AGEISM and production hirinG
Resume Botox: I Say Don’t bother!.
THE LONG READ- 10min read - see shorter versions via my newsletter, linkedin or instagram. OR SKIP TO THE BOTTOM SUMMARY!
A Business Insider article just said 48-year-old Lily was told to scrub 15 years of experience from her CV to appear younger. by a recruiter. They called it "resume Botox” 🤮. The interviews started rolling in apparently. I have so much to say about this sort of thing, 1) I’m not sure that the interviews really did start rolling in, there’s only anecdotal evidence in the article, and clearly it makes a better story and 2) Lying on your CV isnt necessary nor effective and 3) Agesim is a thing for sure, but I think you can guard against it with some simple tips:
The problem isn't age. The problem is the CV looks like it was written in 1997.
What the article is Talking About
The Business Insider piece, "The Rise of Resume Botox," poses the premise: ageism is so rampant that hiding your experience has become "a rational strategy for survival."
I can only talk about how I see the Advertising Production territory - maybe for some industries—corporate, tech, finance, this could absolutely be true. I’m certainly no ageism denier, I’m 54, I see it first hand plenty!.
They're Right: The Job Market is Brutal.Glassdoor reported a 133% year-over-year increase in job seekers mentioning ageism between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025. Redundancies are everywhere. It's genuinely hard out there.
I see brilliant producers—people who've delivered award-winning campaigns, managed impossible budgets, wrangled difficult creatives,struggling to get interviews. Yes, ageism exists. It's illegal, but it's happening. But I do think the article is conflating two separate problems:
Actual age discrimination (illegal, difficult to prove, but real)
Looking like you haven't updated your job hunt approach for years - this puts hirers off because you are presenting as someone stuck in another decade.
Most of the CVs I see that "look old" aren't old because of the dates. They're old because of the presentation.
Is Your CV Wearing 1997 Jeans?
You wouldn't wear the same jeans you wore in 1997 (maybe you would actually actually so this analogy doesn’t quite work, but hopefully you get my drift). You wouldn't use the same makeup you wore in 2002. Because fashion moves on. Style evolves. Culture shifts. Your CV and how you present yourself as a professional is the same.
If your CV is:
Sent as a Word document
Written in Times New Roman font
Formatted with big blocks of text that just list chores
Longer than 2 pages
Full of "References available upon request"
Lists your full postal address and date of birth
...then yes, you look old. But not because of your AGE. Because you look like someone who hasn't kept up with the very basic productivity tools that are out there. And if you can't present yourself using modern tools, why would a hirer—trust you to look after my cutting-edge social campaign with TV, shoot the funkiest, most award-winning creators in the business? This is what I mean by a "glow-up." Not Botox. Not hiding your experience. Not lying about when you graduated.. A glow-up: presenting yourself in a way that shows you understand the contemporary creative landscape. This applies to the entry level CVs I see in many cases,too.
Production is Different
Generic career advice doesn't understand advertising and content production, or arguably, the creative industries as a whole. That’s why I don’t suggest that candidates spend hundreds ££ on CV writers, they are perfectly capable of articulating their value and are the best people to do that
1. Production is a SMALL world
Especially in the UK. Everyone knows everyone. You'll work with the same people across different agencies, production companies, and post houses throughout your career. Your reputation is your currency. And lying by omission—even if it gets you in the door—will catch up with you and it’s totally unnecessary IMO.
2. Experience is EVIDENCE
When an agency or production company is hiring a producer, they're asking:
Can you handle our difficult creatives?
Can you manage our impossible timelines?
Can you bring in a complex shoot on time and under budget?
Can you navigate last-minute pivots without losing your cool?
The answer to all of these is: "Here's proof I've done it before." If you hide 15 years+ of experience, you hide your evidence. And in production, your evidence is everything.
3. Senior producers are in demand
Yes, honestly! My top six favourite producers—the ones I place most successfully—are split evenly: half under 30, half over 50. Age is irrelevant. What matters is:
Can you deliver?
Do you understand the cultural landscape?
Can you communicate/influence effectively with clients and creatives?
Do you present yourself as someone who's current, capable, and connected? (and maybe a bit of fun now and again!)
That's what I mean by "looking relevant." Not young. Relevant.
What You Should Actually Do Instead
So what SHOULD you do? The Business Insider article accidentally touches on something true—you DO need to edit your CV. But not to hide your age. When I review CVs—and I've seen over thousands of them by now I reckon. The Producer presenting with an old CV, doesn't look old because of the dates. They present as “old” or more accurately less relevant, because of the presentation. And I don't just mean "use Canva instead of Word" (though yes, please do that).
I mean:
Leading with impact not years in the busines
Listing specific evidence not just generic responsibilities
Bringing your executive capabilities out of the jargon
Stopping AI systems reject you because you're not ATS-friendly
Here's an example of what I mean:
❌ "25 years of experience in production"
✅ This shows relevance: "25years of production experiene across mulitple settings. Most recently led parallel shoots for Spotify's Local Voices—6 TVCs,across London, Latvia & South Africa, while handling McDonald's weekly content delivery schedule and senior stakeholder status meetings.”
See the difference?
The first one is a time-based claim with no evidence. It SOUNDS old because you're emphasising how long you've been around. Just because you’ve been doing it for decades doesn’t make you good, it just means well - you’ve been doing it for ages!
The second one is proof of capability. It happens to require 15+ years of experience to deliver that level of complexity—but you're not SAYING "I'm old." You're saying "I can handle your impossible brief." It's not about hiding years. It's about evidencing capability. Every senior producer needs to show they can:
Ally and elevate creative ambition (not just execute briefs)
Build and protect team culture and moral (not just manage timelines)
Cultivate client relationships (not just take orders)
But most CVs bury this evidence under generic language like "managed production timelines" or "liaised with clients."
