You’ve most likely heard of Botox, but have you heard of CV Botoxing? This is a new phenomenon in the world of work where people – often midlife women – are removing dates from their CV to make it ‘younger’.
This video, in which a resumé was edited so that a job-hunter appeared 35, rather, than 55, has even gone viral.
It’s shocking when you think about it – removing pure facts from a list of experience gathered over many years, in order to try and appeal to a recruiter or, worse still, an algorithm that is sorting through CVs.
Many midlife women are sharing on social media that they are struggling with job applications and the world of work – and that removing experience, including dates, can help ‘de-age’ your CV so you appeal to someone who is recruiting. It’s also thought that recruiters see people and women ‘of a certain age’ as a ‘retirement risk’, so erasing dates of your work experience and your date of birth remove that risk at application stage.
It might feel tempting, therefore, to remove the dates from your CV so the people recruiting are not aware that you are in midlife. But CV Botoxing is something I’d urge you – as a Career Coach – to resist.
I work with everyone from midlife women to graduates, and I can assure you that graduates and those in their 20s are worrying that they don’t have enough experience on their CV! They long for more dates to add, more words, more experience. We are all trapped in a system that seems to be working against us. It’s hard, there’s no denying it. But denying your experience isn’t the answer.
I don't think midlife women should 'Botox' their CV. I certainly refuse to Botox mine. If we Botox our CVs, then we need to Botox our LinkedIn and social media, too. It becomes self-censorship. Ageism isn't for the applicant to solve but it is something we have to try and work around, for sure. It’s not for midlife women to solve the recruitment process problems by making ourselves smaller. And there are lots of things we can do to take control of our job hunting experience and feelings.
Try these actions if you are working on your CV and job hunting in midlife:
Delete from the ‘bottom up’. This isn’t about removing experience from your CV through shame, it’s about deciding that a job you did 20 years ago isn’t actually relevant to the current roles you’re applying for. For example, as a writer, I don’t have my first job on a newspaper in 2001 on my CV or any of my junior magazine roles. They’re not relevant to the digital publishers of today.
Add a professional overview paragraph at the top to give a strong overview of your experience to date. You can name drop brands or companies you’ve worked with, add in some background and summarise your skills. No dates required.
Focus hard on the recent experience, too. We can be prone to wanting to keep more historical information on our CVs out of a sense of duty or pride, but ask yourself if it’s relevant, when there is more recent work you should be shouting more loudly about and giving more space to.
Get more active on LinkedIn to showcase your experience and expertise in the here and now, the present. Your CV has your work history, but your LinkedIn can have your work ‘now’ – talk about topics you know about, and your niche or your work. Share things you do in the now, to make it feel current. It’ll help with your mindest that you’re not ‘past it’, too.
Stand proud in your experience – even if that feels tough to do. It can be so easy to make ourselves smaller in midlife, especially when it comes to work. Botoxing your CV is one of the ways you might do that. Instead, try to stand proud in the experience you have, to make it clear what skills you have that are current and shine as someone with a world of experience – that’s not something to hide.
