I had a prospective client who asked for a resume quote.

He worked as a ‘sparky’ down Port Road. He’d been in the same job for 21 years. Most of his trade qualifications came from the 1980s.

Thinking like a recruiter, I reckon he would have been late 40s, maybe early 50s.

In the 1990s, he worked in the mines for a few years and still had the old tickets and licences.

He wants to leave his job – like so many others – and go back to the mines.

When I said we’d focus on his more recent career history – especially the last ten or 12 years – he wasn’t happy.

He reckoned his previous mining experience, out of date tickets and lack of recent training, were only minor points. He decided not to proceed with the rewrite, which was fair enough.

But he has a problem.

Employers and recruiters will not only ping him on age prejudice but they won’t even look at his older mining work on page three.

Current skills and experience get jobs. Not memories. I wish him well.