Stating your age on a CV

brian ireland · 27-09-2014 12:22AM #1

I have been interviewing for staff for the last 4 days. Lots of the CVs had no age on them, maybe the law says you don’t need to put this on your CV, Trust me its a bad move not to put your DOB on your CV.

We can’t hire anyone under 18 and that’s it. We had more than 200 CVs with no age on them so they went in the waste folder. Why? Because we had 400 with the age clearly indicated on them and we had 40 jobs available.
Can I give you a tip if you are looking for a job?
1. State your age no matter how old or young you are.
2. If you are looking for part-time work- state the days or shifts you can work on your Application. This will make it very easy for an employer to decide if you can be called for an interview. If we just see “I am looking for a part time position” its no use as we have no idea what this means. You could be available 1.2.3.4 or five days.
3. We had loads of CVs from youth reach and these where seriously disappointing. They where missing phone numbers, home addresses, full names etc. This was dreadful and not help to the people looking for work as they went into the maybe see you later folder..

professore · 27-09-2014 12:28AM

Were instead of where.

professore · 27-09-2014 12:28AM

Were instead of where.

professore · 27-09-2014 12:28AM

Were instead of where.

shruikan2553 · 27-09-2014 12:31AM

Putting your age on the CV is not the norm in Ireland. How often do you find people applying that are under 18? Surely you could maybe have a rough idea from the dates they were at school anyway

uck51js9zml2yt · 27-09-2014 12:38AM

You may have a meeting minim
minimum age policy but you cannot discriminate based on age, hence it's irrelevant.
And as said age can be determined roughly by education and employment history.

AltAccount · 27-09-2014 12:39AM

I'd never put my age on my CV.

I'm pretty sure a recruiter binning a CV because of a person's stated age, or refusal to state an age, is some kind of illegal.

candytog · 27-09-2014 12:39AM

Age should not be required on a CV. If the job requires that applicants are of certain age then that should be stated on the job description. Did the CVs not have education details? could you not figure out age from that? Sounds like a cop out to reduce HR work.

Thoie · 27-09-2014 12:44AM

It really depends on the position. If applying for professional roles, then putting your age on a CV looks very odd - your experience is what matters.

I'm guessing given that you have a cut off of 18-year-olds that it's not a highly skilled job? There is no legal reason why you can't hire people under 18 (unless the job is all night time work) - you just have to make sure that proper records are kept. 16 and 17 year olds are permitted to work a max of 8 hours between 6am and 10pm, or 11pm if it's a pub. It may be company policy not to bother dealing with that - it's extra hassle to deal with the paperwork.

As a "nice thing to do" you could send an email to Youth Reach and explain how poor a lot of the CVs were (and why), and suggest that they teach CV preparation. If your company are particularly civic minded, you could even offer to send someone in a few times a year to help with CV prep.

monflat · 27-09-2014 12:47AM

However I totally disagree with stating if you want part time work on "x" no of days

That's totally eliminating oneself from the competition already

If an employer can't interview potential "part time " employees then is the job worth it.

Also op did you word the advertised job correctly?

Thoie · 27-09-2014 12:50AM

AltAccount wrote: »

I'd never put my age on my CV.

I'm pretty sure a recruiter binning a CV because of a person's stated age, or refusal to state an age, is some kind of illegal.

No, it's not illegal to bin CVs for that. It would be illegal to discriminate against anyone on the basis of their age - say if you were throwing out CVs of anyone over the age of 50 automatically. An employer may state a minimum age on their job ad (you can only set a min of 16, 17 or 18 - nothing else).

AltAccount · 27-09-2014 12:50AM

monflat wrote: »

Also op did you word the advertised job correctly?

Good point - does the ad specifically say the minimum age requirements and the days/hours of work?

If you state that, and they still send in their CV, you shouldn't have to cull so many CVs or worry about them not stating their availability.

brian ireland · 27-09-2014 01:11AM

We don't have a HR department for a start.
You can quote the law till the cows come home. The reality is if an employer advertises a job and 40% of the applicants don't give their age and hours they can work they might be restricted in the offers they get.
If they submit CVs with no age or time they can work they will continue to have no cal backs.

