Tag Archives: mature workers

9 Obvious Mistakes Mature Workers are Making with Their Resume

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This article is inspired by a post I wrote that resonated with many LinkedIn users.* The topic of the post touched a nerve with older job seekers who feel that everything they’ve accomplished in their long career should be included on their resume. This is one mistake I save to the last to address.
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

While this advice can apply to job seekers of any age, it is particularly pertinent to those above the age of 50. And if they haven’t had to look for work in 20 years, they should pay close attention to some of the mistakes they might be making.

Let go of your words

Your resume reflects what you’ve done in your career, so it’s personal and you’re proud of the document you’ve written, or had someone write it with your input. I totally get this. But this is perhaps the first mistake you’re making; you’re holding on to sentences, paragraphs, and bulleted items that suck.

Harsh to say but the truth. While you can’t see this, others can. You must listen to trusted sources. I’m not a trusted source to every job seeker, but I am a trusted source to people in occupations like sales, marketing, teaching, and some others. Find the trusted source and listen to what they have to say. Then…make changes.

Don’t make your resume a job description

I wrote above that your resume reflects what you’ve done. This is only a part of the role your resume plays. The most important role your resume plays is showing employers what you can do for them. Through relevant accomplishment statements, your resume will accomplish this.

Many resumes I see look like a job description. In fact, some job seekers I’ve coached have copied and pasted job descriptions to their resume, thinking that it will hit all marks. Think about this. A job description is written for a reason, which is to express the needs of individual employers, not all employers.

They won’t believe it if they don’t see it

You say in your Summary that you’re dynamic, results-oriented, customer-centric, and a bunch of other platitudes; but why should employers believe you without proof? Instead of using tired cliches to describe you, give evidence right up front.

For example, “Achieves more than 95% ‘Excellent’ rating on customer surveys.” This is proof of your diligence, communications, adherence to customers’ needs, and other traits employers seek. “Identifies and reports more bugs in software than 90% of technicians” is another example of proof, not simply saying it.

You’re not the only cat on the block

One and done, you think. You have had a stellar career as VP of operations. You’ve worked at notable blue-chip companies. Your latest salary was $250,000. Yes, you have been at the top of your occupation for 20-plus years.

This is a cold fact: so have other VPs of operations been at the top of their occupation. Your tunnel vision prevents you from writing a document that will get you to the first round of interviews because you fail to put in the work of writing a tailored resume that includes relevant accomplishments.

Don’t write a tome

You might like reading your resume, but hiring authorities who read many resumes don’t enjoy reading pages and pages of verbiage. In fact, they don’t enjoy reading resumes at all. It’s part of their job. So if you think your words will impress everyone, you’re mistaken.

Also, keep your word bites small. No more than three lines, maybe four, I tell my clients. Anything beyond four lines gets cumbersome to read. Hiring authorities will give your resume anywhere from six to 20 seconds to review before reading it in its entirety. Make their job easier by keeping it shorter than three pages.

Keyword stuffing is a no-no

You’ve probably been warned about the notorious applicant tracking system (there are more than 200 of these bad boys) which automatically scans your resume to see if it has the keywords required for the job.

This is hogwash. There are hardworking recruiters and HR staff who manipulate their applicant tracking system. Some of these folks claim to read every resume that’s stored in the system (god bless them), but there are many who read a select few. Therefore, it’s important that you write your resume for human consumption.

Don’t assume they know what you’ve accomplished

I get this a lot, “people in my industry know what I’ve accomplished.” This might be true but chances are they don’t. You say you wrote a standard operating procedure that improved productivity. Awesome. What was it for? Who is “everyone”? What was the ultimate result?

  • Improved productivity 55% by authoring a standard operating procedure (SOP) that clearly explained in five steps how to manage a 33-person human resources department stationed across the nation.

This is sure to entice interviewers to ask what the five steps were, in which case you have a story to tell.

How your resume looks does matter

Today resumes are written with the intention of being easily read on the screen and on smartphones. This means that the font style matters. You were probably told back in the day that serif fonts like Times New Roman are best read on paper. Those days are gone.

When I see a resume written with sanserif fonts like Arial or Calibri, it tells me that the person is up with the times. First impressions matter. Your resume will most likely be the first impression you make, so don’t start off shouting, “I’m old.” Others might disagree, but the resumes written today use sanserif font.

*Don’t tell your life’s story

This brings me back to the post I shared titled: “Your resume says you’re old.” Let me share the post here:

Sitting with a client the other day, we were going over his #resume, which was not half bad, but it showed 30 years of experience. I pointed this out to him and said, your resume shouts “old.”

But, he responded, I want to show progression.

Here’s the thing, I told him, you didn’t get to be director of marketing without starting at MarCom or some entry-level position; it’s assumed.

But, he continued, I want to show I worked at (company name).

Again, I told him, you’ve worked at large, well-known companies your whole career.

I’m going to keep the 30 years on my resume, he concluded. I’m proud of what I did.

Battle lost, but I tried.

I read an article from Sarah Johnston that talks about how your resume should brand you. She draws an apt analogy of how on a recent shopping visit she noticed that The Gap did a poor job of branding itself.

And then she goes on to talk about how job seekers need to think about how they’re branding themselves with their resume. The incident with my client points out that he branded himself as old.

