Should You List Dates on Your Resume?

When many of us picture a resume, we envision the standard format: educational information listed from most recent to oldest by graduation date, followed by work experience, again listed by dates. But is this resume style a little too, well, dated? This can be a controversial topic, as some traditional hirers really like the old-school resume format. But many career experts are favoring the dateless resume. Some reasons:

• Your age is less obvious: The sad fact is, age discrimination exists in many workplaces. Making your age too obvious in a resume may cause a hiring manager to form pre-conceived notions about you, possibly preventing you from getting an interview.

• Online searches aren't as easy: It only takes two minutes for a hiring manager to type your name and "Class of 1987" in Google–and find your spring break snapshots. Yes, they can still do an online search without your graduation dates, but it might be tougher to determine if the person they find is actually you, especially if you have a more common name.

• Job-hopping and gaps are less noticeable: By leaving off start and end dates of previous positions, you don't advertise the fact that you've had frequent job changes or were out of work for periods.

Here are more tips on outdated resume rules you should ditch.

Image courtesy of J Wynia