by Dale Mayer
Problem Areas
It’s not possible to create a single résumé to satisfy everyone’s needs. Every person has a problem to solve in presenting themselves in the ‘ideal’ way. That problem always fits into one of the main building blocks of a résumé. Some people will struggle with more than one problem area. For instance how do you solve the problem of having been fired from your last job? Or, what if your work history has huge gaps in it? Or what about students who have little to no experience in the work field?
This chapter focuses on these types of problems. The biggest problem tends to fall into employment history block.
Employment issues
Job hunting can be a difficult process. Many people assume that a decade of experience in a particular field guarantees them a great next job. That is no longer true in today’s economy.
Most people are out of work for a minimum of six months and more commonly a year. That can occur if you do have a good work history and years of experience. What about those people with a less than stellar track record? All too quickly, it’s easy to fall into the negative rut of thinking you have nothing to offer and there will not be a decent job in your future.
For some who have had a job, been laid off, managed to get a second job quite quickly and then were laid off again, after the third and fourth job (sometimes within a year), your work history starts to look like something you don’t want to give out to prospective employers. How can you convince a potential employer that it wasn’t your fault? They might believe one or two layoffs, but when you pass that specific point, it starts to look like you are the problem.
What about having been fired? Is there a chance of getting a decent job when you are up against thousands of other candidates who don’t have a flag like this in their work history?
Yes, it is possible. But you have to handle these situations properly. You can’t just leave blank spots in your employment history. That’s something a future employer will spot immediately. If they are still interested, you can expect to be grilled over this issue in an interview.
You can find a good job after being unemployed or self-employed for a long time or if you just took a few years off to raise a family or travel the world. This is your life. You made the best choices you could and now you need to do what you need to do to re-enter the work force.
So how do you get an employer to focus on you instead of your work history issues without lying or cheating?
More than anything, people who are at a disadvantage in today’s job market need to know and understand their strengths. Grab a piece of paper, and if it helps, bring in a couple of your friends, preferably ones you have worked with before, and ask their help. Why? Because we never see ourselves the way others do. They can offer valuable insights into your work habits, natural abilities, and skills that you may not see.
Ask them and yourself the following questions and write them down in point form:
• What are your strengths?
• What can you offer a new employer?
• What industry do you want to work in?
• What are employers looking for in a new employee?
• What skills can you offer?
• What special education have you taken?
• What makes you special?
• What did you do at your last job that made you proud?
• What did you learn there, that you could move to your next job?
• Go back to an earlier job and ask the last two questions all over again.
• Go back to yet another earlier job and repeat.
Now after you have completed the list and asked your friends for input, consider the answers. How would someone who wasn’t your best friend view them? Have they been overinflated out of friendship or love? Or are there kernels of truth that you can see?
Look at your list again and identify the skills that an employer would be able to look at and see the benefit of hiring you.
From your list write down the skills, experience, and training that are most likely to attract attention. You want the potential employer to be able to easily identify what you offer so he doesn’t focus on the problems you might have had in the past.
If you don’t have as much as you’d hoped, given the type of work you are interested in, write down a list of things you can do to improve that situation. Be sure to include classes, including night courses, weekend seminars, continuing education courses, and volunteer opportunities that will help boost the skills and education you can offer.
There are many ways to do this and, of course, it all depends on the type of work you are applying for. If you need basic first aid, you can do that in a relatively short time, usually in the evenings or on a weekend. If a job says first aid is required, then you won’t get the job unless you have it – or are registered for the course and will be completing it before you start or relatively shortly after starting.
If you have been staying home to raise a family for the last seven or eight years and were a secretary before then, it can be hard to compete with the new graduates coming out with certificates in what previously wasn’t a field requiring certification or a diploma. Things change and technology marches on. That doesn’t mean you have to be left behind. Consider picking up computer courses, and working on increasing your typing speed. If a job ad states 60 wpm, chances are they are going to test it. The Internet provides all kinds of training, speed development programs, and online testing that you can use to get up to speed again.
Do your training before you start handing out résumés. It’s much easier to face the job hunt if you have done something productive to update your skills. If you find that you’ve been sending out many résumés for jobs you are qualified for and not getting a response, chances are it is the way your résumé has been written – not showing the employer the benefit of hiring you.
You need to be marketable for the market to recognize you.
