JobBuster Monk’s Resume Advice: Don’t

Dear Mr. Monk,

I’m sixty years old, and I’ve busted my sales quota every quarter for the last ten years. I sent my resume to forty or fifty organizations without a single response. I hired an employment specialist, and she said I shouldn’t reveal my age in my resume. I worked at one place for ten years and another for thirty. Anyone can do the math. So, I rewrote the resume and got some calls and interviews. I didn’t get a job. Will I ever get past this discrimination?

Ted from Des Moines

Dear Ted,

Yes, you will, Ted.

First, toss the resume. They are for companies who want a quick way to ignore their most important job: hiring the right people.   They look for misspelled words, poor grammar, gaps in the resume, maybe an oily smudge on the corner of the page.

Second, put a new sheet of paper in your Selectric and write a letter that starts out with the first sentence of your question above. Then tell the prospective employer what you’ve done, and more importantly, how you do things. If you greet every customer with a smile and a handshake, write it. If you compliment every fellow employee, mention it. If you give twenty dollars of effort for every fifteen dollars of pay, tell them.

Good employers hire for attitude, not youth. Trust me, you would not want to work for someone who gets fooled by a jerry-rigged resume.

JobBuster Monk

My dear readers: Send me your employment questions. I’ve had over thirty jobs. I’m an expert.