There is no rule that says how many years you need to include in your resume. The resumes only goal is to be persuasive. Regardless of your reasons for job changes, showing a long string of jobs on your resume is counterproductive to the goal of being persuasive. The reader's first reaction is: "Gee, this person had lots of jobs." Concentrate on your most recent relevant experience. Make that information as detailed as possible. Showing the 1960s on your resume will do you no good; that was two and a half decades ago.
Even the 1970s may not be timely enough. That experience, whether technical or managerial, is most likely irrelevant. What you learned then, the people you knew, and how you did things-all have probably changed significantly.
And what if your early career experience has some merit but still looks like a long string of jobs? This is what Helen Arvis encountered when she prepared her resume for another health-care marketing position. She knew her background as a nurse was a good foundation, but she'd been a staff nurse for 16 years at five different hospitals. She felt listing each job in a detailed format on her resume would waste valuable space and make her early career look unstable. In fact, she couldn’t keep her resume to one page and do justice to her most relevant experience if she listed all her professional health-care experience since college. See what Helen s first resume looked like on the next page.
Helen was disappointed when she finished her first resume, for two reasons: There wasn’t room to develop a summary or expand her marketing experience, and it was clear at first glance that she'd had a page-full of different employers.
Helen found the solution by summarizing her 16 years of nursing under a Nursing Background category, with the dates moved out of the left margin to inside the body of the resume. This three-line summary conveyed enough information to show the reader she had a solid nursing foundation, and, more importantly, it freed up 14 lines for more important data. It allowed her space to develop a Qualified By section, an enlarged description section under her two most important jobs, and an Achievements section under her current and most valuable position. Additionally, at first glance, her new resume appeared to show her as having had just two jobs (not seven), both of which were focused in the area of her career objective.
You Look In-experienced or Under-qualified
Begin by asking yourself these questions; why do I know I can do the job? Why does what little experience I have prove to me that this is where I want to and should be? Even if I don't have the best training, skills, or experience, why is my ability and/or aptitude right for the position? What kind of person does it take to thrive in the position? What is easily trainable and moldable about me?
Ask others about the type of position or industry you're interested in. Find out what raw materials the position or industry typically utilizes in its people. Ask around. Be a sleuth.
When you find these answers, write a Profile at the top of your resume that outlines these valuable qualities of yours. This will set the right tone for your readers, showing your audience that you've done your homework and know what kind of person is right for their particular position or industry. Furthermore, you'll be showing that you know yourself and feel you're a good match for them.
After you set the tone through the Profile section, study what you've written. Think about what you know as it relates to the kind of position or industry to which you're headed. Ask yourself: What parts of my background would reinforce the Profile I've written? How can I delineate my job or educational experience in such a way that the readers of my resume can see the value of such experience in their business or industry?
When Howard Willisburn built his first resume (see page 90) after college, he looked at it and yawned. He knew he wanted to get into the fitness field at a management level, and he knew he'd be very effective at it. But his first resume didn’t come close to conveying that.
Before he rebuilt his resume, Howard did something smart: He made a List of the points he wanted to get across. He answered his own question; why do I know I’d make a good manager in the fitness field? His answers were:
Because I know how to work with all types of people, I have the right attitude, and I know this is critical to generate new business and happy clients in the fitness service industry. Because I’ve actually interned in a fitness center learning all facets of its operations, and therefore I’m sure I'm comfortable in that type of environment.
Because I’ve studied fitness, diet, and exercise, along with fitness management.
Because I "practice what I preach"; this shows in my active lifestyle and my own personal diet and fitness concerns.
Because Tm not afraid of hard work; I worked throughout my college years.
Because I can manage as well as teach; I was appointed Assistant Teacher to the Swim Class Coach in college.
From this outline Howard wrote his profile and strengthened his resume. See what Howard's new resume looked like when completed on pages 92 and 93.
Let's look at what he did.
First, Howard's new objective brings the word "benefit" into the text, appropriately focusing on his value as matched to the reader's needs.
Howard's new Profile section has set the right tone for the reader, incorporating the key points from his outline. His education section has now highlighted his Fitness minor rather than his English major. Further, he has elaborated on his fitness-related coursework to show technical, teaching, and management exposure. He has shown his activity in sports and achievements in academics in high school.
He has detailed his critical field study experience at GTE Fitness Center, placing this in the middle of the resume, where it will get attention. He also has taken the months out and used just the calendar year of 1990.
Instead of labeling the next category Employment Experience, Howard has emphasized what he knows to be valuable customer service experience by labeling the category as such. This gets the reader to think of Howard's college job as valuable customer interaction rather than just part-time hourly positions necessary to pay the bills during school. He knows that the titles of his positions or their descriptions will do him no good and take up valuable space. His old resume made him look like a clerk and cashier; he was glad to get away from that appearance.
In Howard's old resume, he hadn't listed what he knew were two valuable certifications because they had both expired. When building his new resume, he realized that renewing them was not a problem and would not take long. So he further strengthened his resume by adding the Certificates category.
Howard strengthened his Interests section to give a picture of his athletic abilities.
Finally, he empowered his References category by, in effect, telling the reader that his field-study performance at GTE Fitness Center was successful.
SELLING YOURSELF/9523: You Want to Change Careers but Don't Have the Right Professional Background
Sharon Burns had this type of problem. Professionally she'd been a Controller and Office Manager for a small manufacturer for more than 12 years. But that had been her income, not her life, and she was not happy in her job. Her real love was development (fund-raising). Over the years she had enjoyed and been successful at planning, organizing, and implementing fund-raising activities for various non-profits such as her church, her son’s school, and small charitable organizations. Now she wanted to get paid for what she did so well. When she first wrote her resume (see page 96) she wasn't happy with the results.
Sharon knew she had to guide the reader away from her career as a Controller and Office Manager She also knew she had to convince her reader that she was very capable in development and could do professionally what she had done as a volunteer. She needed to change the tone of the whole resume to be one focused on development.
First she wrote a development-focused objective that alluded to the value of both her business and development experience. Then she wrote a summary that concentrated on development. After this she led the reader directly into her development background. In the section entitled Development Experience, she qualified and quantified her achievements in development, highlighting them in bullet form in a prominent spot (the middle) of the resume. Finally, at the end of the resume she listed her less-relevant employment with Water Cooling Company. See how development professional Sharon Bums' new resume looked like on page 98.