It helps if you stay current with your industry through professional associations, volunteer work, conferences, and especially consulting if you can. Did you consider helping out for free? Do what you can so employers look at your résumé and like what they see.
Now that you have your list of skills and qualifications, how do you put them down to make you shine?
Utilizing the correct format is essential. A Combination Style résumé is one to consider if you have a work history that is less than clean and smooth. Why? It starts with a Qualifications Summary before going into reverse chronological work history.
Having the summary first highlights the skills and qualifications right at the top where employers will see them, hooking them into reading more.
It allows you to emphasize what you offer while minimizing the issues your application presents.
You will put down the dates of your employment, but close to the title and accomplishments. Setting the dates off on their own and surrounded by white space highlights them. Instead, keep them close to where the rest of the information about that position is located.
If you traveled for a year, or went back to school or something similar, don’t make excuses, but do use the cover letter as a way to explain what you did during this time. You can give an even better explanation during an interview.
If your history is particularly problematic, such as several firings, it might be difficult to get back into the work force if you aren’t willing to compromise. There are opportunities available to prove your worth, but you may have to work for several weeks voluntarily or take a lower position or a drop in pay. Creativity is required, but solutions are available.
Recently laid off
At this point in time, it would be hard to find anyone who hasn’t experienced a layoff in their past. Although it can be traumatic, it’s not as hard to recover from as other disruptive work histories. Staying unemployed after a lay off compounds the problem. It’s important to get onto the job hunt immediately.
• While the layoff is fresh, reassess what you did for that company. You
need to consider the challenges you overcame and how you overcame them. This reassessment is particularly important to do in the first week or two. Consider whether you helped the company increase sales, save money, or put in unpaid overtime to get the job done? Can you list your achievements while you were there? These are the elements you want to parlay forward into an even better job.
• Providing you are immediately looking for a new job, then don’t mention the layoff in your résumé. Instead, list your last position’s end date as ‘present.’ In your cover letter let the employer know you’ve been recently laid off. If you wait for six months, then you have to put down an end date.
• Re-evaluate your résumé based on what you have to offer in the current economic climate. Do you need to take additional courses or are you dealing with an ideal skill set?
• Focus on your achievements, which can be hard when dealing with the demoralizing aspects of a layoff.
Inconsistent work history
It’s important to appear stable to an employer. Therefore having a spotty or inconsistent work history should be minimized.
A consistent work history at one or two positions shows steady upward growth. If you started at the bottom of a company, by several years, your record should show steady promotions.
If your résumé lists seven jobs in ten years for example, it gives the impression that you aren’t happy with any position so what would be different this time? Even if it’s not your fault, it gives you a bad reputation, and makes most potential employers think twice.
If you have this type of work record you will need to look deeper than others with a stable work history. You need to look at the volunteer activities or special projects you may have been involved in. Have you taken night school classes, even if only part time, or continuing education? If it’s relevant to the type of job you are applying for, then consider listing it. Also in this case consider:
• Adding a Career Goal as it works well in this case.
• Using a Summary at the top of the résumé to help focus your skills and accomplishments while detracting from inconsistent dates of employment.
• Checking for transferable skills you can move from one job to another as this shows continual growth and a progressive attitude.
• Writing employment dates down without listing the months, particularly if the gaps between jobs are short.
• Demonstrating how you have stayed current in the industry, particularly if you’ve been off work for a long time.
• Giving an explanation for being off work (if you have been) but do NOT apologize. You can answer questions in an interview. Put down the years involved and a simple explanation, such as 2000- 2005 – stay at home mom or 1996-2000 – full-time student.
Job-hopping
When the term job-hopping is used, it can apply to several jobs within a short time. Some industries are seasonal and this type of history can be expected. If you work as a commercial fisherman during the season and then work as a bartender on the off season, that’s the lifestyle of those jobs. This will not raise any flags and the people in your location will understand. An explanation might be required if you leave that area for one where the industry isn’t thoroughly understood.
Another example would be contractors who are understood to have various jobs of different lengths. In this type of circumstance, you would group them under one heading by the type of work you did and expect that in many cases the jobs will overlap in time. For example:
Social media consultant Feb, 2004 – 2008
Publicist, March, 2006 – present
Also consider someone who had several short unrelated jobs years ago. There still needs to be a mention of them, but combine them into a run. For example:
2002 – 2004 Waitress – Smooches Bar & Grill, Barney’s Best, Saturday Café
In this way, you’ve put down the years, but are minimizing the companies. You can do a second line highlighting your accomplishments during these jobs.
