I read an article the other day about ways to not reveal your age on a resume. Apparently, some companies are averse to hiring someone over a certain age, and to avoid wasting their time by interviewing said person and perhaps getting into legal trouble, they eliminate him or her early on by looking for clues on the resume.
They look at a person's home address, if he is silly enough to put that in his cover letter, to find out if he lives in a really nice part of town, and A) is therefore old enough to have reached a certain status in life, and B) probably going to require a high salary.
You should leave it off, per the article, and it really isn't relevant. Neither are the years you graduated high school or college. If they want to know, let them ask, experts advise.
The article also suggests not listing any job you've had going back more than 10 years. Listing that soda-jerk job you had in high school at Woolworth's is bad, apparently. Describing yourself as "youthful" and "energetic" is also a giveaway, as is "seasoned," though I can't imagine someone describing themselves like a piece of meat anyway.
The one tip that really kind of jumped out at me was to never list that AOL email address of yours as your contact info. AOL is so five minutes ago and a dead giveaway that you are too old to function in the modern workplace. Of course, I imagine using the phrase "so five minutes ago" dates me a bit.
It's funny how catchphrases we use can tell others something about us. How people respond to a simple "How are you?" can be revealing, for example.
I usually reply with "Groovy" or "Swell" because it gets a chuckle. I have no idea why. It's not like I say "Keen," which is way old-fashioned.
"I'm well" is just too formal and a little uptight, for my taste. "I'm fine, and yourself?" is OK, on the other hand for almost all occasions. Simple and polite.
"Fair to middlin'" places you as a Southerner, or a wannabe Southerner, depending on how it's delivered. Even more Southern would be to say, "Pretty fair, I reckon. How're your people?" or How's your mamma'n'em?" My former mechanic, who is Southern to the core, used to reply with "I was all right, but I got over it." I laugh every time.
I never laugh at people who say, "The sky" when asked, "What's up?" I also don't prolong the conversation because I already know I've gotten their deepest thought.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.