How to build a résumé when you’ve retired and are seeking work again
Are you writing a retirement resume? Drop the AOL email and five pages of experience, and use these tips to get work when retiring.
If you want to work throughout your retirement, you’ll need a solid résumé to help you find part-time employment or freelance opportunities. However, your abilities may be rusty if you haven’t prepared a fresh résumé in years.
“Many individuals express their desire to reenter the workforce, and they often rely on the same résumé they’ve been updating since their college days, thinking it will secure them a job. However, this approach, with its outdated AOL address and extensive five-page experience list, is not effective,” warns Stacie Haller, a leading career adviser at ResumeBuilder.com. She Stresses the need for retirees to update their skills and experiences to match the current job market requirements.
The dissatisfied job seeker then complains that no one will hire them because they are “old,” Haller explained.
“I wince a bit when I hear that because the responsibility is on the candidate to put together the documentation to get a job,” she said. “People tell me, ‘I sent out 500 résumés, I received nothing!’ And then I glance at the resume, and I see why.”
Haller informs the job searchers, “It is not you. “It is your sales and marketing strategy.”
Many American workers need to save more for retirement. According to a recent GoBankingRates survey, up to 28% of Americans have no retirement savings, 39% do not contribute to a retirement fund, and another 30% believe they will never be able to retire. Even those who have saved money are concerned that they will not have enough. According to Northwestern Mutual research, Americans anticipate requiring $1.46 million to retire comfortably, an increase of 15% from last year and 54% from 2020. As a result, working in retirement is enticing as a strategy to avoid depleting retirement assets, postponing Social Security benefits, or just making ends meet.
Furthermore, older workers now account for a more significant proportion of the labor force than they did previously. According to new statistics from the Employee Benefit Statistics Institute, workers aged 65 and up now account for 29.5% of the 55 and older workforce, up from 23% in 2000.
Advantages for older job hopefuls
Your age can be a benefit if you construct a retirement résumé carefully and highlight the skills you’ve acquired throughout your career.
“The most important thing you can bring as a mid-to-the-late-career worker is that unique set of skills, experiences, preferences, and insights that you’ve accumulated throughout your career,” Tarnoff stated.
Marissa Morrison, vice president of people at ZipRecruiter, believes that older workers have an advantage over younger prospects regarding soft skills—personal characteristics that help you communicate successfully with others. They are abilities that many baby boomers and Generation Xers can take pride in.
“Reliability and work ethic are critical skills employers are looking for,” Morrison stated. “Soft skills are increasingly sought after by employers, so go in with confidence and energy knowing you have a ton to offer.”
Highlighting your soft skills and hard abilities, such as computer expertise, in a retirement résumé is critical for landing job interviews. (Morrison advises care when describing your technical skills: “In today’s world, skills like Microsoft Word are ubiquitous; that’s table stakes.”
What your resume looks like is also very essential. Hint: It may need to look very different from the one in your notebook.
How Resumes Have Changed
So much about résumés has evolved.
“Before LinkedIn and digital media, applying for jobs was simple. “You needed a résumé, and recruiters weren’t overwhelmed with them,” said job transition counselor John Tarnoff. “So, you weren’t going to get lost in the shuffle the way you are today.”
According to a LiveCareer review of 50,000 résumés from 2018 to 2023, résumés aren’t the same as they were merely a few years ago in the following ways:
· The average length is 503 words, up 61% from 312 in 2018. Today’s résumés are often two pages long, not one.
· The top five must-have components (personal information, education, skills, job history, and professional overview or objective) remain unchanged. However, two more areas are now twice as frequent as in 2018: certification information and additional accomplishments.
In 2023, time management and customer service were the most commonly mentioned soft skills on résumés. In 2018, they demonstrated self-motivation and team leadership.
· References are often missing from modern resumes. Only 2% had them in 2023, compared to 6% in 2018.
What to remove from a retirement resume
Haller also advised leaving your street address off your retirement résumé. Just include your city and state, as well as your phone number and email address.
The finest résumés nowadays state explicitly and statistically what you accomplished in past positions. “Employers are not interested in just what you’re capable of; they want to know what you’ve delivered,” Tarnoff stated.
So, provide cash figures and percentages to demonstrate how much you accomplished benefited the employer.
No fancy formats.
Computerized Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are now commonly used as the initial line of résumé assessment. So, if your résumé has an unusual format or excludes terms from the job description, the ATS will most likely reject it, and the hiring manager will be unaware you applied.
“Because an ATS is reading your résumé, no fancy formats, no two-columns, no pictures,” Haller stated. “The ATS will eliminate you because it can’t read it.”
Even if a human sees your résumé, research suggests they typically spend only seven seconds reviewing it. That means you’re out of luck if the hiring manager can’t immediately identify what they’re looking for on your resume.
Experts recommend keeping your retirement résumé to two pages and focusing on your most recent 10 to 15 years of relevant professional experience.
“Some people have experience that does not apply to the position,” said Sylvia Menias, founder and CEO of 50Wise, a networking platform for job searchers over 50. “If it’s not applicable, there’s no reason to put it on there.”
Menias recently viewed a 12-page résumé. “Phenomenal experience and all, but really!” she replied. “You have to be a little more succinct.”
It would help if you also tailor your retirement résumé to the specific job offering, using terms and skills from the job description. “The right buzzwords ensure that the résumé is not going into a black hole but is being screened and sorted effectively,” Morrison stated.
Include or exclude dates?
One common dilemma among older job seekers is whether or not to list the year they graduated from college and the dates they worked for previous employers.
While there is no universal agreement, many résumé experts advocate omitting dates from college graduation and positions held more than 15 years ago.
“You have an education; it doesn’t matter when you got it,” Menias said.
If you held roles related to the one you’re applying for before 2009, simply list them in a short section. Haller suggested noting them in your cover letter.
However, add any recent volunteer activity on your résumé in the job history section.
Add volunteering to your resume.
“Volunteering shows you’re active and might have developed other skill sets from it — maybe leadership skills, maybe teamwork, maybe collaboration, maybe fundraising,” Morrison stated. “Leadership responsibilities do not have to be exclusively work-related. They may include community service or charitable activity.”
Another area that job searchers need help with when creating retirement resumes is whether to use a chronological or functional format.
The answer depends on the type of job you’re looking for and how long you’ve been out of work.
If you wish to work in retirement doing the same job you did during your career, utilize a chronological format.
However, a functional structure is ideal if you want to change careers or haven’t worked in over a year because it allows you to emphasize your talents and interests. That way, you’re less likely to miss out on a job merely because your résumé lacks years of experience doing that type of work.
Morrison said that regardless of the format you select, make sure that what is on your résumé is also what the hiring manager or recruiter sees when they look at your LinkedIn page.
Getting help with your resume.
Don’t be bashful about seeking professional résumé assistance from a human specialist or a résumé development tool on websites like ZipRecruiter or ResumeBuilder.
“Many services are willing to help you with your résumé,” Menias remarked.
Use an AI tool like Chat GPT to enhance your outdated resume.
However, Haller stated, “You can’t just leave it to the AI.” “It needs editing and massaging.”
After all, it’s a two-page profile of you.
Related articles from your friends at Your Career Place. Thank you for visiting YourCareerPlace.com.
https://yourcareerplace.com/prepare-for-job-interview/overhaul-your-resume
