Despite a wealth of expertise, the shifts in the post-recession employment together with the impact of technology on hiring practice discourage many job seekers in the 50+ age demographic.
The good news? There are several techniques to make your resume “timeless” and ensure the reader has no sense of how old or young you are. A timeless resume allows the reader to focuses on achievements rather than spending precious seconds of limited attention and time calculating age.
Focus on the 21st Century
Include dates and details pertaining to your 21st-century experience. Focus on the highlights rather than a laundry list of your responsibilities.
Remember: your resume is a marketing brochure, not a blueprint that documents your career history.
Synopsize the 20th Century
Pre-2000 experience and earlier often reveals important information pertaining to your career progression, additional skills and expertise.
Include it under an “Additional Experience” section that features your job title and the name of the company WITH DATES REMOVED.
When experience is relevant to your job search, stick with a quick summary of your greatest achievement and keep it to two lines max.
Showcase Technical Savvy
You don’t have to be an IT developer to showcase tech savvy. Show the reader your comfort in today’s virtual world by including a LinkedIn URL as part of your contact information and include a web-based email (bid adieu to 1990s’era AOL and Hotmail). If you share industry insight via Twitter, include your handle in the contact section as well.
If a job posting references certain technical or software skills and you have them – include them in a “Technical Skills” section.
However, if you happen to be in IT and have 20th-century technical proficiencies, be sure to omit. No one needs to know you were once fluent in WordPerfect 2.0 or Windows 93.