Lisa Johnson Mandell couldn't understand why the entertainment industry jobs she applied for kept going to younger, less-qualified people.
But when she showed her resume to her husband, he spotted the problem right away: On paper she looked old. The long list of experience dated her. So did the bad perm and frumpy clothes in her resume photo.
So Mandell "Botoxed" her resume. She wiped out dates, punched up the language to focus on accomplishments and current skills, and got a new picture taken with herself in hip clothes and a killer hair cut. It worked. Within an hour of e-mailing the new resume, she says she received positive responses from multiple prospective employers.
Mandell, a 51-year-old author and multimedia journalist, included the experience in her recent book, Career Comeback: Repackage Yourself to Get the Job You Want. In an interview, she offers the following advice on what job seekers over 40 can do to freshen their resumes.
1. Ditch old dates. Remove graduation dates, birth dates and any jobs that you held more than 15 years ago. "What you were doing 15 years ago probably doesn't apply," she says.
2. Skip the career summary. In an age of texting and Twitter, everyone's attention span is shorter, so you need to grab would-be employers right away. Dump the career summary at the top of your resume--so 2000--and in its place include a bulleted list of career highlights. Think of it as your greatest hits list. Highlights should be specific, such as "Published author translated into 20 languages" or "Built startup into $2 million business." Mandell says the list doesn't need to include where or when.
3. Less is more. The longer the resume, the more likely the person reading it will equate it with an older worker with so much experience it couldn't possibly fit on one page. Shorter is better, Mandell says. In addition to leaving off jobs from long ago, use succinct language to describe current work. Leave off why you left a job--it's not necessary. Cut out meaningless phrases such as "people person," "congenial" and "resourceful." That goes for "references available upon request"-- it's assumed that if someone wants references, you'll provide them.
4. Stick to 10-pt. type or larger. Don't think you can get away with cramming more information onto one page simply by using a smaller size type. Anything under 10 pt. is too hard to read, even for twentysomethings, and if that's the case, they'll just dump your resume and move on to the next one.
5. Include links. These days, most people send resumes by e-mail rather than snail mail. Make yours internet-ready by including links to your online presence, such as a personal website, blog, LinkedIn profile or Twitter account. It's also acceptable to list a website URL in place of your street address. One caveat--make sure your e-mail address is professional-looking. "It can't be ChristysMommy@aol.com," Mandell says. "It should be your name or some iteration of it, even if you have to create a special e-mail address just for that."
6. Sneak in a photo. It's wise to add a photo to your resume if you work in Hollywood or another image-conscious industry, but only if it's recent and flattering. Even if you don't put a photo on your resume, you can show a future boss what you look like by adding one to your e-mail signature. "It helps a potential employer put a face with a name so you're more than just black-and-white words on a screen--you're a living, breathing, smiling entity," she says.
7. Beware of templates and services. Using a pre-formatted resume template or a resume-writing service is fine. Just make sure they don't do more harm than good. Mandell says she's appalled by the outdated resume templates she's seen online. Likewise, some services take too long and create resumes that are overly wordy, possibly to justify high fees. "You have to check and see how often they update their services," she says.
Freshening up a resume is one way to showcase your experience, rather than have your age work against you. To find out more about ageism in hiring, read this SecondAct feature: Ageism: How to Spot it and Fight It.