What About ATS Systems and AI?
The article is right that AI-powered hiring platforms are probably exacerbating ageism. But you don't beat AI by lying. You beat AI by understanding how these systems work and getting match fit.
Structure your CV so ATS systems don't reject you
Which keywords to use (and which to avoid)
Where to put your technical skills so AI finds them
How to format your file so it doesn't get auto-rejected
Age doesn’t = Expensive
One HR professional in the article said: "When employers see 20 or 30 years of experience on a resume, they might think, 'That's going to be extra expensive.'" Possibly, this is why I beat the #SHOWTHESALARY drum constantly. If the role is £50K, say it's £50K. Maybe a producer with 30+ years of experience is perfectly happy with £50K. And for that £50K, the employer gets so much value! But if the employer doesn't list the salary, they assume the “experienced” or “older” producer will be too expensive—and the producer gets weeded out before they even have a chance to say, "Actually, I'm fine with £50K." That’s just a nuts talent strategy.
Keep Your Creative Radar Sharp
There's a throwaway line in the article about "workers in their 30s and 40s no longer being synonymous with 'the future' of business." And that part made me genuinely angry. Because your cultural radar has NOTHING to do with your age. I'm 54. I'd like to think my cultural radar is as sharp as it's ever been. I follow new creators. I watch what's working and not working in the industry. If you're NOT keeping your cultural radar sharp, regardless of your age, then yes, you'll struggle to get hired. Not because you're old, but because you're OUT OF TOUCH. Follow new work, not just your niche the whole. spectrum of advertising activations out there now. Watch the platforms your clients care about. Read the industry press. Go to screenings. Stay curious. This is what "staying relevant" actually means. Not Botox. Staying engaged with where the industry might go next.
What About LinkedIn?
The article mentions that Lily was told to scrub her LinkedIn page too.. I have a completely different take on this. Your CV and your LinkedIn serve different purposes.
Your CV is a targeted marketing document, often created bespoke for a certain opportunity - lean, focused, tailored. Your LinkedIn is your professional story. Your network. Your reputation. Your body of work over time. On LinkedIn, hiding your experience is a daft MISTAKE. That's where people find you, vet you, and decide whether to reach out. But there IS a right way to present your experience on LinkedIn so you stay relevant no matter your age. And it's not about deleting dates—it's about how you write your headline, structure your About section, and evidence your capabilities, your visuals.
The Victim Culture Problem
There's a line in the article where a 37-year-old HR professional says she "believes ageism has already informed her experience." I don’t know who she is, there are no sources or hard evidence in the article, if that’s her lived experience, that's terrible, of course But after all my years in the industry, I know that the older we get, the more adaptable we need to be. We have to keep up. We have to keep learning new tools. We have to keep researching. We have to keep presenting ourselves in a way that shows we're current. If you adopt a victim stance—"I'm not getting hired because I'm old"—you stop looking for the things you CAN control. And there's a LOT you can control: Focus on what you can control. Ignore the rest.
Most of the CVs I see that "look old" are just bad CVs. Not because the person is old and certainly not because they are a bad producer. I actually think that’s one of my secret sauces as a heahunter, I can read beyond the docx or the cv that reads like a call sheet and spot producers, if I think they are what my client needs for a role I will work with them to give their profile a ‘glow up” and make sure my client sees the value of that producer.
“But what about those producers not going for a role through me? The great producer with CVs that haven’t kept up with how modern recruitment works. ”
(BTW, younger people's CVs are often just as bad. They've inherited this "mum and dad told me to do it this way" approach—complete with date of birth, postal addresses, "Dear Sir," and "References available on request.")
Help is here!
I have created the Producer CV & LinkedIn Glow-Up Guide. a step-by-step - producer-focused framework to present yourself in a way that shows you're current, capable, and relevant to today's creative landscape, which should be part of your 3 year professional cycle in a career.
In Summary
RESUME BOTOX for production won’t work; hiding your experience will backfire.
Production is a small, relationship-driven industry
Your reputation matters more than your age. Everyone knows everyone. Lying will catch up with you
Experience is your evidence
Clients want proof you can handle their impossible brief. That proof comes from years of delivery. Hide your experience = hide your evidence
Strategic positioning ≠ lying
Lead with IMPACT, not HOW LONG YOU’VE BEEN AT IT.
The goal isn't to appear younger. The goal is to appear RELEVANT AND IMPACTFUL.
What to Do Next::
If you're a producer struggling to get interviews.
Present yourself in a way that looks current (not young—current)
Leading with impact instead of tenure
Evidencing your executive capabilities (not just listing responsibilities)
Making your CV work for both humans AND AI systems
Use LinkedIn strategically (differently from your CV)
I do realise It's hard to see what needs fixing when you're inside your own career story. But to a hirer scanning your CV for 6 seconds? They need it spelt out differently. Don’t spend £££ on a CV writer who doesn’t know production first hand. Use my framework: It's the complete system I use when I'm working one-on-one with producers on roles I am hired by creative companies to fill.
The exact frameworks for evidencing executive skills (Creative, Culture, Clients)
Step-by-step templates for restructuring your CV
ATS optimisation strategies that actually work
LinkedIn positioning that builds credibility (not ageism)
Before/after examples from real producer CVs
The formatting "glow-ups" that make you look current
Keyword tools and how to use them properly
It's only £50. Tell your own story in a way that gets you hired at the right level, for the right money.
Your experience is your superpower. Don't hide it. Harness it.
Feel free to comment, I’d love to discuss!