Career · 2026-08-22 · 13 min read

CV if you are over 45 or 50: how not to lose the filter

ATS does not “see” your age; it sees three pages and 1989 in the header. How to trim recent career without erasing yourself. ClarCV.

The filter does not have a “reject over-50” field. It has a three-page PDF, date of birth on line one, and a 1992 first job eating half a page. People searching “CV over 50” or “senior CV 45” usually have an honest, long file. The problem is signal: the recent work drowns under the old. Cutting is not lying. It is letting the last 10–15 years be readable in ten seconds.

This guide covers which dates to show, how to compress old roles, whether to drop age, and how not to look “disconnected” (tools, keywords). Siblings: employment gap, career change, CV too long. ClarCV is how you regenerate the file you already have into an ATS template of two pages max, without three-column Canva.

You will not pretend to be 35. You will remove date of birth, group 1990–2005 into four lines, and name tools you actually use. A video screen happens if the PDF does not delete itself first.

Take age out of the header

Date of birth, “55 years old”, a 2008 ID photo: out. You still see it in Spain; it does not help. Bias arrives before your achievements. City, phone, email, LinkedIn. Detail: what not to put. If a process asks age on a form, use the form — not the PDF that gets forwarded.

The last 10–15 years lead

Detail (bullets with numbers) only on recent roles aligned to the target. Earlier: one block “Previous experience (1992–2008): admin, sales, store supervisor” in three lines, or titles with no bullets. Do not delete 30 years: compress them. If you are changing sector, translate internal titles to market names on recent roles; older ones can keep the real name with less detail.

• Two pages as a ceiling except academia or very dense C-level.
• Technology: name what you use now (Excel, SAP, Salesforce, Teams), not “computer literacy” from 1998.
• Recent training (a 2023 certificate) weighs more than a 1995 master’s with no later use.
• Gaps: explain them in one line, not a hole. See the employment-gap guide.

Before: three pages, every job with eight task bullets. After: page 1 = latest role + previous relevant one; page 2 = the rest compressed + skills. ATS finds recent dates next to the title. A human sees you are still active.

2026 keywords, not 2004 jargon

If the ad says “customer success” and your card said “key-account service”, put both: market title and, if needed, the internal one in brackets. Pull tools from the ad if you used them. Do not paste “agile, disruptive, digital native”. Do: one achievement with a current CRM. Guide: tailor your CV to a job.

Layout: one column, real text

The “serious” Word CV with tables and the dark Canva one fail the same way. One column, standard headings, selectable PDF. In ClarCV you upload the file, get clarity and structure analysis, apply an A4 template. Free: 3 analyses and 2 downloads / 30 days, no card. Pro €7/month. You check that a role was not dropped: the model must not invent a 2019 job.