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Should I Expose It?
In this week's episode of the Ageism Survival Guide podcast, I take on one of the most stressful small decisions in a modern job search. Do you turn on that bright green ring for the world to see, do you stay visible to recruiters only with no ring at all, or do you use neither setting? This article covers that full debate, then walks you through the exact steps to set each option once you decide which path to take.
Here is the thing many people miss. You think you are choosing a look for your photo with that nice green ring. You are actually choosing an audience for your job search. That one choice affects who contacts you, what they assume about you, and how much control you keep if you are still employed.
I went through this decision process in 2020 after losing a corporate job in a restructuring. Being a very private person I hesitated to communicate my sudden unemployment. On the other hand, I understood that if nobody knows about my situation, then nobody could help me. I’ll share more of my story as we walk through the different possibilities.
Why I Started Ageism Survival Guide
In 2025, I watched something happen that I can't unsee.
Dozens of people I know - peers, former colleagues, friends - were pushed out of their companies. Not because they couldn't do the job. Not because they'd stopped caring or stopped delivering. They were pushed out because they were over 50. Because they were "expensive." Because their salaries had compounded over decades of loyalty, and some spreadsheet somewhere decided that loyalty had become a liability.
No company said that, of course. They can't. It's illegal. Instead, there were "restructuring initiatives" and "voluntary early retirement packages" and "strategic workforce adjustments." There were severance agreements with non-disparagement clauses pressed into hands still shaking from the shock. There were exit interviews where no one said what was really happening, because everyone in the room knew the truth but no one could afford to speak it.
Let me be honest with you: the pattern is unmistakable. And the silence around it is deafening. I started Ageism Survival Guide because I got tired of that silence.
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