Many people ask if you HAVE to put down every job and the answer is no. But if not putting down a job is going to bring up a large gap in your employment record, then expect that to be an issue in itself. However, if putting down that you worked as an exotic dancer ten years ago is going to hurt your newly trained image and position of daycare assistant, then don’t put it down. If you are recognized and asked about the job, don’t lie. Explain how you retrained for a better future.
If you have picked up an important skill that is very relevant to the position you are applying for, from a short term or temporary job, do put it down.
If your history looks at all confusing, explain it in a good way in your cover letter – never on the résumé. You want your résumé to highlight your strengths. If your history is one of your weaknesses, be aware that you can’t change it, but you don’t need to emphasize it either.
A legal note worth mentioning here – if you are asked to fill out a job application, be aware that this is a legal document and needs to be treated as such. You must put down every job in your work history.
In today’s world, the opposite situation can also be a problem.
Having had only one job
It used to be that staying with the same company for thirty years was a sign of loyalty. Now it’s a questionable course of action. Too often people today want to know why you didn’t move on up to another position or a different company. They see it as a lack of progression. If you stayed in the same company and DID move up, that’s better. If you stayed in the same position, it can be difficult and you need to help the employer understand why you chose to stay doing the same thing for so many years.
It needs to be dealt with on your résumé or you’re unlikely to make it to the interview stage.
If you have had different job titles, then separate them off as if they were different jobs at different companies. Show a start and end date per job. This shows career advancement.
If your job title didn’t change but your duties did, then use a job description in the same way to show that you have advanced. If you haven’t been promoted, the employer is going to wonder why you aren’t promotable.
You are going to have to work harder to convince the prospective employer that you had value at the old position by showing him what you can bring with you to benefit his company now. Show how your skills have changed and adapted over the years. If you had little change then you have to show how diverse your responsibilities were.
Be creative on your résumé. Create subheadings that suit your experience. Break out special training, or results you achieved.
There is no one answer for everyone. There is no ‘right’ answer in all these situations. Look at what you have to offer and put it down on the résumé using subheadings to highlight the achievements and successes you had.
Criminal record
It is hard to imagine any blight in your history harder to overcome than a criminal record. Many professionals offer advice on how to handle this problem and with more than a half million ex-offenders in the United States alone, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and seeking gainful employment every year, it does need to be handled properly.
How?
Again, don’t highlight your history – this type of information is much better discussed in an interview if you can. Instead highlight the skills and qualifications you offer first. As noted a couple of paragraphs above, if you are asked to fill out a job application, you must answer all the questions honestly. This includes if you have a criminal record. Don’t lie. You can add a little note saying you would be happy to discuss the matter in an interview.
If you get a chance to explain in an interview, give your explanation of what happened, explain how you have moved on, and don’t dwell on this section of your life. Instead point out the skills you have to offer.
If during your incarceration you participated in retraining opportunities, or work experience, or completed an education, put this down in your résumé.
/> The work that you completed at the prison should be dealt with the same as every other job. List the prison as the company and point out your skills and achievements while there. Take this same tack with any courses completed; however, only list them if they are relevant to the position you are applying for.
If your skills and education attained during prison are from over ten years ago, don’t put them down. Time does allow us to forget a few things. Keep in mind the time element doesn’t apply to a job application. If you need an additional heading such as Additional Experience or something else intuitive to your situation, then put it in. Here you can list all the prison related work you did that may be less relevant.
You résumé still needs to target the position and show the employer the benefits you offer.
Overqualified
This is a condition many people don’t understand. How can any education or skills make you overqualified? Surely the more you have to offer, the better you are and the better your chances of getting a good job? This is no longer true. In the market today, many middle and upper management people or high-salaried specialists are let go because companies can’t afford to keep them on tight budgets. The higher paid people are often the first to go.
This leaves many without a job and no prospect of getting something even close to what they had before. Being unemployed and overqualified is difficult. Your self-confidence takes a major hit when you realize you are going to have to take another look at your expectations.
The first thing is to update your résumé upon being laid off or fired, which is often the case with upper level management. Updating the résumé so you look attractive again at the level you have become accustomed to isn’t easy.