I've done this on mine, and I'm pretty sure when companies see this, it's a signal for an older person.

I've been given this advice and I'm skeptical. You can only mask things to a certain degree, it can make you look like you're hiding something (which you are), and the hiring manager will figure it out soon enough in any case. If they really want to age discriminate you're probably better off finding out sooner than later anyway. In any case, later career jobs tend to come from personal networks anyway. My resume was just a formality for any interview I've had in the last 20 years.

It's not hiding anything. A resume is a two pages flyer to advertise your services. It doesn't pretend to accurately represent you as a person or 40 years of accumulated experience.

It's really bad if a resume never pass the first screening, it literally can't get a job. It's not reasonable to blame age for that, interviewers cannot guess the age from just a resume (and if they can they shouldn't let be).

Yes, it’s a flyer but it’s a flyer that many expect to include specific information in a specific format. You are free to ignore those expectations of course but employers are also free to draw various conclusions about apparent employment gaps, incomplete work history, etc. even if those conclusions aren’t warranted.

can and do. your premise is faulty

Then you show up for the interview and people still can't tell your age? Isn't that a waste of time?

>Companies can't tell the age from a resume.

Companies can't add 18 + length of schooling + length of career ?

18 + 4 + 10 = 32

You actually have 18 years of experience, making you 40 years of age, and you're listing only the most recent ~10 years. They have no practical means to accurately figure out your age from that resume. The best it can do is slightly help you avoid the first layer of age-based screening.

You shouldn’t list your entire career on your resume, just the past 10-15 years. Also, assuming “18 + length of schooling” is bad too. You’d be way off on my age then too (I graduated HS several years early).

> Also, assuming “18 + length of schooling” is bad too.

That does not mean that it doesn't happen. I mean, we already established that we're dealing with short-sighted people here.

> That does not mean that it doesn't happen.

Never said it doesn’t happen, I know it does. I simply stated it’s a very flawed approach and gave one example of why.