Help for Senior Job Seekers - Refining Your Resume

Are you a senior looking for work? In today's economy, many older people are finding themselves in need of a job. 

Do you feel out of the loop?  It helps to have some idea how to go about job hunting as a senior, because it is different from job searches as a young adult and very different from the job search techniques you might have been taught just a few short years ago. 
Here are some tips, and inspiration, to get you back into the world of work and hopefully increase your chances of success in getting that elusive job. 

Update Your Resume

Oh yes, I went there. Look carefully and objectively at your resume. You may find that it is extremely long after many years of experience. Perhaps several pages, in fact. What to leave and what to cull out? Consider going over your resume with someone who is an expert or experienced. (www.MyA1BestStaffing.com ) 
The experts can help you pare it down to include only relevant information and highlight pertinent skills and experience. Even if you don't go with an expert, do your research to find out what modern resumes look like and what employers want. The perfect resume five years ago is a dinosaur today. 

Some DO NOT’s:

• Don’t list your whole entire work history, this draws attention to your age and can actually make you seem overqualified to a recruiter (if they even read that far into it).  Fifteen to possibly 20 years max should be listed, chronologically, or your most recent three to four jobs. You can include those older jobs,  that you are proud of and which seem relevant to the position you are applying for, in a separate category possibly labeled ‘Additional  Experience’, but do not include those dates of employment.

• Ask yourself if those long-past skills and experiences are even still relevant in a modern workplace. I have seen  skills like ‘electric typewriter’, ‘key punch machine’, ’office intercom system’ and even ‘Teletype machine’ on resumes. I am not kidding. Hint: if there is a picture of an office machine on this site that you specialize in, then don’t list that skill on your resume.
( www.officemuseum.com/communications_equipment.htm )

• Don’t list your dates of graduation, neither High school nor college. It is a dead giveaway of your age and could cost you an interview. HR personnel are very good at counting back the years and eliminating otherwise excellent candidates based on their perceived age.

• Don’t leave huge gaps of unemployed years on the resume. List what you did during that time and word the responsibilities as they would apply to the job you are seeking. Be prepared to talk about it in the interview.

• Don’t include your references on/with the resume. Wait until the face to face interview and present a neatly printed short list of business and personal references. You can also have copies of your best reference letters ready to hand over with a confident smile.

Ok, you knew all that? So here are some important DO’s:

• Do pick a modern look for your resume and err on the side of plain, simple formatting. (unless you are applying for graphic designer leave the flowers and fancy fonts alone) And print on good medium heavy stock, plain white paper. Believe me, it will stand out.

• Do emphasize your transferable skills, even those you gained outside previous work. If they relate to the job you are applying for, put them on the resume. Ex: volunteer work titles and duties, self study foreign language classes, self taught computer skills, etc.

• Do describe how you used specific skills at your previous jobs and include examples of how you benefited the company. Ex: “Increased sales Leads by 35%”.

• Do downplay former executive job titles if you have retired and are seeking less stressful or even part time employment. Over qualification is a very real concern to HR personnel. Ex: “Finance Manager” instead of “CFO”

• Do get up to speed on the latest computer and social media jargon. If you have been left at the computer-age train station by choice, please reconsider. It is never too late to do some training. Most local colleges have technical classes for seniors that are short (6 wks or less) and to the purpose. And the purpose here is to make you the most desirable employee candidate. You'll have fun and be networking with others at the same time. In every skill set, self-improvement is never wasted.

This is week one of a six week article series by Cathy Townley-McGaughey, Recruiter and managing partner at A1 Best Staffing.

But I have to lie on my resume, just a little bit, to fluff it out!

NO. Do. Not. Lie.  Why? Because the staffing agency WILL find out and you WILL not be considered a placeable candidate.

I will explain why - and how - we catch those lies and what the most common lies on resumes are.

(Yahoo News posted an excellent article on this subject at  http://news.yahoo.com/top-10-lies-people-put-r-sum-133032231.html)

Most reputable staffing firms use third party vendors and software to ferret out dishonest applicants long before the process gets to client contact. After all, our client trust us to provide top candidates, so it is very important that we find and promote the best candidate for the job.

The costs for standard criminal country-wide background checks and standard skills tests are included in our basic rates and we run these on all final candidates (signed agreement form) selected as good skills matchup for an open job posting .

A1 Best Staffing uses Kenexa Prove It!, an IBM company, for our skills testing. We can test on over 1,500 assessments. No room for false skills claims here.

We partner with Intellicorp, a Verisk Analytics Company, for risk-assessment solutions and decision analytics. We personally phone and/or fax previous employers; verifying dates of past employment. The state of Texas prohibits former employers from stating false or defamatory information about your employment at their company.

Honesty really is the best policy when you fill out an employment application. A new employer can even fire you for lying on your application, after you have been hired!

If you are tempted to do any of the following, think again.

• Stretching dates of previous employment. 
• Inflating accomplishments and skills. 
• Enhancing titles and responsibilities. 
• Exaggerating education and claiming to have earned degrees you don't have. 
• Unexplained gaps in employment history. 
• Fake credentials. 
• Falsifying reasons for leaving prior employers. 
• Providing fraudulent references. 
• Misrepresenting military records. 

If you really can't land a job with your honest resume then do something about it, honestly. Need more training or skills? Do it now, there has never been a better time. Online classes and community college extended education classes are available and affordable for everyone. Check with your local TWC (Texas Workforce Commission) to see if you might be eligible for tuition reimbursement or for open programs that cover tuition costs. Some companies offer on the job training. 

Don't lie - just fix the problem.