A: Most likely, yes.

If by younger you mean 'recent college graduate,' the differences will be stark. Barring relevant work experience (which most don't have), the grad will be advised to lead with educational data. And lots of it: the top third to half of the resume will be about Majors and Minors, GPAs, course work and internships relevant to the career objective, etc.

Not so with job seekers in their fifties. You'll likely want to de-emphasize your education by whittling it down to the degree (if you have one) and school, and little else (i.e., skip the date of graduation). And that sparse information should be pushed down to the bottom of the resume. The reason? You're going to want to commandeer the prime resume real estate (top and middle) for a qualifications summary and a chronology of recent and relevant work experience.

The exception, and there are always exceptions, is in the event you've completed recent training that's relevant to your job goals. In that case, you'll want to get that up front, especially if you're seeking a career change and your work history won't be helping you much in the eyes of the prospective employer.

Other differences? Some job seekers would be advised to limit or blur the timeline. For example, if you've got 40 years of work experience but half of those years were spend doing a job that has no relevance to your current objective, leave that information off the resume (not every job has to be listed on a resume), or summarize those years without specifying dates of employment. The goal here is not to deceive, but to focus attention on the qualifications that are most relevant to the position in mind.

To that end, a functional resume will often better serve the older worker over the more prevalent chronological format. But not always. A good, professional writer will know which is more advantageous (sometimes, it's a combination thereof).

Keep in mind that a resume is not a biography; it's a marketing tool to help sell yourself against some pretty fierce competition in the job market. It's a sad fact of life that too many hiring officials will pre-judge older workers before having the chance to digest the skill set they could bring to the position. One of the goals of the resume: prepare the hiring official for a candidate who's uniquely qualified for the job before age can become a factor.