50+ Tell Employers What They Want So They Call You

50+ Tell Employers What They Want So They Call You 50+ Tell Employers What They Want So They Call You Job search over age 50 is hard. But “hard” means something far different from “impossible.” If you haven’t had to search for several years, the core principle to bear in mind is that what got you to your last job won’t necessarily get you to your next job. It’s time to refresh, reframe, and renew â€" which starts with what you’re saying on your resume in the 1st place. Let’s talk about how to tell the employers what they want to know, so they’re more likely to call you. Where You Worked & When You Worked There It’s important to start with this fundamental because it directly contradicts the trend of presenting a functional resume. If you ask the Internet, the functional resume comes into play when you are re-entering the workforce, have gaps in your timeline, have committed some job-hopping, are looking to change careers, or otherwise don’t fit the traditional mold. But here’s the problem with the functional format: all your information is presented out of context, forcing the recruiter to hunt around to find out what he fundamentally wants to know: where you worked and when you worked there. Recruiters overwhelmingly reject this format because they know functional means you’re trying to hide something. The 1st clue is that the resume starts off with a thick blurb featuring all kinds of adjectives like, “dynamic,” and “results-driven,” without saying what it is you can actually come in and do. The next section features (allegedly) transferrable skills like, “professional communication” and “teamwork.” The part after that offers up the out-of-context career highlights. And, if we’re lucky, way down on the bottom of page 1 may be something resembling actual work history. Far too often, I see work history somewhere on page 2. Don’t irritate the employers and recruiters by trying to get around where you worked and when you worked there â€" it is fundamentally what they want to know. What You Do “Do” is the operative word here. “Doing” is different than “being.” You can be a, “Dedicated professional with 10 years of financial services experience,” but we still don’t know what it is you actually come in to do â€" and that’s what the employer wants to know in the 1st sentence. There are 2 components with which to begin your resume: what you have done, plus what you are / can do. It’s a mistake to stop with what you have done. That’s the past. History by itself is boring unless you bring it into today. History: “Relationship Manager with 15+ years progressive experience in various financial services roles.” Notice how there’s not action verb there. The statement doesn’t move us forward. Today: “Relationship Manager who drives new business, portfolio growth, and client retention in the financial services sector.” The action verbs bring us into today and illustrate what the candidate is / can do right now. Why YOU (Specifically) Matter The resume is not about your jobs. Rather, it’s about your performance in the jobs â€" that’s a huge difference. Leverage your valuable resume real estate to present how and why you uniquely contributed to the organization. Blah Resume Language: “Administered SAP in 24/7 environment, supporting 5 divisions.” That’s a statement about anybody who held that job. Bold Resume Language: “Recruited to steer largest, most rapid SAP deployment for organization to date, executing deployments across 5 divisions and 3,000 end users.” That’s a statement about how you impacted the evolution of the organization, and clearly provided leadership on a large-scale initiative. Mature, experienced candidates win when you give the employers what they want the way they want it. Resist the urge to dress up the wording with a bunch of adjectives that really can and should be just stripped away. Boldly claim what you can come in and do, and why you matter. You bring both successes and intangibles into the workplace that a 25-year-old just doesn’t. Proudly claim your worth and your value. The resume is just step 1. Make sure you know all of what to do in order to increase callbacks from the recruiters and real decision makers. That’s laid out for you in The 5-Day Job Search. Download your copy today, so your resume doesn’t just get sucked into the black hole, and you learn how to skyrocket your response rate to up to 70%.