When you apply for a job, do you ever wonder if the hiring manager might think you are too old? Can you really age-proof your credentials so your talents and your capabilities shine thorough and not your age?
You can age-proof your package to a certain extent, but your job history does tell a story. What’s important, however, is that you highlight your current capabilities. Focus on what you are doing right now that makes you a great candidate.
Of course, age discrimination is illegal, but no matter what your age you don’t want your resume to scream “too old to fit in here” when applying for a job. What you want is to look like the best qualified candidate and to convey to the hiring manager how your experience translates into what you can do on the job.
How do you do that?
1. Update Your Resume
If you haven’t changed your resume in a while, that should be your first step. If you don’t know how to change it or what needs to be switched around, call a professional or have a friend take a look at it. Lacking those two options, check out the thousands of nursing resume examples to be found on the web. You can search for someone with your position or area of expertise and find a few resumes you like.
2. Remember Your Audience
One of the biggest things to remember is the person who takes the first glance at your resume is probably younger than you. You want your resume to appeal to that person right off that bat and that means a resume that looks fresh and easy to read. Bulleted lists are great because they are descriptive, short, give lots of eye-pleasing white space, and help your qualifications stand out.
3. Leave the Past Behind
You want to list all your qualifications, but there’s really no need to list more than one or two sentences about something you did 25 years ago. Save those details for the interview. Tell them what you are doing right now and let them know what makes you so invaluable in this current market. What makes you competitive with someone younger besides your obvious years of experience? Even having a Twitter account can be a great asset if you’ll use it to spread good news about your workplace’s successes.
4. Use Upbeat Words
Find new ways to say what you do without leaning on your years of experience. As valuable as they are on the job, years of experience may not get you too far on a resume. Explain that you didn’t just lead a new initiative, but that you saved your hospital $10,000 in the process. Put numbers to your actions. You didn’t supervise the ER nursing staff, but you did schedule, monitor, supervise, and motivate a changing staff of 30 daily for an ER that saw so many visits per week.
With a few revisions, your updated resume will look fresher and more current. Remember to show your experience as simply, clearly, and quickly as you can on paper so a hiring manager sees your new skills as clearly as your history.
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