The “Too Experienced” Card is BS
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
EP 3110 “You’re too experienced for the job.” That phrase is a load of manipulative garbage used to shut down the conversation.
If you’ve heard this excuse, you know how insulting and frustrating it is. It’s a smokescreen.
Have you ever found yourself looking at a job post and thinking, I’m perfect for this, but am I too perfect? It’s a real fear for so many seasoned professionals that all your years of hard work might actually be seen as a negative. But what if the problem isn’t your experience, but how you’re packaging it? Let’s get into it. Right? Let’s just ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind.
You see that role, you know you could absolutely kill it, but then that little voice creeps in. Are they just going to look at my resume and think, nope, too overqualified, too senior, maybe just too old. It’s a nagging feeling for sure.
So we’re going to get to the bottom of what’s really happening behind the scenes. Okay. So the very first thing we have to do is figure out what we’re actually dealing with here.
Is it flat out ageism or is it something else? And you know, this distinction is absolutely crucial because how you solve the problem completely depends on what the problem actually is. So let’s really break this down over here. You’ve got ageism and that’s about ugly stereotypes, right? Assumptions about skills or culture fit.
But a lot of the time, what you’re actually running into is this too experienced column. It’s a practical problem. A recruiter sees you were an SVP and you’re applying for a director job.
Their brain doesn’t go to age. It immediately goes to money. They think this person is going to cost way too much for this role.
It’s all about a perceived mismatch. All right. So if the issue is often just about perception, about a mismatch, then the solution is pretty clear.
You have to take control of your own story. You get to be the one who frames the narrative. So when a recruiter looks at your profile, they don’t see too experienced.
They see the perfect fit. Now, this first piece of advice might sound a little intense, but trust me, it’s so powerful. You do not need to list every single job you’ve ever had since the beginning of time, especially anything from before the year 2000.
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It is time to become a ruthless, but smart, editor of your own career. And the process is actually pretty simple. You just look at your entire work history, find those really early roles from way back when, and then you just get rid of them.
Seriously, delete them. Not just, you know, shrink the font, remove them completely. The whole point is to get rid of the clutter so their eyes go straight to what’s most relevant and recent.
Okay, let’s talk about a core idea that will honestly change how you build your resume from now on. We’re going to call it the 10-year rule, and it’s all about making sure that recruiter’s attention is focused squarely on what matters for the job they need to fill right now. This.
This is the magic number. 10. Just commit that to memory.
10 years. This is going to be your new North Star for what gets top billing on your resume. So here’s the rule in a nutshell.
Recruiters, for the most part, really only care about what you’ve been doing lately. Your accomplishments from the last decade. That’s the stuff that proves you’re ready for the job today.
Everything before that, it’s just ancient history to them. I mean, just think about it for a second. The world of work was completely different before 9-11, for example.
The tech was different. The strategies were different. The chance that your experience from back then is directly applicable to a role today is, well, it’s pretty slim.
So you’ve got to put all your focus on your recent, most impactful work. All right. Now, for this to really sink in, we need to get inside the head of a recruiter just for a minute, because when you understand their world and what they’re up against, you’ll see exactly why trimming and curating your resume is so non-negotiable.
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Okay. Here’s the tough love part. That recruiter is probably drowning in resumes.
They’re not going to spend five minutes trying to figure out your career path. They’re not going to connect the dots for you. If they see a 25-year work history for a director role, they’re just going to assume you’re too expensive and move on.
They are looking for a quick, easy yes. And that means the burden is on you, not them. It is your job to read that job description, figure out what their biggest pain point is, and then handcraft your resume to scream, I am the solution to your problem.
You can’t make them do the work. So, after all that, what is the one single thing you need to walk away with? It really all comes down to one simple, incredibly powerful idea. That’s it.
That is the entire game. Every single edit you make, every job you delete, every bullet point you rewrite, it should all be done for one reason and one reason only, to make it ridiculously, blindingly obvious to a busy recruiter that you are the right person for this job. So, I’ll leave you with a little challenge.
Go ahead, open up your resume or your LinkedIn profile right now. Take a good, hard look at it, and ask yourself this, what’s one old, not-so-relevant thing you can delete today to make it that much easier for someone to say yes to you tomorrow?
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, carer transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
He is the producer and former host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3100 episodes. 
Your Digital First Impression May Be Getting You Rejected
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Your Digital First Impression May Be Getting You Rejected
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