Certainly we do hire older candidates. I think I would be looking at the whole picture though. It sort of like this. I’m looking at Associate and Intern level candidates with 4.0s in masters programs and they still aren’t a shoe-in. So I might wonder if someone who hasn’t accomplished at 50 what another person has accomplished in his 20s is really a good fit.
As an interviewee, I would probably view that as a sign of weakness in a manager. As I joke, I might ask if I can expect to be held to the same standard as a female employee or if she planned to lactate in front of me. I suspect I also would not get that job.
I don’t know about desperation, but I’ve interviewed a lot of very nervous candidates.
They are treated like any other candidate. We just talk about them more afterwards. It’s a client-facing business so in general, it helps to be more attractive, more polished and just more put together. But not at the expense of being an idiot.
No.
Tough call. Some interviewers might not like it. But leave it off and you have a gap on your resume. It might actually be a benefit if you were applying for a more quantitative job like something on a trading desk. For me, I generally wouldn’t care, except that’s a few years of you working a job not particularly relevant to this position.
One of my colleagues in my last firm actually quit to go become a professional poker player.