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| De-age your resume! |
1. Delete job experience from before 15 years ago unless relevant to the positions you want or unless the job crossed into recent years (such as 1993 – 2011).
3. Replace “20+ years of ABC experience,” with “extensive ABC experience.”
4. Remove dates you attended college or received your degree. Note: Also remove education dates from your LinkedIn profile by going to your Edit Profile page, clicking the Edit link next to each school and leaving the Dates Attended box set on hyphen "-"
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| Removed education dates on LinkedIn. |
5. Remove months from past jobs so just the years show. Example: 2006 – 2008. This will fill in gaps between partial-year positions and de-clutter your resume. (Retain the omitted monthly information in case you need it for completing application forms.)
6. Omit dates from activities, honors, awards, and certifications.
7. Replace an objective statement (which is old school) with a bold headline stating your unique qualifications for each position. Example:
Human Resources Manager
with Fortune 500 Corporation Experience
8. Play up recent skills and remove proficiencies for technologies that are no longer used.
9. Add a skills summary near the top of your resume that includes all of the skills you possess that relate to the job titles you want.
10. Remove the outdated phrase “References available upon request” and either include your references or assume the company will ask for references later.
11. Use an easy-to-read san-serif typeface. Also make good use of white space at the margins and between sections to give your resume a fresh look.
12. Attach recent samples of your work rather than dated or yellowed samples or examples from defunct companies.
13. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your contact information to reinforce that you “get” social media. To find/copy the address, go to your LinkedIn View Profile page and look for the words "Public Profile" at the bottom of the top box. Simply highlight, then copy the web address next to the words which looks something like http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURNAME12354 and paste it into your resume.
14. Include a list of your LinkedIn recommendations rather than old reference letters. Learn how.
15. Include relevant, recent accomplishments so that it doesn’t look like your greatest moments happened eons ago.
Take active steps to de-age your resume! Doing so can help you … Get a Job!
What other ways can people
de-age their resume?
Share your ideas by clicking on the blog headline and completing the Comments box or by commenting on a LinkedIn discussion board that
might have brought you to this blog. -- Kathy
