Including Dates are not Recommended

When initially applying to a job, don’t use dates in your resume that might indicate how old or young you are. There IS age discrimination when hiring, so don’t make it easy for them to discriminate.

• If you just graduated from college, just list that you graduated from that college and what degree you earned.
• Honors and awards also don’t need to be dated unless it was recent, like the last 3 years or so. The only place dates might be used are for the last few jobs that you are listing, as long as the jobs are current or recent. Places you’ve worked 10 years ago could be listed, but dates aren’t advised. If you find that some of your jobs have dates but other do not, you can skip the dates altogether.

After you pass scrutiny with the recruiter, if you are asked to do an in-person interview, be prepared to bring an interview that includes date, just in case the interviewer is very old school. Even in that case, it might be a good idea to simply say you worked at a company for a length of time instead of actual dates (e.g. 5 years or 3 summers).

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