Tired of job applications that ask what year I graduated from college

valley_girl said:

They're not allowed to ask how old I am, but this gets right to the point. My resume is carefully worded, my cover letters even more so. I have a friend who took some post-graduate classes, and uses that date now. I'm tempted to just lie. You can't leave the spaces blank, or use words, because they are online forms.

I totally agree with this, and I agree with Tom. MOST people who go to college graduate between the ages of 21 and 25 or so. I do not have my graduation year on my resume or on LinkedIn, but when I use an online application, the question is always asked.

However, I never use an online application unless I already know someone who can connect me directly with someone inside the company. Sending a application online without an additional, inside track is 100% fruitless.

joan_crystal said:

oneofthegirls: Yes it is really about qualification. At least, that is an argument that employers can use when asking for this information. Date of college graduation, may not be an absolute indicator of an applicants age, but if an applicant claims to have graduated from graduate school in 1968, it is a pretty good indicator of the applicant being a medicare recipient. Sometimes, this is a question that is asked legitimately but as others have stated, it can also be a way around age discrimination laws. As long as the question can be shown to be job related, the employer can continue to ask the question without being successfully found to have violated age discrimination laws.

Well then I have nothing to add of value to this thread. It personally is not my experience.

I didn't finish college, either, but I attended and went most of the way through, so my attendance is relevant. It's something I want them to know. I don't necessarily want them to know my years of attendance until after I start the job.

As an aside, now that I am retired, I honestly don't get this age discrimation. I personally never had it. My father never had it. I come from a large family of 2 boys and 9 girls. We never had it. In my career with engineers, architects and in my father's case, wallpaper hanger, brothers working for Grumanns sisters as dental assistant and physical therapist, and county workers, what careers are doing age discrimination?

shoshannah said:

However, I never use an online application unless I already know someone who can connect me directly with someone inside the company. Sending a application online without an additional, inside track is 100% fruitless.

Unfortunately this does not apply to teaching jobs. Online applications are the only way in 99.8% of the time.
ETA: Age discrimination is alive and well in the education field. I see it all the time.

AAHhh... Teachers.

oneofthegirls said:

As an aside, now that I am retired, I honestly don't get this age discrimation. I personally never had it. My father never had it. I come from a large family of 2 boys and 9 girls. We never had it. In my career with engineers, architects and in my father's case, wallpaper hanger, brothers working for Grumanns sisters as dental assistant and physical therapist, and county workers, what careers are doing age discrimination?

Anything remotely involving technology.

Plus age discrimination takes the form of cost cutting, as well. Older employees tend to be more expensive than younger ones. Two people in the same job, one 50, one 30. The 50 year old would more likely be the one to go in a RIF.

oneofthegirls said:

As an aside, now that I am retired, I honestly don't get this age discrimation. I personally never had it. My father never had it. I come from a large family of 2 boys and 9 girls. We never had it. In my career with engineers, architects and in my father's case, wallpaper hanger, brothers working for Grumanns sisters as dental assistant and physical therapist, and county workers, what careers are doing age discrimination?

You were very lucky then!

Well yeah, I cost a lot more to a prospective client hourly, yet my time is efficiently calculated by my expertise :-D

sac said:

oneofthegirls said:

As an aside, now that I am retired, I honestly don't get this age discrimation. I personally never had it. My father never had it. I come from a large family of 2 boys and 9 girls. We never had it. In my career with engineers, architects and in my father's case, wallpaper hanger, brothers working for Grumanns sisters as dental assistant and physical therapist, and county workers, what careers are doing age discrimination?

You were very lucky then!

I truly know this. This day and age is not as kind to my grandchildren as it was to me.

oneofthegirls said:

qrsdonnell, I never finished college either. Neither did my son who taught computer to his professors. The point is to follow your passion and continue to educate yourself through work or in courses outside of work. My son loves his work, has won two sports Emmys for it and now heads a department in video distribution for a well known paper. Why? Because he loves his work. I felt the same with my chosen field. My advice to you is to network with that 20 years experience group. Try LinkedIn.

I fortunately am perfectly happy where I am. I'm an IT director at a 'top' creative architecture studio and not really interested in any C-level or more 'corporate' stuff for the time being. I was laid off semi-recently, but only out of work for 2 weeks (and I had 6 weeks severance, so bonus). I guess I just feel bad for all the companies that potentially miss out on my awesomeness! ;-)

It's the principle of it, and I always warn against over filtering for hiring as a result.

qrysdonnell, your awesomeness is acknowledged here by me.

qrysdonnell said:

It's the principle of it, and I always warn against over filtering for hiring as a result.

Good for you. I also didn't finish college (30-something years ago) and I'm pretty sure I've been filtered out of a number of jobs on that basis, because otherwise I was a perfect fit with a fairly obscure skill set.

Tom it is evident that you know as little about how HR is run as I know about computers. Trust me that legal counsel guides the way and the background check is not illegal in asking for DOB etc.

yahooyahoo said:

I interviewed with a recruiter for a job. The recruiter asked me among other things if I was married, had children and owned my home. These questions are theoretically illegal to ask and I told the recruiter this. They claimed that only applied to the employer but I had to explain they represented the employer.

You should have reported this recruiter/ agency. This is 100% illegal. In fact, when candidates bring these details up, I tell them that I don't want to know and that it isn't relevant to their candidacy.