The Department for Work, Pensions and Ageist Advice?

Award winning advertising creative director Andy Bunday recently wrote this.

The UK Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has some tips for over 50s to get their CVs noticed

Advice includes: “…try to limit your work history to the last 10 to 15 years’ and “don’t use phrases like ‘over a number of decades’.” Also: “if you need to mention school qualifications, use ‘GCSEs’ rather than O-levels”. (GCSEs began in ’88. So, only those born before ’73 have O-levels.)

What other protected characteristic would we be advised to hide like this? Why’s it better if you only started work in about 2008? Is age and experience disadvantageous?

I’m proud of my last 10-15 years: Supporting a “digital-first transformation”; Founding a network office in Manchester. CRM, integrated, social and digital, web-builds, Figma, embracing AI…

My current and recent employers must be very enlightened as I’ve never been diffident about my age. It can’t be right to conceal the truth. And I wouldn’t want to work anywhere that didn’t value me for who I really am.

If I was going to follow the DWP advice, which experiences should I bin? Starting out as a caricaturist on Spitting Image?

My first agency role at BBH, getting D&AD and Cannes honours for Audi? Pitching and winning the COI 6 times through 5 different agencies? Our Teens Road Safety spot, one of campaign’s “Top Ten Cinema Ads of all time”? And on the side, drawing political cartoons for The Times, The Independent and CNN.

Which bits are holding me back?

Remember, it’s not a choice between the stuff above and the more recent experience. You get both.

Less than 6% of the ad industry workforce are over 50. Grant Smith has been vocal about this problem. And of course, it’s most acute for women.

Over 50s account for over 50% of all spending. Perhaps more ad agencies should remember this. And the DWP really ought to know better…