Articles - Career / Personal Development

Can you believe many highly qualified job seekers are not even being considered for jobs because they have too much experience?  If this is happening to you, here are a five tips on how to make resume adjustments to be part of the winning talent pool.

1. Shorten your employment history.

If you have extensive work experience, focus only on your most recent, most relevant jobs in your resume or online profile .

If your work history doesn’t tell the employer anything about your current skills, take it out!

2. Summarize your skills.

Most employers just want to know that you have the relevant experience they need; they don’t care where you worked 15 years ago. Plus, you don’t want to look like a job hopper.

So try a professional summary at the beginning of your resume.  In a bullet format, highlight the skills which are relevant to the job.  Here’s a great place to load up on key words which will attract the hiring managers eye – and, for resumes which are scanned by a computer, put your resume at the top of the pile!

Here’s another shortcut: add only your five most recent jobs or jobs you’ve worked in the last 10 years (whichever number is smaller).

3. Edit your education.

If you have a graduate degree in history but you’re just looking for a part-time retail job, it’s probably wiser to take that advanced degree off your profile or resume. Why?  Because if employers think that you’re overqualified for the job  they may assume you’re going to leave as soon as something better comes along.

4. Don’t add details about your family and personal life to your resume.

These details aren’t relevant – take them out.

5. Make it clear that you really want the job.

In the “Tell us about yourself” section of your profile, or in a cover letter attached to your resume, tell employers what they want to hear: that you’re an energetic, motivated and highly skilled employee who’s very interested in the position your applying for and the company to which you’re applying.

Visit your local One-Stop Career Center for more great tips on how to improve your job search – and Good Luck!

This article  came courtesy of NYS Department of Labor

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