Dinosaur Unite! Use Some Resume Botox…

“Those young people are stealing our jobs!” Someone actually said this to me recently. My jaw almost hit the floor  when they did.

In the current game of ‘let’s find some income’; this is dangerous thinking. In fact, anytime we engage in ‘I want to win and I want you to lose’ thinking, the likelihood of failure increases.

Being an ‘older’ worker myself, I am aware of the challenges we face. But we have a choice about how we think and act. One way is to be afraid and ‘circle the wagons.’

Another choice is learn everything we can about finding work, reach out to others with an open mind and heart and look for ways to collaborate with younger people to our mutual benefit. We have much more to gain from exchanging experiences than trying to exclude or one up each other.

I serve as Chairman of the Board for a small non profit. I have had the privilege of getting to know several 20-somethings who are helping us out. They have a lot to teach me and I hope my experience will benefit them. We’re all in this together.

A few resume tips for us oldsters-

1. Limit your work experience to the past 15 years. Create a summary section for work prior to that. Put relevant experience from that time in the cover letter.
2. Leave off dates for your education
3. Show that you’ve been continually learning or demonstrate that your skills are fresh and in demand, that you’ve taken on new roles, and are flexible/willing to adapt to organizational changes.

If you can’t do #3 then get on the stick. Opportunities are all around you. No whining.

Here are a few more tips.  Resume Botox…Take Off Your Early Experiences

Need a Completely Different Career?

Ask yourself the following questions:

What do I hate?

What do I love?

What do I never want to do again?

If I could do only one thing all day, what would it be?

In a job hunt, every day can seem the same and ‘selling yourself’ can become boring. So how do we get new ideas? We start by getting a new perspective. When I read the article, “When You Need a Completely New Career“, in Forbes, it started me thinking about my own career journey.

Originally trained as a foreign language teacher, I found that while I loved teaching, I didn’t see the kind of career choices that I wanted in that field. After getting my Master’s degree, I went to work at Eastman Kodak Company. For 17 years I had a wide variety of assignments. With each new job offer, I asked myself if the skills I would learn there would help me grow my own business. I didn’t know what that business would be… but I knew I wanted to try. When the timing was right, I jumped on the chance to strike out on my own.

Here’s an idea, write a short autobiography. In it, describe the things you’ve done that you absolutely loved doing. Don’t write, oh I loved the people… write what you did with or for people that you enjoyed the most. As a kid, what did you love to do? If you had no financial responsibilities, what would you do? Think about the things that make you light up and that you just can’t seem to shut up about. You may not find a career doing those things but it may help your creative flow.

Just thinking about these things isn’t as productive as writing them down. Once on paper, the ideas can be reviewed, sifted through and reorganized. If you’re stuck, talk it over with someone (I suggest someone outside your family). Have that person listen to you for 15-20   minutes;  ask them to take some notes.  Then you can listen and take notes for them. You might be surprised at what you’ll learn.

Let me know what you found out. Sharing is a very important part of growth and change. We’re all in this together.