Refocusing after a lack of job-search success

Dear Sam:

Those of us who have been unemployed for some time do not have money for next month’s rent, let alone money for a resume. Has America lost its core values to help their own, especially for those who have been unemployed for a year or more? I have attached my resume for an honest look and a little help.

– Sal Dear Sal:

Thank you for your letter. I feel your frustration, and I am sorry you have been unable to find work. I’m happy to address your concerns.

Many resume writers like myself volunteer their time to local organizations, facilitating workshops and seminars for those looking for work. I have trained resume counselors at several Job and Family Services One Stop Centers, and I have done that same thing with local nonprofits that focus their efforts on helping unemployed and under-employed candidates.

As for your resume, I think the mechanics are sound at first glance. You have followed protocol in the Qualifications Summary and I think the content is quite good.

I have, however, identified three key possible reasons behind a lack of success in the job market.

The good news is that there is a fix for almost everything on a resume. Let’s review what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your resume by minimizing the impact of these potential disqualifiers:

You should remove focus on your most recent custodian role of two years as it does not support your objective of gaining entry back into sales management.

To remove focus from your most recent and unrelated tenure as a school custodian, deploy the use of a combination format. In this format, you would include a Career Highlights section, which allows you to pull from your related experiences and achievements.

Organize this section — which will appear after the Qualifications Summary and before Professional Experience — by employer or action area (turnaround management, business development, etc.). The goal of using a combination format would be to push the custodian experience to page two so it plays less of a role in the screening process.

Pull out accomplishments instead of blending them with responsibility statements, as they are difficult to read.

Differentiate your responsibilities from accomplishments by using a paragraph/bullet combination. Highlight additional accomplishments in the Professional Experience section, but do so with bullet points, as they’re easier to read and stand out on a resume.

You are dating yourself by including experience from 1976.

Figure out a way to break your experience from your first employer, which spans 1976 to 1996. You can do this a number of ways. One option would be to use what we call a byline. To do this you would present the following statement: “Additional foundational experience with ABC Employer, serving in DM, (list other titles here) roles.”

With this strategy, you can use all of the great accomplishments from this timeframe in your Career Highlights section, but avoid aging your candidacy by going back to the 1970s.

I hope this critique helps you identify the potential challenges in your resume. I am certain if you work on these items, a stronger resume will emerge. I wish you the best. Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Have a question for Sam? She can be reached at dearsam@ladybug-design.com or 614-570-3442.