Here are 5 reasons to list your graduation date on your resume:

1. Prevents a red flag: If you leave graduation dates off your resume, you’re not fooling anyone. Even though so many career advisers tell you to leave graduation dates off your resume, HR reps and recruiters have gotten wise to this game. Lack of a graduation date sets off a red flag to most recruiters and HR reps that you’re trying to hide something … like your age, maybe?
2. Shows you actually graduated: The number one way candidates lie on their resume is about their education. This is one of the things recruiters and HR reps are trained to specifically find. Leaving your graduation date off causes recruiters and HR reps to be concerned – because candidates who lie about their education won’t include graduation dates, making it more difficult to catch. It’s almost impossible to confirm a candidate actually graduated, without a graduation date and degree to match against the candidate’s name.
3. Transparency: Full disclosure on your resume gives the first impression that you tell the truth. Isn’t that the exact first impression that you want to give employers – that you’re trustworthy? Excluding your graduation date from your resume gives the impression that you’re hiding something. Is that really the impression you want to give?
4. Social Networks: Almost 90% of employers include checking your social media profiles as a part of their background screening. One of the main reasons is to catch inconsistencies between resumes and social profiles. So if you’re going to try hiding your graduation date, you’ve a lot to hide.
5. Even if you fool HR, you’re not fooling anybody: Let’s say you leave your graduation date off your resume, hoping recruiters and HR reps don’t catch it and offer you an interview slot. The recruiter or HR rep who recommended you for an interview was successfully tricked into believing you’re younger than you actually are, because you left off your graduation date. How are you going to fool that same individual, when you show up … live, in person?

So the day of your interview you show up, with your interviewer thinking you’re a 30 year old, not a 50 year old. I don’t care if you had more plastic surgery than Joan Rivers, no matter how much Just For Men you’ve put in your hair, you’re not going to look like a 30 year old. So the first impression you’ll make in person is that you’ve deceived the HR staff into thinking you’re younger than you actually are.

And you made this impression, because you did try to deceive HR into thinking you were much younger. Your interview and your chances ended the moment you walked through the employer’s door.