17/09/2026
'I feel invisible' - that headline from The Guardian today says it all.
Over-50s are describing exactly what I hear from clients every week: hundreds of applications sent, a handful of interviews, and a growing sense that experience has become a liability instead of an asset...and it's heartbreaking.
Sadly in such a competitive world, it's rarely the experience that's the problem. It's the CV.
Most CVs from experienced professionals are still written like a career history: a list of jobs, dates, and duties. Recruiters (and the ATS software screening before a human even sees it) aren't looking for a history. They're looking for evidence you can solve their problems.
There are actually a few things that kill over-50s applications:
1) Leading with a 20-year chronology instead of a sharp, relevant summary.
2) Listing responsibilities instead of results
3) No tailoring, the same CV sent to every job
4) Formatting that trips up ATS software before a human gets to reads it.
Thankfully none of that means starting over, It just means repositioning what you've already done so it reads as current, relevant, and valuable, and definitely not "a long career" but "the person who's solved this exact problem before."
If you're one of the readers in that article, or you know someone who is, I'd be glad to help. Sometimes it just takes a fresh pair of eyes on the CV to turn "invisible" into "interview."
Worth a thought.
