Resume Solutions
Overqualified and expecting a call? Think again
Tuesday September 6, 2011 9:08 AM
Dear Sam: I have read your column since I first started
college. After six years, I finally have my degree in organizational communication. I have worked
since I was 15 years old and my past two positions have prepared me for an office role that would
not require an entry-level status. However, I have been applying for positions for more than five
months and have received only one response from a potential employer. I have attached my resume,
hoping you could give me some pointers on what I might be doing wrong and how to get those who are
reviewing my resume to call me. The problem I am running into is that I am not inexperienced but do
not have five years of experience either.
I did not expect that finding a professional job with a decent salary would be easy, but I certainly did not expect it would be this difficult. With my student loans coming due in less than six months, the pressure is on to find a higher-paying and upwardly mobile position where my strengths can be utilized. - Jessica
Dear Jessica: The main problem with your resume is that you appear overqualified for any entry-level job you might apply for solely based on your content and formatting choices.
There is an immediate disconnect when reviewing your candidacy. Your resume is cluttered and difficult to read. In fact, when I first opened it - and I imagine this is the reaction many others also would have - I backed away from it not knowing what to read first in the barrage of text, columns, bolding, underlining and the overly strong font treatment. One would never assume you have only a few years of experience from looking at your two-page resume.
The key to resume and job-search success is to present the right qualifications to your target audience, and bundle it in a well-written and nicely formatted package. This means you need to communicate the type and amount of experience being sought by your target audience. As your resume sits today, you are presenting an overqualified image to potential hiring managers who are seeking someone with just a few years of professional experience.
Opening your resume with the statement that you have seven-plus years of experience - while true if you add your time working as a pizza-shop manager - immediately overqualifies you for your target positions. You really have three years of corporate experience and therefore should promote that. Allow your foundational experience in the customer-service arena to augment your qualifications and serve as a value-added bonus at the end of your resume and in the interview.
Next, differentiate your responsibilities from accomplishments. Your resume is a sea of bullet points with no indication of which are most impressive, and none convey the value you added to each position. While you have pulled out an accomplishment in the left column on page one, this isn't sufficient to communicate that you were a top-performer in each of your engagements. Take time to review your experiences and ensure they are communicating what you learned, what you excelled in and how the tasks you performed position you beyond a purely entry-level role.
Lastly, reformat your resume to create an attractive one-page document. While I rarely advise anyone to create a one-page resume, with experience spanning just three years - plus your restaurant experience while you navigated college - you should be able to compose a succinct one-page resume that conveys the value of your candidacy. Creating a more aesthetically pleasing look also will go a long way to getting the time and attention you deserve.
Dear Sam: I read your column each week and I know you have addressed age issues, but I'm not sure how to present myself to potential employers. I retired in 2000 at 48 with 30 years of customer-service experience at a major telecommunications company. I then babysat grandchildren through 2009 before I returned to work in a retail setting that ended in June 2010.
I'm about to complete a dental-assistant program, and I'm wondering how to downplay my age and years of experience. I know you advise not going beyond a certain number of years on a resume, but the 30 years are a significant part of my employment history. Also, I'm not sure how to explain the gaps in employment.
- Laurie
Dear Laurie: Congratulations on your upcoming completion of the dental-assistant program. You are correct in that I advise not going back 30 years on your resume. Doing so presents you as overqualified. You need not present 30 years of experience to demonstrate that you have customer-service skills. Presenting the last 10 or so years of experience will suffice.
To present your candidacy, I suggest you use a combination-resume format. Open with a summary showcasing your customer-service skills and recent training.
Follow this with a Selected Highlights section where you will present the most value-added aspects of your 30-year career without mentioning when things occurred. In other words, no dates appear in this section.
There are numerous ways to format this section, the simplest being to list items in bullet points. Be sure these notations are complete sentences conveying what you have done that differentiates your candidacy from other recent dental-program graduates.
This approach not only focuses the hiring manager's attention on the most relevant aspects of your background, but also removes the focus from dates of employment, which will appear later in your Professional Experience section. Also, do not mention retirement on your rsum as it would give away your age.
When structuring your resume this way, dates become secondary to relevant experience and will help overcome the amount of experience you have, the gaps in employment and the potential of being viewed as overqualified. See the example of a combination format on my blog at www. ladybug-design.com/blog .
Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Do you have a resume or job-search question for Dear Sam? Reach Samantha at dearsam@ladybug-design. com. For more about Sam's resume writing services, visit www.ladybug-design.com or call (614) 570-3442 or 1-888-9-LADYBUG (1-888-952-3928).
I did not expect that finding a professional job with a decent salary would be easy, but I certainly did not expect it would be this difficult. With my student loans coming due in less than six months, the pressure is on to find a higher-paying and upwardly mobile position where my strengths can be utilized. - Jessica
Dear Jessica: The main problem with your resume is that you appear overqualified for any entry-level job you might apply for solely based on your content and formatting choices.
There is an immediate disconnect when reviewing your candidacy. Your resume is cluttered and difficult to read. In fact, when I first opened it - and I imagine this is the reaction many others also would have - I backed away from it not knowing what to read first in the barrage of text, columns, bolding, underlining and the overly strong font treatment. One would never assume you have only a few years of experience from looking at your two-page resume.
The key to resume and job-search success is to present the right qualifications to your target audience, and bundle it in a well-written and nicely formatted package. This means you need to communicate the type and amount of experience being sought by your target audience. As your resume sits today, you are presenting an overqualified image to potential hiring managers who are seeking someone with just a few years of professional experience.
Opening your resume with the statement that you have seven-plus years of experience - while true if you add your time working as a pizza-shop manager - immediately overqualifies you for your target positions. You really have three years of corporate experience and therefore should promote that. Allow your foundational experience in the customer-service arena to augment your qualifications and serve as a value-added bonus at the end of your resume and in the interview.
Next, differentiate your responsibilities from accomplishments. Your resume is a sea of bullet points with no indication of which are most impressive, and none convey the value you added to each position. While you have pulled out an accomplishment in the left column on page one, this isn't sufficient to communicate that you were a top-performer in each of your engagements. Take time to review your experiences and ensure they are communicating what you learned, what you excelled in and how the tasks you performed position you beyond a purely entry-level role.
Lastly, reformat your resume to create an attractive one-page document. While I rarely advise anyone to create a one-page resume, with experience spanning just three years - plus your restaurant experience while you navigated college - you should be able to compose a succinct one-page resume that conveys the value of your candidacy. Creating a more aesthetically pleasing look also will go a long way to getting the time and attention you deserve.
Dear Sam: I read your column each week and I know you have addressed age issues, but I'm not sure how to present myself to potential employers. I retired in 2000 at 48 with 30 years of customer-service experience at a major telecommunications company. I then babysat grandchildren through 2009 before I returned to work in a retail setting that ended in June 2010.
I'm about to complete a dental-assistant program, and I'm wondering how to downplay my age and years of experience. I know you advise not going beyond a certain number of years on a resume, but the 30 years are a significant part of my employment history. Also, I'm not sure how to explain the gaps in employment.
- Laurie
Dear Laurie: Congratulations on your upcoming completion of the dental-assistant program. You are correct in that I advise not going back 30 years on your resume. Doing so presents you as overqualified. You need not present 30 years of experience to demonstrate that you have customer-service skills. Presenting the last 10 or so years of experience will suffice.
To present your candidacy, I suggest you use a combination-resume format. Open with a summary showcasing your customer-service skills and recent training.
Follow this with a Selected Highlights section where you will present the most value-added aspects of your 30-year career without mentioning when things occurred. In other words, no dates appear in this section.
There are numerous ways to format this section, the simplest being to list items in bullet points. Be sure these notations are complete sentences conveying what you have done that differentiates your candidacy from other recent dental-program graduates.
This approach not only focuses the hiring manager's attention on the most relevant aspects of your background, but also removes the focus from dates of employment, which will appear later in your Professional Experience section. Also, do not mention retirement on your rsum as it would give away your age.
When structuring your resume this way, dates become secondary to relevant experience and will help overcome the amount of experience you have, the gaps in employment and the potential of being viewed as overqualified. See the example of a combination format on my blog at www. ladybug-design.com/blog .
Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Do you have a resume or job-search question for Dear Sam? Reach Samantha at dearsam@ladybug-design. com. For more about Sam's resume writing services, visit www.ladybug-design.com or call (614) 570-3442 or 1-888-9-LADYBUG (1-888-952-3928).
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