Alpha hydroxy for your resume
This is interesting.
A veteran in the entertainment industry, 49 year old Lisa Johnson Mandell was losing out on jobs to younger candidates.
The advice she got from her industry professional husband was that she wasn’t getting interviews because she was too old. Instead of surgery, Johnson Mandell updated her image on paper and in pictures.
She eliminated early jobs from her resume, focused on her connections in the industry rather than her years of experience, created a website and got current photographs taken by a professional.
She got a great job right away and even got called back to companies that dismissed her before.
My first reaction is that it smacked of ageism, but I realized after reading it that often employers are simply looking for someone with up to date skills and knowledge (from the article):
Many mature job candidates rest on their laurels and fail to create a modern image, says Maxine Martens, chief executive of the executive-recruitment agency Martens & Heads in New York. Looking young isn’t the key: Attitude and knowledge of today’s world are just as important.
I may look over my own resume just in case.
Having interviewed a bunch of candidates for a job just recently, there are huge gaps in the way people present themselves. Those with experience seem to show up looking like they are ready to work but with a poor representation of themselves on paper. Younger candidates, often with better ‘paper’ credentials show up for interviews and look like they are ready to go on vacation. The pool of candidates with good experience, thoughtfully prepared credentials, and the capacity for presenting themselves well seem to be in short supply.
Not to be too much of a wise-ass (what do you mean since when), but as much as this is about ageism, it is also about money.
Older people with more experience are often looking to be paid for their experience. By looking to younger, less experienced candidates, many companies expect to pay less for those people.
This is interesting insight. I’ve been meaning to updae my resume with a similar format, and I’ve held onto a domain for a resume/portfolio web site for a while now. I guess it’s time for me to finally take some action. I’m just starting to embark on a new career as a freelance writer, and it’s true that a new connections-talent based resume could go a long way to get my foot in the door. Glad I read this – now I’m motivated!
This is such great advice. I will be needing to re-enter the (real) work force in the next couple of years and I will certainly keep this in mind.