Am I too old to be recruited?

[Colycola]

I have applied for about 60 high level PA jobs over the past few weeks.

I used to work in the City, moved to a local suburbs PA job part time after kids now looking to go back full time back to London if I need too.

I haven’t been selected for even one single interview, today I sent my cv and it got rejected straight away within an hour.

I’m in my early 40s, am I too old to be employable?

Are you putting your age on your cv?

No of course 40 is not too old to be employable. Have you had your CV looked over and ensured that it, plus covering letter, are spot on? Are you skills up to date? Have you covered any gaps in your CV?

How can early 40s be too old?

Not too old but honestly there’s loads of other applicants who have been working full time in London already, on top of their game, and will easily slide into a new full time role. It’s unbelievably competitive these days.

How do they know how old you are?

I used to work in recruitment though and ageism is sadly rife among some employer. Not generally for high ranking PAs in their 40s though...I would've said that would be the average age for those sorts of roles.

I am currently a SAHM and am really struggling to get back to work. It may be that they think you are out of the loop in London a bit, due to your current role being in the 'burbs, (where I also now reside btw), or it may just be that competition is fierce at the moment, as so many people are looking for work.

Are you tailoring your CV and covering letter to each post? I'm recruiting at the moment and that's the most common error, generic applications make it harder to shortlist someone.

It seems unlikely, experience is very much a valued quality in a decent PA so I can’t imagine they’d be put off by age (which is discrimination too). Is it worth trying to sign up to a few recruiters who might be able to give you tips on your CV, or ‘talk you up’ to potential clients?

I am and my friend is a HR director and I’ve had her look over it.

There are no gaps in my CV, I’ve worked continuously only going from full to part time.

My dob is on my cv should I take it off?

Did your HR director friend really let you have DOB on your cv....

There's no reason to put your DoB on the cv.

Putting your DOB on your CV isn’t a requirement so I would remove it.

@SchrodingersImmigrant yes but I would have thought that even looking at the years of employment you can tell I’m not in my twenties.

Cv should have no personal details bar name, address, email, phone.

If you are not getting jobs, it's nkt age discrimination imho, but it's because you didn't research simple cv formats. That doesn't look good.

I got my current HR job when I was 57 so you are definitely nit too old!

I strongly recommend that you remove your DOB. In reality employers can work it ( roughly) from the dates of your qualifications but don't make it too easy for the recruiters.

Good luck!

I doubt very much it's your age. I'm recruiting currently for our department and we were inundated with applications from so many fields and at least 25% were due to redundancies in view of COVID closures/going out of business. Also interestingly and sadly there are also a lot of very overqualified people applying purely out of desperation. This is a secretarial/PA role. I think the market is currently saturated and in and around London it must be worse. I'd have shortlisted you OP! I shortlisted 15 in the end which is still too high but I really feel for those out of work so I want to give them all a chance. I hope you get a break soon

Probably more to do with the fact that it's highly competitive out there at the moment. However, definitely remove your DOB, you only need the past 5 years really on a CV, and the dates of your qualification you can provide on request, just list them on a CV. It's sad, but age can wrongly be a factor in recruitment, even if it's done unconsciously.

Definitely remove your DoB, and don't list more than 10 years worth of roles, or collapse them into an "early career" section with just employer name and role title, not dates if they are prestigious

PA vacancies in London have been reduced, the secsinthecity website has gone from 2000 vacancies pre Covid to under 300 today.

Sadly I think there will be far fewer PA jobs around as jobs are either being outsourced abroad or staff are doing their own admin tasks now due to cutbacks.

at your early 40s you have 25 years left till retirement.

agree, it's odd to put your DOB on but I guess the current struggle is very much Covid related with many people job hunting .

Definitely not. My husband rarely employs a PA under about 50, for not entirely altruistic reasons.

You’re age on cv is irrelevant really. It doesn’t take a genius to work out rough age based on qualifications and employment history.
It’s easy to look for and blame something like age discrimination, but get an independent review of your cv and cover letter. It can be little things like the language used, typos, word count, not being specific to job etc.

This reminded me. There was an Europass CV which was an abomination of all abominations and stated even gender ffs. And had pics. And I am pretty sure there was a marital status still on few years ago. I still say that it was a conspiracy to make foreigners unemployable 😂

Look at job websites, they have lots of cv examples and tips. Well tailored cv with good experience can get jobs even when there is only few around.

Has it been a long while since you've applied for a jobs, OP? Not trying to be catty but just wondering why you put your DoB on there.

I know of an ex school office admin person who recently secured a London PA role. In office three days - wfh two days. She tailored each cv to the advert and focused on a particular sector. She also updated her ms office skills as what she considered a PA a number of years ago is no longer the same thing. She is 58 and had the advantage of speaking excellent French. Plus no caring issues which maybe a factor in the current job environment.

Really recommend a thorough cv review- maybe a functional skills based cv?
And are you active on LinkedIn? Do you have a strong network? Are your skills up to date? Are they highlighted on your cv? Have you done any Training ( loads free on line)