No one doubts it is difficult to find a job after working in one place for over a decade. The job market is different today than 10 years ago. Expectations are different, employers source candidates differently and job seekers apply and have materials screened using new tools. Thatâ€s a lot of obstacles for mature job seekers to overcome.

The solution? Stop worrying about the “age issue” and start addressing the real reasons why you may not be landing opportunities:

Your resume is old fashioned and untargeted. If youâ€re worried about age discrimination, donâ€t start your resume with, “Over 25 years of experience in ______.” Do not try to hide your age via a “functional” resume that mashes up your skills without detailing when and where you gained them. Focus on your most recent and relevant 10 years of work history and make a strong case for your candidacy.

A human being is unlikely to review your resume unless the automated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) identifies your materials as a good match to pass along to hiring managers. Fill your resume with keywords relevant to the job and incorporate specifics regarding your skills and accomplishments to win a chance to interview.

You balk at technology. If an employer invites you to interview via Skype, and you hesitate because you donâ€t know how to use it, expect the organization to move on to the next candidate. When you ask if you can fax your resume instead of applying using your (non-existent) LinkedIn profile, assume youâ€ve lost an opportunity.

Some employers will jump to the conclusion that anyone over 50 is not technologically savvy. Do not embrace that stereotype – even if it is true for you. Ask your neighbors or grown children for help, or take a class to be sure you are up on the latest “must have” tools. Learn how to use online networks and applications and dispel the myth that older workers cannot learn new things.

Recruiters are looking on social media, and youâ€re not there. The 2012 Jobvite study shows employers are using social media to recruit, with 92% of U.S. companies using social networks and media to find talent in 2012, up from 78% five years ago. Years ago, engaging with recruiters may have meant attending a lot of in-person networking events.

While the in-person event has its place, the statistics donâ€t lie; social media is key to job search success. You need an optimized LinkedIn profile at the very least, and if youâ€re really concerned your age is a factor, take advantage of other social media tools, such as Google+ and Twitter, to demonstrate you are an expert in your field and relevant for todayâ€s workplace.

Youâ€re inflexible. If your industry suffered a lot of layoffs and there are not many positions for you, do not bang your head against the wall trying to create something that does not exist. Identify organizations where you can market your skills and target them. If there are no jobs, it doesnâ€t matter if youâ€re 25 or 55.

Your mindset is holding you back. Itâ€s understandable if you are angry, or even bitter; you worked hard, and now no one seems to value your experience. Instead of railing against the system, recognize your best hope to succeed is to embrace change. When you interview with someone young enough to be your child, donâ€t mention your grandchildren or discuss the “good old days.” Take a hard look at yourself, your demeanor and how you engage when youâ€re being evaluated.  It canâ€t hurt to casually mention the 5K you are training for or to ask if the interviewer has tried the latest Google calendar application.

Adjust your approach; instead of complaining that no one wants to hire someone over 50, use your energy to identify and emphasize your unique value proposition – what makes you more qualified than anyone else for the job.  If you canâ€t hone in on why youâ€re the natural choice, that may be the reason you are not getting work, not your age.

Related posts:

How to write a LinkedIn profile

Should I hire a resume writer?

Discovering your unique value proposition

The post How to find a job over 50? appeared first on Keppie Careers.

Keep these tips in mind so your resume will make the cut:

1. Use keywords.
Study job descriptions to identify what the employer wants and include key words in your document. For example, job titles are keywords – use your targeted job title in your resume’s headline. Incorporate nouns and noun phrases describing the skills the employer is seeking. For example, “cross-functional teams and internal and external customer service.” Include degrees, certifications, and memberships – all may be keywords for the job.

2. Use up-to-date language to reflect modern skills.
Avoid old-fashioned references and language that makes the reader think you are stuck in the past or lacking useful skills. For example, while some offices still use fax machine, don’t highlight your ability to fax a document as if it’s your most important accomplishment. If you work with computer programs, be sure to reference the most up-to-date software versions.

3. Highlight relevant skills.
If you work in customer service, demonstrate your ability to use social media in your resume to help distinguish you from other applicants. If your skills are lacking, sign up for some classes or look for online opportunities to learn new information. Then, include the course work or just list the new skills in your resume. Don’t underestimate informal ways to learn new things; you may be surprised by how much you can pick up by watching YouTube videos.

