13 Tips to Age-Proof Your Resume

13 Tips to Age-Proof Your Resume13 Tips to Age-Proof Your Resume In todays economy, more and more Americans are working into their 60s and 70s. As such, it is imperative that this community is competitive when facing off against younger workers. The first step in landing an in-demand job is crafting an eye-catching resume. The resume continues to be a crucial tool every savvy job seeker needs, says resume writer and career advice expert for TopResume , Amanda Augustine. Older workers are often confronted with many stereotypes in the workplace, from being unable to keep up with technology to being too rigid in their ways. While not all stereotypes can be completely overcome within the confines of a resume, there are ways to draw the focus away from a candidates age and place it where it belongs on the candidates qualifications.Here are the top tips for age-proofing your resume, developed by Augustine for AARP, which recently partnered with TopResume. Grab a pe n and paper, youll want to take notes.The further along you are in your career, the less relevant your earlier work experience becomes. Employers care most about your recent work that matters for the roles theyre filling, not your experience from 15 or more years ago. As a result, give more detail about the positions youve held in the past 1015 years that are related to your current job search and say less about your earliest jobs.Focus on elaborating on your most recent positions, assuming they support your current goals. Ask yourself the following questions, says AugustineRemove the dates related to work experience , education, and certifications if they fall outside the 15-year window. While you may want to consolidate older work experience in a separate section or a Career Note, including the dates of employment is unnecessary. Similarly, its important to share your credentials on your resume, but the employer doesnt need to know you earned your MBA 17 years ago.The straight-no -chaser reality is employers truly dont want to weed through a long resume document to understand why a candidate is qualified for their open position, says Augustine. Therefore, youve got to stick to two pages. Most recruiters spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a resume before deciding if the candidate should receive further consideration. With so little time to make the right impression, its important to streamline your resume to two pages . Focus on using this space to highlight your recent work experience and accomplishments that best match your current career goals.Although you may have held numerous roles throughout your career, your resume shouldnt be a laundry list of everything you have done. Focus on tailoring your resumes content to support your current career objective, rather than providing a generalized summary of your entire work history.When youve worn many hats over the course of a multi-decade career, it can be tempting to include all of this information on your resume, says Augustine. However, when you do that, your resume turns into a mini novel (which recruiters hate) and your document will lack focus.Seventy-five percent of all zugreifbar applications will never be seen by human eyes thanks to the hiring bots , which are software programs known as an applicant tracking system (ATS) . Their job is to collect, scan, and rank an employers inbound applications. To improve your resumes chances of making it past this digital gatekeeper and on to a human for review, make sure your document includes the appropriate keysie sagen ess. If a word or phrase repeatedly shows up in the job listings youre interested in, incorporate these terms into your resume.Remember, says Augustine, if a candidates resume isnt designed and written with these bots in mind, even the resume of a qualified candidate could end up in the trash.Older workers sometimes are seen as lacking technical savvy. Dont give employers a reason to believe you might fit this stereot ype. Ditch your old AOL or Hotmail email account for a free, professional-looking Gmail address that incorporates your name.If youre still listing your landline on your resume, its time to mobilize your contact information. Only list your cell phone number on your resume so you can control the voicemail message, who answers important phone calls from recruiters, and when.LinkedIn is a valuable platform for connecting with others in your industry and uncovering new job opportunities. Its also an important place to advertise your candidacy to prospective employers. In fact, a study by recruiting software provider Jobvite found that 93 percent of employers admit to reviewing candidates social network profiles - regardless of whether the candidates provided that information.If youve avoided using LinkedIn in the past, nows the time to create a profile that supports your career goals. Then, customize your LinkedIn profile URL and add it to the top of your resume to ensure recruiter s find the right profile for you.The fact that you know how to use Microsoft Office is no longer noteworthy (unless your role requires advanced knowledge of Excel). Show employers that youve kept up with the latest tools and platforms related to your field. If youre in a non-technical profession, create a small section toward the bottom of your resume that lists these proficiencies. If you realize theres a skill or tool outside your wheelhouse thats routinely appearing in the job descriptions youre targeting, check out sites such as edX, Coursera, and SkillShare to find free or low-cost online courses.Small tweaks to the content of your resume can make a big difference in determining whether your online application reaches a human being for review. Before you submit another online application, re-evaluate your resume based on the job posting. Then, make small edits to customize your resume so that it clearly reflects your qualifications for this specific role.Focus on highlighti ng the information that addresses what hiring managers care most about Prove to me that you possess the right skills and experience to do this job well, insists Augustine. If you focus on this objective, youre more likely to craft a resume that is set up for success in combating age discrimination.Avoid using a run-of-the-mill objective statement thats full of fluff and focuses solely on your wants and needs. Instead, replace it with your elevator pitch. In a brief paragraph, known as a professional summary or executive summary, explain what youre great at, most interested in, and how you can provide value to a prospective employer. In other words, summarize your job goals and qualifications for the reader.If content is king in a resume, then design is queen. How your information is formatted is just as important as the information itself. Focus on leveraging a combination of short blurbs and bullet points to make it easy for the reader to quickly scan your resume and find the most important details that support your candidacy.Since youre keeping the length to two pages, any experience older than a decade ago can be cut or condensed. In fact, you can summarize your earlier positions in one of two waysAt this point in your career, recruiters are less concerned with the tasks youve completed and more interested in learning what youve accomplished. Separate each job under your work history into a short blurb that describes your role and responsibilities. Then, add a set of bullet points to describe the results youve achieved and the major contributions youve made that have benefited the organization. By bulleting these details, youre drawing readers eyes to the information they care most about your qualifications. Whenever possible, quantify your accomplishments to provide additional context for the recruiter.Numbers are important Quantify the scope of your work as much as possible, says Augustine. That said, seasoned workers shouldnt get anxious if they no longer have access to the data that would allow them to quantify their earlier work.