Resume Help tip: Avoid Age Discrimination

If you're between 40 and 60 years old, the job market may hold a special treat for your resume - Age Discrimination.

Most people who are victims of age discrimination never even make it to an interview. This means your resume said something tat caused an employer to set it aside, and yo need some resume help fast!

Resume Mistake. Remember that you don't have to list your entire work history in every resume you send out!

Listing your entire 30-year work history on your resume might actually hurt you. The HR department I used to work for was concerned with overqualified employees. There was a fear that the employee would take our job to tide them over until their "real" dream job came knocking on their door.

Rather that listing your entire 30-year work history on your resume, you can simply label that part of your resume "Recent Work History" or "Relevant Work History" and then describe only the last 10 or 15 years of your experience.

If something relevant to the job you are applying for is in the distant past, there is an artful way you can list this experience as well. After your 10-15 year work history, add a small paragraph headed "Prior relevant experience" and simply refer to that ancient job without mentioning dates. You get your message across without opening yourself to age discrimination.

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Resumes Employers Want to See!

1. Communication skills
   (verbal and written)
2. Honesty/integrity
3. Teamwork skills
   (works well with others)
4. Interpersonal skills
   (relates well to others)
5. Motivation/initiative
6. Strong work ethic
7. Analytical skills
8. Flexibility/adaptability
9. Computer skills
10. Organizational skills

• Relevant work experience    4
• Internship experience           3.9
• Any work experience            3.6
• Co-op experience                  3.2

ResumeAce's Resume Checklist
for a Winning Resume

Before you email or mail your resume to the employer of your dreams, compare it to this resume help checklist to make sure your resume has all of the components it needs.

Remember, your resume may only get 5 seconds of human attention! Make the most of it with a complete resume!

APPEARANCE

• Resume is inviting and easy to read; not too much information
• Resume uses appropriate font styles and font sizes (10-14 pts.)
• Resume incorporates enough white space between sections to facilitate skimming
  centers text; adequate margins
  creates visual impact using bullets, boldface, underlining, italics, and font sizes to emphasize key words (for scannable resumes, use boldface only)
• Resume is printed on high quality (16-25 lb.) bond paper
• Resume print is letter quality

ORGANIZATION AND FORMAT

• Resume is appropriate format
• Resume includes keyword phrases of profession
• Resume presents strongest qualifications first
• Resume is appropriate length: l page for every 6-10 years of work experience

WRITING STYLE

• Resume begins sentences or phrases with powerful action verbs
• Resume uses short paragraphs - mostly under five lines; short sentences
  brief, succinct language; no unnecessary words
• Resume is absolutely free from grammatical, spelling, punctuation, usage, and typographical errors

CONTENT

• Resume Contact Information; your name, address, current phone number, socially acceptable email address, and URL if applicable
• Resume Objective; (Optional for chronological resume. Required for functional resume.) Briefly indicate the sort of position, title, and possible area of specialization sought - for management or supervisory positions, indicates level of responsibility sought
• Resume Contains Summary of Skills, Accomplishments, or Expertise - identifies 3-6 key achievements and summarizes relevant work experience and accomplishments that support the objective
• Education and Training; Highest level of attainment is listed first; work from most current degree backward - include type of degree, name of university, location of university, date of, or anticipated date of, graduation. List relevant higher education coursework, continuing professional education or training courses, and study abroad major, minor, or areas of concentration omit high school if you have completed more than two years of college unless referencing impressive honors or relevant extracurricular activities relevant courses, papers, projects; include paper or project titles GPA, honors, awards, scholarships percentage of educational expenses earned.
• Employment Experience; Include all paid, volunteer, intern, or cooperative education experiences that are relevant to your objective. Start with most recent experience if using chronological format, then title held, organization name, city, state, or country location (if not USA)
• Skills; computer skills: software applications, languages, hardware, operating systems language skills: specific level of fluency and ability to read and write as "basic," "intermediate," or "advanced"
• Extracurricular Activities; Community Service, Professional Associations
  list of significant positions of responsibility; include title, name of organization or team, dates leadership roles, achievements, and transferable skills that are relevant include hobbies and personal interests only if they are relevant