4. Demonstrate flexibility and adaptability.
One stereotype some employers may have about experienced workers is that they may have a hard time learning new things. How can you show you’re ready, willing, and able to learn? Emphasize how you’ve used up-to-date tools, and showcase accomplishments related to those tools. For example, even if you’re unemployed, consider creating a YouTube channel for a non-profit organization where you volunteer. If the non-profit reaches more people via the channel and increases their donations, you will have a great story for your resume that also makes it clear you aren’t stuck in 1995.

5. Highlight results.
Avoid language such as, “responsible for” or “assisted in;” these are dated ways to describe what you offer. If the description asks for a detailed, customer-service oriented candidate, don’t say, “Responsible for providing strong customer service and answering phones.” Instead, include specifics, and highlight skills and results:

“Use strong attention to detail to provide customer service support to patients, guests, and staff. Answer telephones, transcribe messages, and route calls, resulting in winning customer service awards (2011 and 2012).”

When you create bullet points that draw direct connections between what you did and what the employer wants you to do, it will be easier for the reader to envision you in the job.

6. Don’t cling to the past.
A mistake many job seekers make is they insist on including an in-depth work history, even if it does not interest the employer. Make every word count: Review your resume and compare it to job descriptions. Highlight the parts of your resume that relate specifically to your target job. If the majority of your resume is not highlighted, it is time for a major resume overhaul.

photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

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One key to job search success: an up-to-date, contemporary resume that doesn’t make the reader assume you last applied for a job in 1995. Here are some tips to help you create a resume an employer will appreciate:

Include links in your contact information.
Include links to social media profiles (such as your LinkedIn URL) in your resume’s contact information. If you use other social media tools professionally (such as Twitter or Facebook), include that information as well. Simply listing these will help someone reading your resume picture you as a candidate who is keeping up with modern communication tools. Use a professional email that doesn’t reference your age or family status. (For example, avoid “gram@hotmail.com” or “mom7@gmail.com.)

Typeface.
Your resume doesn’t need to be in Arial or Times New Roman. To create a more modern look, consider expanding your typeface choices to include: Georgia, Calibri, Tahoma, or Geneva.

Nix the objective.
While there are no absolute rules for resumes, adding an “objective,” which usually focuses on the job seeker’s needs, will make you seem out-of-step with today’s market. Instead, use headlines to highlight what you offer that is in line with what the employer wants in a candidate. For example, take a look at the “before” and “after” highlights for a candidate looking for a medical administrative assistant job:

Before Objective:
Innovative, highly motivated, dynamic team player with extensive experience, stellar writing skills and the ability to effectively manage concurrent projects seeks opportunity to contribute in hospital setting.

After headline:
Medical Administrative Assistant / Unit Secretary / Clerical Expert

Maintain Confidentiality – Coordinate Effectively With All Stake Holders

Strong Oral and Written Communication Skills – Organized – Reliable – Quick Thinking

Notice how the “after” example includes job titles and specifics directly from the job description to describe relevant skills.

Avoid “empty” words.
Notice the “before” objective includes “highly motivated,” “dynamic,” and “team player.” None of these words help the reader learn something specific about the candidate. Do not waste space with generalities. The more targeted you can be, the more vibrant and interesting your resume appears.

Avoid “functional” resume formats.
Functional resumes focus on the job seeker’s skills without emphasizing when and where he or she used those skills. Sounds great for someone who wants to de-emphasize age and years of experience, right? The problem is, hiring managers like to know when and where you used the skills you say you have. Many will assume someone using this format is trying to hide something. Since you don’t want to arouse suspicion, stick to a “reverse chronological” format, where you describe your most recent experience first and include dates.

Graduation dates.
You may choose to leave off the year you earned your degree(s), but assume if you do, the person reading your resume may  assume you are older than you are.

Don’t include every job you’ve ever had.
It’s perfectly acceptable to only include the last 10 years of your professional experience. You may even choose to headline the section, “Recent Experience.” If it is relevant, summarize work you did more than 10 years ago at the end without describing it in detail.

Now that you have an idea of how to structure your resume, what content should you include to appear as modern and hire-able as possible? In my next post, I’ll explain. Stay tuned.

photo by practicalowl

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Hiring managers see thousands upon thousands of resumes every year. That’s why job seekers have to stand out in a crowd if they are  harboring any hope they’ll be hired.

When you’re writing a resume, what you don’t know can hurt you. John Kalusa is a nationally recognized writer who speaks about corporate sales, recruiting, and personal career management. With over 25 years of experience as a strategic recruiting, human resources, and sales and marketing management leader in start-ups and Fortune 250 companies, he’s well qualified to comment on what hiring managers want to see — and what they DON’T want to see.

