Updating your resume

If you’re looking for a job later in life, you might need to refresh your resume, I have ideas on how best to do that. 

Remove college graduation dates except if you have a new certificate or degree. 

Condense the resumé down to two pages max.  Your most recent 10 to 15 years of experience matter most, so you’ll want to highlight those, while condensing prior experience into a few sentences or bullet points.

Replace older font styles, such as Times New Roman or Garamond, with more contemporary fonts like Tahoma, Verdana or Cambria. 

Eliminate double spacing between sentences (unless you’re in academia). They’re a dead giveaway that you came of age during the typewriter era. Avoid phrases that needlessly date you, like “30+ years of experience.” Use “20+ years of experience”. This makes your point without highlighting your advanced age.

Remove your street address and add hyperlinks to your LinkedIn address and, if you have one, your professional website.

Replace an AOL or Hotmail email address with one from Gmail. While you’re at it, avoid using numbers in your email address that could be construed as a birth year.

If you’ve spent the bulk of your career with one employer, don’t list the full date range at the top of the resumé. Instead, list dates and responsibilities for your most recent positions and consolidate your earliest roles without mentioning dates.