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CV for over 50s: thirty years of experience on two pages

7 minute read · Updated 2026-08-26

A CV for over 50s has the opposite problem to a school leaver's. There is too much material, not too little, and squeezing thirty years onto two pages tends to produce either a dense wall of jobs from the 1990s or a nervous document that hides everything. Neither works. The aim is a CV that reads as current, specific and easy to shortlist, while giving away nothing about your age that an employer has no business asking for.

What to cut from a CV for over 50s

Cut ruthlessly from the bottom. Recruiters care most about the last ten to fifteen years, and after that they only want to know that the earlier period existed.

  • Give full detail for your most recent two or three roles, with three to five bullet points each.
  • Reduce the roles before that to one line: employer, job title, dates. No bullet points.
  • Collapse anything older than about fifteen years into a single block headed Earlier career, listing employers and titles without dates.
  • Remove your date of birth, your school leaving date, your O level results and your full home address.
  • Remove technology nobody uses now unless the advert asks for it. Keeping obsolete systems on the page dates you without adding value.

If a role from twenty years ago is genuinely the closest match to the job you want, do not bury it. Pull that single point up into your key skills block on page one instead, where it will actually be read.

Age, the law and what you do not have to disclose

Age is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, and discrimination in recruitment because of age is unlawful, including in adverts. There is no default retirement age in the UK, so an employer cannot assume you are near the end of your working life.

In practice that means you can leave out your date of birth, your age, your education dates and your marital status, and you should. A photograph is not standard on a UK CV either. None of this is dishonest: it is simply not information the employer needs to decide whether you can do the job. Employment dates are different, because they establish your experience, and gaps in them are better explained than concealed.

If you do meet obvious age bias, note that most employment tribunal claims must be started within three months less one day, and you have to contact ACAS for early conciliation first. Discrimination at the application stage is difficult to prove, but the time limits are strict either way.

Show that you are current

The unspoken concern is usually about technology and pace rather than age itself, so answer it with facts rather than reassurance. Name the actual systems you use now: Microsoft 365, Teams, SAP, Sage, Xero, a specific warehouse management system, an electronic care planning system such as the ones used for CQC records, or the telematics platform in your cab. Include any training completed in the last two years, however short, with the year attached.

Keep the writing tight and modern. Long paragraphs, formal third person, phrases such as duties included, and a two column table of dates all make a document feel older than its author. A clean single column layout and short achievement bullets read as current, and they also survive recruitment software better, which our guide to ATS CV format explains in detail.

The overqualified objection, and how to defuse it

Experienced applicants are often turned down on the assumption that they will be bored, expensive or gone within a year. You can remove most of that in your opening paragraph and covering letter.

  • If you are deliberately stepping back from management, say so: Seeking a hands on role after fifteen years in supervision, with no wish to return to line management.
  • If you are flexible on pay, indicate the level you are applying at rather than making the employer guess.
  • If you want fewer hours or particular shifts, state it plainly. Anyone with 26 weeks of service can make a statutory request for flexible working, but it is better dealt with openly at offer stage.
  • If you are past State Pension age, remember that you no longer pay Class 1 National Insurance, which can be worth mentioning in a pay discussion but does not belong on the CV.

Then give the employer the positive case in a form they can check: stability, low absence, training other people, holding the relevant tickets already, and knowing the sector's customers, suppliers and regulators.

Keep it to two pages

Two pages remains the UK standard, and a CV for over 50s is where that discipline matters most. Three pages of history sends the message that you cannot prioritise, which is exactly the wrong impression from a senior applicant. If you are struggling to cut, our guide to how long a CV should be sets out what goes first.

One more thing worth doing: ask a friend to read the first half of page one and tell you what job they think you are applying for. If the answer is anything other than the advert in front of you, the top of the CV needs rewriting rather than the bottom.

Next step: cut everything older than fifteen years to a short block, add the systems and training you have used recently, then browse our current vacancies and tailor the top third of page one to the advert before you apply.