Mistake #1: Failing to highlight your strengths

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Instead, you would offer applesauce and manipulate the spoon full directly into the infantâ€s mouth. Similarly, (see where I am going here?), you need to give the employer exactly what he or she needs and understands with regard to what you offer that will help him or her. Just like a baby couldnâ€t really care less about YOUR needs, your potential employer cares most about his or her own requirements and is not all that interested in what YOU want.

To extend the analogy, you better not be serving up green beans if the baby employer wants bananas! To top it off, the bananas need to be peeled, mashed and on the spoon if you want a chance to succeed.

So, two lessons from this analogy.

#1 – The resume is about the employer and how you directly fit what he or she wants. Spending a lot of time including things on your resume that are unrelated to the job at hand is only going to confuse the employer and make him or her wonder why you are interested in THIS job.

#2 – Donâ€t expect the employer to spend a lot of time figuring you out. If you arenâ€t making it easy to “eat” your resume – if you are passing crunchy apples when applesauce is preferred, you are not likely to pass the initial screen, no matter how great your underlying skills may be.

The fact is, recruiters and hiring managers are too busy to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your job is to break things down for them into easily digestible, bite-sized pieces AND spoon feed it directly to them. When you do make solid connections between what they want and what you offer, you will find that your search goes much better and your chances of landing an interview increase exponentially!

If you are ready for a change and could use some help with your search, follow THIS LINK to learn more about me and how we can work together!

photo by Joe Shlabotnik

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It certainly isn’t because you were “responsible for” something or that you were “recruited to” do something. No one really wants to see a list of what your “duties included.” A prospective employer wants to know what you’ve accomplished. What impact have you had on past employers? What obstacles did you overcome to achieve a positive result in the past?

Don’t forget — your job is to market yourself. The resume needs to make a reader visualize you doing the job.

Quintessential Careers compiled a comprehensive list of accomplishments employers seek.

Describe how you:

• Make money
• Save money
• Save time
• Make work easier
• Solve a specific problem
• Help the company become more competitive
• Build relationships
• Expand the business
• Attract new customers
• Retain existing customers

I suggest you answer the following questions:

• What problems did you solve?
• How did you improve your organization?
• What innovative ideas did you introduce (and what were the positive results)?
• How did you make a difference?

When you re-focus your resume spotlight to shine on what you have to offer instead of just listing what you’ve done, you will be much more marketable.

photo by Horia Varlan

The post How to write your resume appeared first on Keppie Careers.

How much of the information you are including in your resume is relevant or interesting to your target audience — the employer you want to hire you now? How much jargon from your old job does your *next* employer understand? Are you speaking a language that seems foreign to the person who will be reviewing the resume?

Have you really evaluated the keywords you believe the employer will be seeking when the applicant tracking system (ATS) reviews the resume?

When it comes down to it, your resume needs to be forward facing — it must reflect what your next employer wants to see, which means you shouldn’t be looking in the mirror; you should be looking closely at the job description and at what the employer shares online, in-person and via social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website).

This week, I spoke to a group of job seekers and emphasized how the vast amount of information we can find online is a bit of a double-edged sword: one one hand — WOW — look at all the information you can find out without ever leaving your home or office!

• You can learn where the hiring manager went to school and maybe even read about what he or she thinks is important to do when applying for a job (via LinkedIn and his or her blog).
• It’s easy to find out something about the organization’s culture (via reading their websites, Facebook page or even viewing their YouTube channel).
• You can connect and engage with people who work at organizations where you want to work without boundaries or barriers (via Twitter or Google+).

All of this information allows you to figure out what to include in your application materials. The more you learn, the more targeted your materials can be and the better chance you have to structure an appealing resume.

On the other hand, having this information available puts the onus on you (the job seeker) to track down the useful information and to put it to good use! I’m not going to sugar-coat it — it’s not easy, but it isn’t rocket science.

When you write your resume, put yourself in the reader’s shoes and consider what he or she wants to know. What skills and accomplishments does the perfect candidate possess? If you are that candidate, be sure to showcase your best information.

Omit details that aren’t relevant or won’t make sense to the employer. (Including them is like ordering your pizza in Chinese and your Chinese food in French. You’ll probably not have the meal you’re expecting. (Or land the interview you were wanting.)

