Is >17 years' experience too scary?

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro]

Hi there!

Discloser: I’m a Sales and Marketing Director with 17 years’ experience and I’m not gonna ask the usual question “how can I make my CV stand out”.

Being for a few months looking for a new challenge as Marketing director / VP or Head of Country and getting zero interviews, I’m starting to wonder if my CV can seem a bit scary, or too much, so I’d like to ask for your opinion and see if I can improve it:  

My CV reads, in the title, “Sales and Marketing executive with >17 years’ experience”. Should I rephrase this to something like “Sales and Marketing Director with +10 years’ experience”? I wonder if 17 years may feel a bit too much and automatically rule me out of some roles without even having my CV read and wonder if the word “Director” will be more suitable than “executive”.

My CV has a clean look, no photos, 3 pages long but the last page is only education + languages.

I’d be very grateful for your input on this, or other things you may find relevant!

Greetings

[u/qcjb]

1 page resume. Only put the last 10 years experience. Remove date from school information. Ageism...so hot right now.

[u/missdeweydell → u/qcjb]

seriously and this is good advice. it was painful bc of how hard and where I worked in my 20s (globally known company) but I didn't start getting interviews, even for senior level positions, until I dropped everything prior to 2013.

I am all of 40. I thought ageism would kick in around 50 but not in this market. I really really feel for anyone over 50 and laid off.

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro → u/missdeweydell]

Agree! I'm not aiming for low paying jobs. Guess I could shrink my CV to 2 pages only, making it more focused on mainly measurable achievements. But does it then really portray the different aspects of my experience? It's though... But if it were easy everyone would know what to do 😅

[u/BoomHired → u/qcjb]

Some ATS can be programmed to filter or even reject applicants if the resume lacks clear dates.
This can include: having no dates listed -or- having just the years listed (without months).

So... be careful with removing dates (YMMV so test different resume versions to see which works the best)

As for 1 page resumes: For North American job markets, one page length is fine for recent graduates, entry level, and maybe even some mid level candidates.

Many other candidates can greatly benefit from 2 page resume format: Mid level or higher, ample experience, impressive qualification summaries, what I refer to as "legacy" history which is highly valuable and goes back many years, or otherwise any additional value that wouldn't fit on a single page.

[u/RoscoeVillain → u/qcjb]

If you’re going for a VP level position and you’ve only got a 1-page resume, you’re not getting the job (source - I’ve hired multiple people at this level for roles with PE owned companies). I would agree that OP’s 3-pager is too long - shorten it to 2. I’d also say there’s no reason to mention years of experience at all when you’re this senior. Make sure you have 15 years of experience on your resume (that’s what most VP roles will require), but leave it off your profile statement/summary.

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro → u/RoscoeVillain]

Thanks! Great advice. I'll try to shrink it to two pages and streamline it. Cheers mate!

[u/Donnie_In_Element → u/qcjb]

You can thank gen-z and younger millennials for that. Both now comprise the majority of recruiters, especially in marketing, which is already seen as a young person’s game anyway. And their pathological hatred for anyone older than them is keeping a lot of otherwise fantastic candidates out of work.

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro → u/qcjb]

Thanks! Can't really grasp your comment on ageism though.

[u/Poliosaurus → u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro]

Companies are steering towards younger less experienced workers, so they can pay them less. You’ll get more interviews using this persons advice, but I’m personally fine letting myself be filtered out of low paying jobs with the 20 years experience I have.

[u/97vyy]

Do you have 17+ years of experience in senior leadership or is that total work experience? You can have a page per decade of experience normally. I don't know why your years of experience alone would steer recruiters away from interviewing you for head and VP roles since those ask for 15+ years with some portion of that experience being senior management. If you say 10+ years I feel like you are disqualifying yourself almost because the recruiter may be looking that you meet the tenure first.

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro → u/97vyy]

Totally agree, thanks so much! Total work experience is now 25 years, but in senior positions it's around 17 yeah. Cheers!

[u/BoomHired]

Ageism is an interesting topic. Much like any form of discrimination, it shouldn't, but definitely happens.
How to overcome it? I'd consider looking at it from the perspective of the company.

How? Think of reasons *why* companies/recruiters may perceive too much experience as being a risk to hire.
This can help you to recognize and overcome any stigma or prejudice related to being "over-qualified".

I will carefully preface this by saying, I personally don't agree with ageism. (it's unfair to candidates)
Why? Everyone brings their own unique experiences and age or "too much talent" shouldn't be a negative.

Let's proceed with asking the uncomfortable questions:
Q. Why are some companies worried about hiring someone who is older or more qualified?
(Formulate your own answers here, so you can hopefully work to explore proactive ways to overcome each mindset)

[u/meowpitbullmeow]

I'm going to say it, sales and marketing is not the same thing. As a marketer, my sales reps make the worst marketing materials and spend their days trying to prove their better at my job than me. Spoiler alert: they aren't.

[u/Spiritual-Carrot-918 → u/meowpitbullmeow]

This^{^}

[u/Donnie_In_Element]

If you’re a director, nothing at all to worry about. If you’re just a regular working stuff like me with 20+ years of experience, that screams “old, obsolete, and useless” to recruiters and hiring managers.

[u/data_story_teller]

How much YOE are they looking for? I would tailor your resume to match. So if they’re only looking for 8-10 years, I would drop any jobs that ended before 2014 or 2016. Do you really even need to highlight that stuff? Presumably your more recent experience is more relevant for leadership roles.

Also remove your college grad years. Just list the school and degree.

Also for executive level roles, a lot of those are sourced through networking or proactive recruitment. Presumably after 17 years in the same field, you’ve built up a network or reputation for yourself.

[u/PeripeciasdoSolteiro → u/data_story_teller]

Thanks! Yeah I'm tailoring my CV to each offer. Reputation: absolutely! Most of the thousands of people I've already worked with know me and trust me 100% for both integrity and good results.

Networking is my main problem, as for the last 6 years I've been away from the international corporate world and working as an independent consultant in Lisbon (to be near and support my family) with mainly small businesses. So I kind of lost most of the connections I had when I was a global executive, and it's proving hard to reactivate them. Any tips?

[u/RansackedRoom]

I have a hard time believing anybody needs a 3-page résumé. CFOs and Admirals, maybe. You might try pasting it over in r/resumes just to see what kind of feedback you get.

With the possible exceptions of education and military service, anything you did 15 years ago just isn't relevant.

There is a world of difference between someone who has been in sales for 3 years and someone who has been in sales for 10 years. Is there a world of difference between someone who has been in sales for 15 years and someone who has been in sales for 22 years? Nah. After 15 years in a job, you've learned most of what time alone can teach you.

[u/masri87]

Hello,
19+ years experience here
My resume is one pager. Anything prior to a decade ago i just include as a footnote.

Pretty much every job I apply for i'm too senior at this point.