#JobSearch : Insider Gives Top Resume Tips For Older (40 & Up) Job Applicants. “Yes, Ageism is Real,”
“Yes, ageism is real,” said Ron Visconti in a recent career guidance webinar geared at applicants aged 50 and older. Visconti, the founder and executive director of Phase2Careers, a nonprofit organization assisting workers over age 40, knows a thing or two about ageism in the workplace. He has worked with small and large organizations, both public and private, on recruitment and career transition issues.
When it comes to the resume, Visconti says job seekers must understand the negative perceptions and bias directed at older workers. When applicants know the barriers they’re up against, they can craft their resumes to defuse those stereotypes and dismiss fears.
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Visconti offers these guidelines to increase interview opportunities and, if all goes well, a solid offer.
- Recruiters are overworked and don’t have time to analyze your resume for possibilities. They want to see evidence that you can do the job. That’s why it is critical to ensure that your career story is a perfect match for the position.
- Most resumes go back ten years; however, older candidates typically have valuable experience beyond that. If that experience is relevant to the position you seek, you can add the heading other relevant experience at the end of your career history. Include the name of the company and your title, but do not include the dates of employment.
- Don’t oversell yourself. Candidates with 20 or 30 years of experience are inclined to emphasize that experience. If a vacancy requires 8 years of experience and you have many more, write that you have 8+ years of experience. Otherwise, you risk experience discrimination if recruiters and hiring managers consider you overqualified.
- Do not submit a resume longer than two pages. If you require two pages, make sure the content is relevant to the job you seek. Use language that is current and relevant to your industry. And, if you are skilled in outdated technologies, don’t include them in your skillset.
- Recruiters spend an estimated seven seconds per resume. Make your resume pleasing to the eye with the use of white space. Highlight skills that align directly with the role near the top of the page, emphasizing metrics.
- COVID has made remote work the new normal. Show relevancy by including your work-from-home setup and familiarity with critical applications such as Slack and Zoom. If those applications are not familiar to you, find someone to mentor you so you can include them in your skillset.
“Your resume shouldn’t be about responsibilities,” Visconti said. “It should be about your achievements and directly relate to the job you are applying for.”
While there may be stereotypes in the workplace that make it harder for older applicants to get noticed, following these guidelines will increase your visibility to talent scouts.
References to older technologies feed the stereotype that older applicants are not in the game. As an example, Visconti warns applicants never to use a Hotmail or AOL address as a contact.
“Get a Gmail account and don’t feed the myth!”
To join Visconti in a future free job search offering, check out his events page and register.
Forbes.com | November 17, 2020 | Sheila Callaham