This is a fact no matter how you mount you politically correct horse.. I know I am that employer..

shruikan2553 · 27-09-2014 01:17AM

brian ireland wrote: »

We don't have a HR department for a start.
You can quote the law till the cows come home. The reality is if an employer advertises a job and 40% of the applicants don't give their age and hours they can work they might be restricted in the offers they get.
If they submit CVs with no age or time they can work they will continue to have no cal backs.

This is a fact no matter how you mount you politically correct horse.. I know I am that employer..

And as an employer you are in a very small minority to act like that. It's the first time I have ever heard of these complaints. Its not PC, its just not done.

Thoie · 27-09-2014 01:18AM

brian ireland wrote: »

We don't have a HR department for a start.
You can quote the law till the cows come home. The reality is if an employer advertises a job and 40% of the applicants don't give their age and hours they can work they might be restricted in the offers they get.
If they submit CVs with no age or time they can work they will continue to have no cal backs.

This is a fact no matter how you mount you politically correct horse.. I know I am that employer..

A properly worded ad (All applicants must be at least 18, if applying for temp work please state availability) would make your life easier. Yes, there'll always be one or two who don't read the instructions, but you can't expect people to know what you want on a CV.

Your personal preference is for this non-standard information, and you're dumping CVs of people who aren't mind-readers. Fair enough, it's your company. But coming on the Work & Jobs forum telling them that all jobs need this information is ridiculous. You haven't even stated what kind of role you're hiring for. As I said above there's a huge difference between hiring glass collectors for a nightclub, or hiring a head of brain surgery for a large hospital - the information to put on a CV will vary.

walshyp · 27-09-2014 01:25AM

Never but your D.O.B on a C.V. Doesn't matter if its a shop, Pub, Business company, I.T company, public sector etc. That's the worst advice I every heard!

Thoie · 27-09-2014 01:41AM

Come to think of it OP, if you're getting so many CVs, and want some specific information, yours may be the ideal situation for an application form.

Your application form can have fields for DOB, availability, other criteria that you need. You could restate beside the DOB field, for example, that applications will only be accepted from people 18 or older. Have copies printed out that you can hand to people who try to hand in CVs, or else make them available for download/emailing. It would make your life a lot easier, as you can filter the applications at a glance, as the info you need is in the same place on each page.

Mrs OBumble · 27-09-2014 10:57AM

OP, I would also interested to hear why you want home address on a CV? How is it relevant?

starlit · 27-09-2014 12:47PM

You are more likely to find Date of Birth by younger candidates with less qualifications/experience but the older they are and those gone to college and have bit more work experience is unlikely they have their DOB on CV unless requested by the employer or that its asked in an application form.

Home address and DOB I used to have it on CV but not anymore I stick with more relevant things on it. The home address should only be added with a Cover Letter if the applicant wishes to do that.

Redser87 · 28-09-2014 04:28PM

Surely if your only concern is that applicants should be over 18, it would be just as quick to check the date they did their Junior/ Leaving cert as to be figuring out age from DOB? It's highly likely that anyone who did their Leaving in 2013 is now over 18. Can't imagine people would leave that important piece of information, assuming they stayed in school for long enough to do their exams of course - but even someone who chose to leave school early and who has their Junior, if they did it in 2010 (or even 2011), chances are they are already 18.

ABajaninCork · 28-09-2014 06:11PM

Thoie wrote: »

A properly worded ad (All applicants must be at least 18, if applying for temp work please state availability) would make your life easier. Yes, there'll always be one or two who don't read the instructions, but you can't expect people to know what you want on a CV.

Your personal preference is for this non-standard information, and you're dumping CVs of people who aren't mind-readers. Fair enough, it's your company. But coming on the Work & Jobs forum telling them that all jobs need this information is ridiculous. You haven't even stated what kind of role you're hiring for. As I said above there's a huge difference between hiring glass collectors for a nightclub, or hiring a head of brain surgery for a large hospital - the information to put on a CV will vary.

Not to mention unprofessional. Age (unless working in a nightclub or similar) and home addresses are not relevant to the job application at hand.

Guy:Incognito · 28-09-2014 06:13PM

AltAccount wrote: »

I'm pretty sure a recruiter binning a CV because of a person's stated age, is some kind of illegal.

