I play a lot of hide and seek (I have a first grader and we are home a lot with the pandemic). I don’t want to play it with someone’s resume.
We see so many attorneys remove dates from their resume. As the reader, I’m forced to play a game of hide-and-seek and find the dates (and I can almost always find the dates). Don’t do that. It doesn’t help. Let’s discuss.
There are many reasons why attorneys think that removing dates from their resume makes sense. Maybe they are a more senior attorney and they think that they can “shield” their age from employers. Maybe they want to hide gaps in their resume. Maybe they want to “hide the ball” with their experience to appear either more senior or more junior so they can shoehorn into a position description.
The problem is that employers are going to ascertain those dates and making them work for it is just going to frustrate them. If you graduated from law school ages ago, maybe you think it will be best to just leave the date off your resume. Who will know the exact date, anyway? And if you just leave off the experience you did for the first ten or fifteen years of your career, you should fit in nicely for that position that is posted, right? Well, anyone looking at your resume is going to do one of three things, they are going to (1) Google you, (2) they are going to look on your LinkedIn page and, if they can’t ascertain when you graduated from law school, they are (3) going to go to the PUBLIC RECORD of the local lawyers’ board and see the date you were admitted.
Once they see the date you were admitted, the problems start. An employer can resent having to take the extra steps to see if you are a qualified candidate. They might question your integrity for leaving the information off your resume. No one wants to start a relationship on the wrong foot. The best course of action is to NOT put a potential employer in this state of mind. To that end, ALWAYS include key dates on your resume and make sure they are accurate.
So what might you do if you want to appear more or less senior than your resume shows? Well, there are two things, First, you might consider not applying for the position if you aren’t a fit. That aside, and sometimes it does make sense to apply for positions that are a “stretch,” you should address any seniority concerns in your cover letter. You can clearly make your case for WHY you are applying for the position and how your experience (either a lot or a little) can help them solve their problem.
Leave the hide-and-seek to the kids. Put the dates on your resume.