We all know how critical is for a resume to be properly written and structured when you’re starting your career. But what happens when you get some good work experience, you are at your middle 30’s – 40’s and you need to start searching for a job? You are no longer looking for graduate jobs, you’re a person who has valuable experience and details to highlight on a hiring process.

Many people believe, somewhat unfairly, that it must be much easier for a person who has 15-20 years working experience to write a hiring resume than it is for a graduate or someone who is just starting out in their career path. In fact, the very opposite is true. With a wealth of working experience behind you, it can be difficult to decide which pieces of information need to be included in your resume and which skills and achievements you need to portray. Just make sure not to make this very common resume mistakes you should avoid.

For individuals with a mature career, recruiters are generally looking for resumes that demonstrates successful and varied managerial skills, potentially spanning a range of industries. Whilst you may not have held a specific managerial role previously, you must be able to demonstrate that you have used successful managerial skills, in some capacity, in the past.

Part of the challenge for mature professionals when writing a resume is demonstrating that they are ready to move from a smaller ’technical’ focus to a broader ’bigger picture’ focus. This includes being able to demonstrate political astuteness, commercial awareness and strong ’people’ and interpersonal skills. So, let’s look at the key aspects needed to pull together a fantastic mature resume:

CHECKLIST: WHAT A MID CAREER RESUME SHOULD INCLUDE

• Personal contact details – Name, Address, Telephone Numbers and an Email address.
• A career objective – One or two short lines that state your overarching career aim or professional goal.
• A strong competency statement – Two or three paragraphs that focus on your skills, experience and personal attributes. These should be supported by real examples of your abilities and should demonstrate managerial or leadership skills, commercial astuteness and interpersonal skills.
• Details of all relevant jobs you have held, omitting low level positions from your earlier career – Ensure you have listed your key responsibilities and achievements for each role. An emphasis on sustained achievement is key, along with demonstrable energy, enthusiasm and strategic thinking.
• Appropriate referees.

MATURE RESUME WRITTING EXPERT ADVICE:

Emphasise Skills, Not Experience or Dates

Today’s employers are interested in your skills . rather than just previous work experience. As a mid-career or mature professional, you should de-emphasise dates and years by stating timeframes instead of dates.

Leaving your age off your resume

The purpose of the Resume is to get you an interview. Let them find out your age at the interview when at least you can show them what a forward thinker you are.

Omitting earlier jobs and dates of your degrees.

If you’re going to leave your age off, don’t leave 30 years work experience on. A Resume should never have more than 10 years of work history, except in exceptional circumstances. Very little of what you were doing 10 years ago can sell you on your Resume.

Inserting time frames

Inserting time frames for relevant past work experience, rather than the dates of employment (example – “five years” rather than 1965-1970)

Choosing the right type of resume

As a mid-career or mature caree worker, you need to select a Resume format that favorably presents your job history and skills as they relate to your current career objectives. There are five basic types of Resumes, each with a specific style:

• Chronological Resumes list your relevant work experience in reverse chronological order, beginning with your most recent job.
• Functional Resumes emphasize your work objective, skills and accomplishments.
• Combination Resumes combine elements of the chronological and functional Resumes.

Modified letter Resumes can be used for targeted mailings to specific kinds of employers by writing in letter style rather than Resume form. Letters can be more easily written to blur age. Application letters should describe skills and energy and leave mentioning age until the last sentence or better still do not mention it at all.

What employers expect to see in a resume.

A resume that includes experience demonstrated, examples of his or her abilities, not just to be told they exist. As well as career progression, with a clear demonstration of drive and motivation to progress, enthusiasm, interest and deep understanding of managerial process. Talking about motivation to progress it is important to present it on the layout and the presentation of the resume. There are very basic Resume do’s & don’ts of resume writing  such as: spelling, punctuation, good grammar, proper sentence structure should be almost perfect to connect with your next employer and get the job you’re looking for.

This article contains 3rd party information that CaribbeanJobs has the right to use.