The post Your resume is not (only) about you! appeared first on Keppie Careers.

There’s a plant sale in a neighborhood near where I live. I’ve been seeing signs for it. They say, “At the Kingsly Club House.” That’s the only direction or address the signs provide. I guess we’re supposed to know where that is…Or, at least, the organizers assume we all know how to look it up online.

It occurred to me — a lot of job seekers present their information (on their resumes and via their online profiles) with a mindset similar to the one of the person who wrote that vague sign. These job seekers assume either everyone will know “what they mean,” will take the time to figure it out, or look it up.

Are you writing a resume requiring people to think too much — or to figure out what you mean to say? Are you leaving your skills and accomplishments to the reader’s imagination or asking him or her to read between the lines? If you aren’t clear and concise on your resume, it’s unlikely to attract the type of response you need.

photo by UofSLibrary

The post How NOT to write a resume appeared first on Keppie Careers.

In the video, Derek was outlining things to think about regarding website design and how to pull together a site to encourage people to take the actions you want them to take. Watching it, I realized a lot of the advice Derek offered is similar to advice to I give to help people optimize resumes.

The first thing he said, “Just because you know what you’re about doesn’t mean others do,” got me taking notes for a resume post! It’s so true, and something a lot of people don’t think about when they write their own resumes. It could be very clear to you what you’d like to do next, but if your resume (or online materials) don’t make it obvious where you are headed, you will probably lose your audience. On a website, that means the reader will immediately click away. On a resume, it means you won’t get a chance to interview for the job.

Today, I reviewed a resume from someone I thought was interested in working in the medical field. (Based on something I had seen her post elsewhere.) However, the resume itself had nothing about the medical field on it at all. I’m now assuming I was wrong about what I previously saw, but someone in a position to hire someone in the medical field will simply put the resume aside, assuming there is no direct connection between the candidate and his or her hiring needs.

Another thing Derek points out in the video: “Welcome is not a good benefit – make a promise.” This, in relation to how to encourage people on your website to DO what you want them to do. Just “welcoming” them doesn’t cut it. Think about this regarding both cover letters and resumes — how are you showcasing something (a promise) to encourage readers to be interested in learning more about you? And no, just saying, “look at me” isn’t enough.

Which leads to Derek’s suggestion to use a headline at the top of a website! The best resumes today take advantage of headlines to reel readers in. The headline needs to be about your future, not your past. It’s about the job you want NEXT. Do you use headlines in your resume? They can be your targeted title, focus on your accomplishments, skills…The headline needs to be what will interest your reader. The headline is like a “promise” saying you are what the reader wants.

Derek kept talking about making that promise. He reminded viewers of an interesting point:  “Cluttered (web) pages used to convert better because people would be confused and click on ads.” I thought that was so interesting! Maybe that is why there are so many cluttered web pages out there – people are focusing on strategies that USED TO work. Same with resumes — so many resumes look dated and old fashioned. It’s time to think about what works today. Don’t get caught up in yesterday’s best practices.

Derek also gives advice regarding regarding font size, color, encouraging people to take action once they land on your website…While font sizes and use of color on resumes is a little different, the touch points between his web advice and resume advice are similar: you need to spell out your message clearly and make it easy to read and understand in order to convert readers to fans. Take a look at the video and be sure to visit Chris Brogan’s site for lots of useful and interesting information about social media and other topics.

photo by >^..^< maggz >^..^<

The post Web design and resume tips appeared first on Keppie Careers.

It certainly isn’t because you were “Responsible for” something or that you were “Recruited to” do something. A prospective employer wants to know what you’ve accomplished. What impact have you had on past employers? What obstacles did you overcome to achieve a positive result?

The most important thing you can do is target your resume specifically for the job. Use the job description as your guide and provide proof in your application materials that you have the skills necessary to accomplish the position’s goals.

Quintessential Careers compiled a comprehensive list of accomplishments employers seek.

Describe how you:

• Make money
• Save money
• Save time
• Make work easier
• Solve a specific problem
• Help the company become more competitive
• Build relationships
• Expand the business
• Attract new customers
• Retain existing customers

I suggest you answer the following questions:

• What problems did you solve?
• How did you improve your organization?
• What innovative ideas did you introduce (and what were the positive results)?
• How did you make a difference?

When you re-focus your resume spotlight to shine on what you have to offer instead of just listing what you’ve done, you will be much more marketable.

photo by Samurai John

The post How to stand out on your resume appeared first on Keppie Careers.