Dear Sam: I was downsized due to the pandemic and have been searching for a new position since last June. I am in my early 50s and believe my age is a significant factor in not getting calls for interviews. I am sure my resume writing is “outdated” by today’s standards; after all, I worked for my last employer for more than 20 years, so I haven’t had to create a resume since the early 2000s! Can you take a look and point out anything I could be doing better? – Leo
Dear Leo: Thank you for writing and sending your resume for review. You are correct in that the approach you have taken on your resume is quite outdated, overly brief, and lacks the ability for a recruiter or hiring manager to effectively evaluate your candidacy in an ever-so-brief few-second screening process.
Let’s start at the top of your resume and address the opportunities for improvement.
1) Your email address tells your age! You should never have a date that looks like a birth year in your email address. You immediately allow a potential employer to “figure out” your age. Set up a professional email address with some form of your name and no numbers that reflect years of importance.
2) Customize your LinkedIn URL. Do not add your non-customized LinkedIn URL to your resume, as this could indicate a lack of technology savviness. Go to your edit profile settings in LinkedIn and remove the automatically assigned numbers and letters after your name to customize your LinkedIn address. Additionally, as there is no value in someone visiting your LinkedIn profile—as you have very few connections and very little content—consider whether it is worth including it in the first place.
3) Your qualifications summary is very lackluster. Do any of the job postings you are reading ask for “30+ years of experience?” I have yet to see a job posting seeking someone so experienced—unless we are speaking of a senior-level leadership role—so “right-size” your summary to better reflect the skills, experiences, and qualifications the jobs you are applying for are seeking. You will want to give this part of your resume some major focus, as it will be why someone brings you in for an interview or rejects your application. This is the section of your resume that will be visually scanned during the initial screening process and must compel the reader to bring you in for an interview.
4) Your work experience section is severely lacking in content. It would be best if you described the scope of each of your roles and presented some highlights showcasing how you added value beyond expectations. You must also write with some diversity in your language. Currently, it looks like you have copied and pasted almost verbatim sections for your two types of roles. Think about that: if you can’t spend the time nor apply the creativity to write about your experiences, what message does that send to a potential employer? Dig deeper and think about your roles, what you did well, how you performed better than expected, and what you did that added value that was not on your job description. Add this valuable content to your resume to convey what is truly unique about your candidacy—your experience.
5) Trim the number of years of experience you are presenting. As you are in your 50s, you could show 30+ years of experience; however, no employer will want to see that. Instead, employers prefer you focus on your roles over the past 10-15 years. In your case, given you were with your last employer for 20+ years, you will likely have to explore your entire career with that employer, but you do not need to go back any further unless you feel your foundational experiences add value to your candidacy.
Taking some time to update the presentation of your brand will be vital in competing effectively in our current job search climate. You are undoubtedly a solid professional and a strong candidate, but you are not doing your candidacy justice in the existing presentation. I wish you much success in expediting the remaining course of your search.
