Page 132 - Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume

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Part 2 ➤ Six Steps to a Perfect Resume

Bonus Check
If you feel at all uncomfortable about abbreviating your Work History in order to avoid
age discrimination, you may want to call that section Relevant Work History or Recent
Work History.

He decided that the employer was probably expecting to hire someone in his late 20s. So
on his resume, Sam went back in his Work History section eight years to when he started
working for his dad in low-level positions and showed his progression over the following
years. He stated that he had a degree, but he did not give the date of completion, because
it might indicate that he was only 22. Everything on Sam’s resume honestly painted the
picture of someone who had the experience and maturity of a 30-year-old without ever
revealing his age.

Down and Dirty Formula
Here’s a quick and a easy method for understanding how dates on
your resume make an impression about your age. I call it my EPT
(Experience Plus Twenty) formula. Subtract the earliest date on your
resume from today’s date (using years only, no months). Add that
number of years to 20 (as a ballpark figure for how old you might have
Job-Hunt Hint been when your experience started) to get a total. Your perceived age is
greater than or equal to this total. For example, a resume written in
Dates in your Education section
2000 with a Work History that starts in 1984 tells the employer that
are optional. List them if they
the job applicant is at least 36 years old (16 years of experience
make you look the right age for
+ 20 = 36).
the job you are going for. Delete
them if they lead the reader to
deduce that you are older or Unsightly Unemployment Blemishes
younger than you want to
appear for the job application. “What’s wrong with a few gaps in my work history?” you might ask.
“Isn’t everyone entitled to a little time off?” Many responsible profes-
sionals have taken breaks in their careers to travel, take care of ill par-
ents, recover from personal illnesses, or for other legitimate reasons.
But for some reason, employers don’t like to see gaps in your work history. They would
rather see the unemployed time explained, especially if the explanation is somehow con-
nected to your job objective or at least shows strength of character. If you have a period of
unemployment in your history, the following sections explain some ways of dealing with it.

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