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In the US any CVs with personal information (photo, date of birth, marital/family status, religion, etc.) go right into the shredder. Companies cannot consider CVs with that kind of information or they may be legally targeted later for discrimination lawsuits. Besides, no one in the US would put that kind of information on a CV because it’s just not done that way. You send your CV with your job history, education, etc. and hope the company calls for an interview based on that and not because of age, skin color or religion. Because of personal information on CVs in Austria, I have no doubt discrimination is practiced widely.
In my humble opinion, there should be new general guidelines implemented in Austria that bans personal information on CVs. I believe people here would omit personal information as soon as they realize it would be more beneficial to them in the job search. And companies have to implement new policies in personnel management to review CVs based on qualifications. They need to be completely re-educated in this process. I’ve experienced first-hand many times that people here are definitely of the mindset that if you lose your job at age 45+, that’s it – it’s all over and you might as well curl up in a ball and die because no company will hire you at that age. That’s really a shame because the country loses out on that whole pool of experienced, qualified employees from which a company could definitely benefit from.
I also agree with writer in that learning to speak the language isn’t necessarily the golden ticket to a job. There are so many other factors.
I was very lucky in getting hired in Austria a year after I moved here. However, I never intended to stay there; I thought a few years there would look good on my resume, I’d make good contacts there, and I’d get a bigger, better job. That never happened. And the longer I stayed and tried to find another job, I didn’t get anything. Am still at the same place albeit now a different dept (thank God!) but with a salary so low I can barely stand to look at my Lohnzettel each month. Still, I am happy to have a job.
@wiener wrote:
But if your CV has 20 years of working experience then you can´t obviously be 25 😀
I am afraid thats the main problem, especially if you are trying to implement this via a legal action instead of changing the process in the society and on the work-market: HR-professionals will simply look at e.g. your graduation year or when your first work experience started and they can guess +/- 1-2 years how old you are, your first name is for 90% gonna tell them which sex you are, where you went to school in the world or where you started your studies will tell them (or at least make them think they know) where you are coming from and if there is e.g. a good chance you might have a different skin colour … if they want to find it out, they will, I am afraid.
Don´t get my wrong onthis, I also think its wrong, but I think a new law would be the wrong or at least not a sufficient measure, the society as such and especially the labor-market with its internal forces has to change first and become aware of these things, otherwise the HR-departments will just do a little bit more Sherlock Holmes work…CU, Fritz
@wiener wrote:
None the above. Jobs are easy to find, but the work permit gets always in the way 👿 But it´ll be over soon! 🙂 Less than 2 months to go and they won´t need that permit any more! 😎
Really, what do you mean, wiener! Tell more!
Thanks for the posts everyone, to be honest, I find many Austrian companies to be quite conservative in outlook and I am not sure they appreciate or understand the depth and potential of foreign experience and skillsets eg. I have worked in international markets for many years and have excelled in my field…naturally I also don’t speak German so I do understand as well but that is my sense anyway even if I did. As to gender discrimination, I do not know how it is in companies but I see senior management represented mainly by males, obviously that is similar in many countries but I would not be surprised if Austrian males found it harder to report to women 😀
I’ve never really thought about this before, but as a self-employed person nobody asks for a CV or your age, race, religion etc when they want you to do work for them. They couldn’t care less how old a person is, what they look like or whether they are married or single. Yet at the end of the day it boils down to the same thing; they are in some way employing you to do a job. The only things that matter are: how long will it take and how much will it cost. Wonder why it’s not important in self-employment?
I’m self-employed so that’s why it interests me, but I did apply for a part-time job a couple of years ago here, and I obviously had to submit a CV. I deliberately didn’t conform to the criteria here so there was no date of birth, no photo and no marital status. They did point out that there was no date of birth etc, and my answer to that was that I wasn’t aware that my age, looks or marital status was relevant to the job. Call it luck or whatever, but I got the job. I’ve done that twice and it’s never been a problem.
