bebe. 

My only tell that I can't get around are my college transcripts. They all want them, and I used a lot of credits from the previous school to get my current degree. But they'd have to scroll pretty far back to see those.

The only other thing would be one reference I use, but I always do because she loves me and gives me glowing reports. She's an old supervisor from when I was working in a different industry related to my first degree.

So. I decided to do a little experiment, and started leaving off my previous career's info on my resume. Acted as if that previous career never existed. Completely avoided the topic altogether and figured out how to show mastery of those skills through other avenues.

And you know what happened? I've had 2 interviews in 2 weeks.

The first was specifically for a job I've never done and don't know that much about, but they really emphasized that I'd be getting a lot of training for everything. It's in a very small town a day's drive away from my friends and family, but would be an hour away from a couple of really close friends. One of the interviewers was pretty cool, but one was an old-school guy and he didn't seem thrilled with my interview answers. 

When we toured the facilities (which included a lot of driving), we just small-talked and the older guy seemed perfectly fine then, and we were having a pretty decent time. Unfortunately, I just don't feel as if the interview went the way I wanted it to. The thing is, I wished SO HARD for this job to come through, and now I'm not sure I want to go if they offer it to me. Plus, I can't find anywhere to live there. There's literally 2 places for rent within a 45 minute drive. So that could be an issue.

The second interview went fantastically. I absolutely nailed it. But, it's in my gigantic city of a hometown and I would hate more than anything to have to move back there. Granted, I would be near my aging parents and my friends, and that would make me happy, but dealing with the congestion and traffic and general asshole-ish population...I don't know if I can do it. (Oh, and they just had an election for mayor and the deplorable incumbent got 49% of the vote, so now there's a runoff. I'm going to be disgusted with the residents of the city if they vote for him, but that's another story.)

The job is something I can really excel at and it's something that definitely has growth potential. I liked these people too because a) they didn't start off with 'tell us about yourself,' and b) I didn't get the 'where do you see yourself in 5 years?' question.

Did either of these interviewers seem surprised when I showed up and wasn't a kid? The older guy from the first one, definitely. The others? Maybe it didn't matter, or maybe they hid it well. 

My only point here is that while it's a bit deceptive, hiding all the history that might give away my age has worked. I'm getting responses AND interviews. I don't even know if I would say it's lying by omission; it's deleting extra information that's unrelated to my current job search. No one has asked yet, but that's what I'd tell them if they wanted to know why I left all of that other stuff off the resume.

Now let's see if anything pans out.

My decision-making skills are...
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