Whether we want to admit this or not, companies are looking at younger workers, and they’re hesitant to entertain older workers. Which, when we think about it, makes no sense.

In parting, I asked my client what he was going to do over the weekend.

I’m going to run a 5K and then I’m going to start building a deck on our summer home, he told me.

He sounded young to me.

Younger interviewers, 9 reasons why you shouldn’t discriminate against older workers

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As a followup to 6 reasons why older workers should not discriminate against younger interviewers, this is the flip side of age discrimination.

I hate seeing trepidation in the eyes of my older workers. It concerns me and then I get angry. The reason for their trepidation is because they fear that employers will pass them over because of their age.

Job interview

I assure them that only a few interviewers will practice age discrimination—usually the ignorant ones—but sometimes my words will fall on deaf ears. The doubt has already been planted in their minds.

They’ve heard stories about how older job candidates are asked question that are designed to figure out how old they are. An obvious question about age is, “So, when did you graduate from high school?” They nod at the transparency of this question.

This is the kind of crap my older workers face. This is the reason for their fear, even before the interview has begun. Essentially their chances of doing well during the interview are slim to none because they are already psyched out. And then I get frustrated because of their fear.

So younger interviewer, here are some things to consider.

1. Older workers know more about the job than you do, but they’re not there to take you job. A common complaint of my older workers is the hiring managers’ lack of knowledge, which is reflected in the questions they ask. Beyond that, older workers have been at their career for 20, 30, or more years. It reasons that they have more experience than younger workers.

But they also say that they simply want to be hired for the job for which they’re applying. They’re not interested in taking the hiring manager’s position. Some of them want to step back and rid themselves of management responsibilities, they don’t want the stress.

2. Older workers are dependable. You’re mistaken if you think older workers will miss work due to illness, mental health days, child care, and any other excuse you can think of. They have a work ethic and commitment to work that is ingrained in them.

My father worked six days a week, and I try to emulate his work ethic. I arrive early to work, even though I don’t have to, and am willing to come in early and stay late, if necessary. This is because they can; I don’t have the commitments younger workers have, namely children.

3. Older workers also are not interested in jumping from job to job. They believe in loyalty. You can be assured that they will want to make your employer’s company their second home. So there’s no sense in asking them where they plan to be five years from now. They plan to be with you.

In a Forbes article, it states the average tenure for older workers is approximately 4.4 years, whereas the tenure for the millennials is half that. Here’s a great post from my valued connections, Catherine Miklaus, that explains the job-hopper mindset.

4. Older workers have life experience that helps them solve unusual problems. Some older workers have experienced loss. In some cases they’ve lost loved ones and or jobs, which has forced them to adapt to adverse situations.

The ability to adapt to adverse situations makes older workers natural problem solvers. They think calmly under pressure because they’ve seen the problems and have learned from their mistakes. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

5. Older workers want to work. A common misconception is that older workers are waiting until retirement comes. The fact is that if the work is stimulating, they will work years beyond retirement age.

One of my colleagues is beyond retirement age, yet she says she would work as long as she could, because she enjoys the responsibilities and the people with whom she works. Trust the older candidate when she says she has no plans to retire.

6. Older workers can be a great mentors and may teach you a valuable thing or two. People who want to progress in their career understand the importance of a mentor who can help them with the technical, as well as the emotional, aspects of their job.

Older workers, who have more job-related experience, also have developed emotional intelligence (EQ) that comes with the trials and tribulations of their work. Older workers know themselves and others’ limitations.

7. Older workers will make you look good because you hired the best candidate. Come on, would you rather hire someone who you’re not threatened by, or someone who can be a great asset to your team? Okay, that’s a difficult question to answer.

But here’s the thing; when you hire a poor worker, that person doesn’t work out and the company loses between $25,000 and $50,000 finding his/her replacement. And you look really bad. Trust me when I say older workers don’t want your job; they just want to work. Period.

8. Older workers may not be as fast as you, but they works smarter, not harder. So you take the stairs two steps at a time, you work 12 hours a day and see this as productive, you never take vacation (idiot), you multi-task your ass off.

Older workers don’t do any of that foolishness, because they do the job once and get it right. I used to be in a hurry to get nowhere, until I realized that it’s better to work smarter, not harder. It may seem like a cliche, but it works. So don’t laugh when I’m walking down the hall and you’re running. We’re both getting there.

9. Older workers don’t think they’re all that. I’ve had the privilege to work in a young, vibrant environment, and a more mature professional one. I’ve enjoyed both, even the Nerf Footballs zipping by my head. But I have to say that the younger workers were more concerned about their pride than the older workers with whom I’ve worked.

Rest assured, younger interviewer, that we older workers have experienced our successes and the peak of our career. We’re not into the fast cars, perfectly manicured hair style, and taking credit for your work (at least I hope not). You can be “all that.” We’ll look on with admiration.

When you’re interviewing the man with grey hair sitting across from you, don’t judge him before getting to know him. He possesses many of the attributes I’ve described, plus some. Ask the questions you’d ask anyone applying for the job. It’s likely that he’s expecting you to demonstrate bias, as he’s experienced it before, so surprise him and be the better man.