Does experience sell?: The effects of applicant work experience, job type, and recruiter ageism on employment selection

The present study explored the effects of job applicants' work experience and job type on recruiters' job interview recommendations with ageism as a mediator. It was hypothesized that older job applicants with extensive work experience would receive significantly lower job interview recommendation ratings than others with less years of work experience and that job types would moderate this relationship. Furthermore, it was proposed that recruiter ageism would mediate the relationship between applicants' work experience and interview recommendations such that recruiters with high ageism would be less likely to recommend applicants with extensive years of work experience for a job interview than applicants with less extensive experience.;A 2 x 3 between-subjects experiment was conducted with 2 job types (IT Manager as younger job type/Corporate Attorney as non-younger job type) and 3 levels of applicant work experience (4, 13, and 26 years) as independent variables. Recruiters (e.g., hiring supervisors/managers, Human Resource professionals) with prior or present resume evaluation experience were invited to participate in this on-line experiment. Out of216 respondents, 169 completed the study.;The study results clearly showed that participants utilized work experience as an age marker. However, contrary to the expectation, participants gave higher job interview recommendation ratings to more experienced applicants (13 and 26 years) and lower job interview recommendation to the youngest, least experienced (4 years) applicants. The results indicated that work experience was perceived positively. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.