I’m not recommending anyone else to do this, but just to say that perhaps they really aren’t that concerned at the end of the day. I can understand that a photo would be a requisite for a job as a model, but other than that i see no plausible excuse for this to be a requirement. My CV does not have a photo and it doesn’t have any other data on there that i would share with a complete stranger. Risky? Perhaps…but I think if one gives a good explanation for the missing information that they want, it may not be a problem, or hasn’t been for me in the past. But maybe i just got lucky.
Another factor to consider is being “over-qualified” for certain types of jobs. It’s not much of a consolation, but unfortunately many companies just can’t afford to pay the salaries of highly qualified people, so they take a 25 year old with less experience and also pay a lot less.
@WienA wrote:
Really, what do you mean, wiener! Tell more!
I come from an European country, which is a new member of EU and therefor could´nt- and still can´t, work here without the work permit. From the 1st of May this restriction will be over in here and in Germany and they cannot extend it any more.
Of course that does´nt mean, that the jobs will be handed out exactly on that date, but something should definitaly change 🙂 Hopefully for the better 🙂
I have a job and I am ok with that, but I hope my signifcant other will finally, after almost 2 years, get one too!@wiener wrote:
@WienA wrote:
Really, what do you mean, wiener! Tell more!
I come from an European country, which is a new member of EU and therefor could´nt- and still can´t, work here without the work permit. From the 1st of May this restriction will be over in here and in Germany and they cannot extend it any more.
Of course that does´nt mean, that the jobs will be handed out exactly on that date, but something should definitaly change 🙂 Hopefully for the better 🙂
I have a job and I am ok with that, but I hope my signifcant other will finally, after almost 2 years, get one too!Ahhh I see, great! And Good Luck for your SO on the job front 🙂
Well this is really distressing 🙁 I will be 51 when I have my work permit in hand. My hope is to find administrative assistant work with an international firm. My fiance works for a company that only speaks English, so I was hoping to find this type of job while I struggle to learn German.
I found it really odd that I will have to include my birth date, a picture, marital status, etc. on a CV. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised now if they wanted my religion as well – lol.
I wonder if employers would mind less about age when it comes to an Executive Assistant? Some executive prefer a “seasoned” assistant. Maybe a picture will help since I look younger than my age? ugh
@colleen wrote:
I found it really odd that I will have to include my birth date, a picture, marital status, etc. on a CV. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised now if they wanted my religion as well – lol.
Well, if you’re Catholic, the Church would certainly like to know! Mo money!!
Your distress is pretty well-founded, unfortunately. Those little tidbits of requested info come in very useful when applying all those “-isms” (age-, sex-, race-, child bearing potential, etc) which would get a U.S. business sued into nonexistence with the quickness. But, that’s there – this is here. Gotta live with it. “Gee, Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!”@kavin wrote:
I was in Wichita (Kansas) before I relocated to EU (eventually to Wien) and didn’t see anything get even a shade better then Kansas so far.
A lot less tornadoes? More terrain features? 😛 😉 My first neice was born in Wichita! 😀 Bro-in-law was asst coaching men’s hoops at Wichita State at the time. Good friend of my pop was test pilot at Cessna for a couple decades. Nice town, mostly good folks out there – except the requisite minority of rednecks and gangbangers.
Thanks Bubbles 🙂 I just received some great links from the Expat Center, and hopefully an early search will at least give me an idea about how my CV will be received. I’m crossing my fingers anyway 🙂
Interesting discussion and confirms my decision to leave Vienna for the US some 25 years ago because I could not stand the narrow mindset.
Nothing seems to have changed – women are still stereotyped into childcare and secretarial positions, and reading job ads for “the young colleague – Kollege not Kollegin – just makes me wonder how long or what it will take for change. Vienna was highlighted in the WSJ a few days ago as a modern, international, financial, and diplomatic center. Why is there not more pressure to conform to at least 19th century standards, let alone 21st century? Ah, some of you will reply – because they can get away with it. 🙂
I had, for half a nano second thought about coming back but now I remember the reasons for my flight halfway around the world. Not that my memory is all that good, as old as I am 🙂 in Austrian years.
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