Doesn't mean its not happening. I've spent the last year trying to get back in to a mechanic apprenticeship. I'm a lot older than the typical demographic that usually go for these jobs but on he other hand I have experience in the position and other industries. I find it very hard to even get interviews. Oft he few I have done you can see that they are going to hire an 18-20 year old out of school and so far that's what I can assume is happening, despite a couple of very good interviews along the way.

NZ_2014 · 28-09-2014 06:28PM

brian ireland wrote: »

Can I give you a tip if you are looking for a job?

Can I give you a tip if you are looking to hire the best staff?

1. Don`t be so ridiculous as to dismiss people because they didn`t put their age on their CV.

Unbelievable.

skallywag · 29-09-2014 03:57PM

brian ireland wrote: »

We can’t hire anyone under 18 and that’s it.

Then state so in the Job Description.

Tarzana · 29-09-2014 04:17PM

On the address thing, I always include it because it shows that I live in the area. I suppose you could just borrow an address or something, but I don't see much of a problem with including your home address. Unless, and I'm positive this happens, you don't want to be judged on living in a less than salubrious area. Then I totally understand omitting it. I'd love to adopt a more idealistic viewpoint on that, but we all know some individuals will judge on nonsense like that and ignore the candidate's experience and achievements.

circadian · 29-09-2014 04:20PM

An applicant is not obliged to include a DOB on their CV and dumping applications on the basis that none were stated could be viewed as unfairly dismissing an applicant for not disclosing information they don't have to disclose.

Thoie · 29-09-2014 04:26PM

Tarzana wrote: »

On the address thing, I always include it because it shows that I live in the area. I suppose you could just borrow an address or something, but I don't see much of a problem with including your home address. Unless, and I'm positive this happens, you don't want to be judged on living in a less than salubrious area. Then I totally understand omitting it. I'd love to adopt a more idealistic viewpoint on that, but we all know some individuals will judge on nonsense like that and ignore the candidate's experience and achievements.

Again, it depends on the job you're going for. It might be useful for Burger King, who pay for taxis home after late shifts, and would probably prefer not to be sending someone in a taxi from Cork to Dublin.

If you're applying for that infamous "head of brain surgery" job, then the employer will assume that if you're applying for the job you can get yourself to and from the job without them having to care how you do it.

This goes back to the fact that there is only one single rule or tip for CV writing that covers all jobs - proofreading. Don't have stupid typos on your CV, don't leave a sentence half finished, don't tell them you attended college from 1929-1996.

Everything else is dependent on the job you're applying for. You don't have "a CV", you have the basics of CVs that you tailor to the job you're applying for.

Tarzana · 29-09-2014 04:57PM

Thoie wrote: »

Again, it depends on the job you're going for. It might be useful for Burger King, who pay for taxis home after late shifts, and would probably prefer not to be sending someone in a taxi from Cork to Dublin.

What? :pac:

barneyrubble46 · 29-09-2014 05:16PM

I have to say this is the most terrible thing I have ever had a potential employer say, to bin a CV because the age is not stated is beyond belief. Why would I put my age on a CV, age does not determine what I can or cannot do. I would not put my Sex on a cv or the fact for example I am gay. total nonsense. I certainly would not like to work for the person who bins CV because the age is not on them, lets hope they go in the Confidential waste bin !I guess Brian Ireland you have not been discriminated against or perhaps your outdated view would be different, I bet you also offer jobs to the big boobed blonde young lady before the over weight gay person

Thoie · 29-09-2014 05:23PM

Tarzana wrote: »

What? :pac:

I was saying that for most jobs your address is irrelevant

Some lower paid jobs that operate outside normal public transport hours pay for taxis for their employees to get home at the end of their shift. In that case, someone living closer to the place of work may have an advantage, as it will be cheaper to send them home. Dublin to Cork was an exaggeration, but if you had a Dublin city centre business that paid for taxis for staff, would you prefer someone who lived in Ranelagh or Skerries?

Tarzana · 29-09-2014 05:29PM

I don't think that's the only time it might be relevant. I've seen job ads for other types of jobs where it's been specified that someone local is required or preferred for various reasons. Awkward location, relocation costs not being offered, needing to familiar with the local area for whatever reason, training courses happening in the lead up to starting that someone living away for the meantime might not be able to attend.

Stating your age on a CV

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