RE: Job market and potential age discrimination?

["Wilcox, Rose (ZB5646)" <Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- pinnaclewest -dot- com>]

<<
Wilcox, Rose (ZB5646) wrote:

> if HR departments and hiring managers are throwing away resumes based on chronology or length, should I fix that?  

I suggest that you should probably fix that anyway. A lengthy resume may 
be rejected for other reasons, such as poor organization. Nor can you 
assume that hiring managers are going to read more than the first half 
dozen or so entries anyway; if you haven't caught their interest by 
then, you're probably not going to.>>

Answers the second question (length) but not the first.  My resume is certainly not poorly organized, but it is complete.  I actually cut it down quite a bit a couple of years ago then went back to the more complete version.  At that time almost all the jobs I was going for came through contracting houses.  They were interested in complete information.  The shorter version left out too much experience that might have been pertinent for a specific job.

The fact that I have done TSO help panels probably is not competitive in 98% of the jobs, but just having that fact there might hit that one job that the contracting house was trying to fill that week.

<<

One of the most common fallacies about resumes is that they should be a 
complete job history. However, hiring managers aren't interested in 
knowing everything about you - what interests them is how you can help 
them. A resume needs to be customized at least to the job field, and 
preferably to the job itself.
>>
In the past I didn't have time to customize my resume for each job that I applied for.  It used to be that there were so many jobs, one resume had to suffice.  Since I am still on contract I am working full time and don't have time to customize for each job, but if I were out, with the jobs as scarce as they are, that would be my first priority!  And that might be my current answer. 

However, on the job history part, I have also had hiring managers wanting to know my complete job history for various reasons.  The fact that I've been a consultant more than a permanent employee can be a pro or a con.  Some hiring managers think that functional resumes hide terrible secrets (in my case my consulting history and my age would be the terrible secrets!)   Some hiring managers think that short term assignments equate unreliability, etc.

<<

For example, I have had three careers: an inglorious one as a store 
clerk, a second as a university instructor, and a third one as a 
technical and marketing writer/manager. The first career doesn't get 
mentioned at all on my resumes. The second one is mentioned only in 
terms of how it can enhance my marketability in the third; for instance, 
if I am applying to write teaching material, it's worth mentioning that 
I've planned and delivered university level courses.

In case a hiring manager wants your complete job history, you can always 
take a list to the interview. However, offering a complete history at 
first contact probably isn't the ideal strategy.
>>

My pre-graduation career (as preschool teacher, cashier, waitress, et al) is not listed at all on my current resume, but it does encompass 19 years of technical writing experience, showing all facets.  I think this discussion has been very helpful to me.  For the nonce, my mind is churning away at some way of creating a functional resume for permanent jobs to focus the "door opening" to help highlight my skills and downplay from my age and my contracting history, keeping my full long comprehensive chronological history for the consulting houses and to bring into interviews, but also having an easily customizable shorter resume of the last 10 years or so to target for specific jobs.   (With the ability to lengthen it say some pertinent experience have taken place 12 years ago... sigh...) 

Now... what do I put on the website?  <grin>

Rosie Wilcox
Needing to get back to the schema extension process flow while she still *has* a job...





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