How to Create a Master Resume

By the time a person reaches the age of 50, they more than likely have a lot of job experience. It doesn't matter if they have spent their career with the same company or have varied employment history with many businesses encompassing many fields.

While all of your experiences have helped to qualify you as the candidate most companies should hire, avoid listing them all on the resume that you are sending out, especially if they date back more than 5 years. The place for the extensive work history is the master resume.

The master resume is where you document your work history, skills, excellent performance reviews, awards and volunteer work. Once you complete the master resume, you will easily be able to pull out the accomplishments for the actual resume for a specific job that you will send out.

A master resume sounds like an overwhelming task, but it really isn't. Keep in mind that you won’t be sharing this with anyone. It will only serve to help you remember all of your qualifications when you apply for a position. Start out by jotting down a rough timeline of your life since high school. You probably won’t be able to remember all of the dates, but you can go back and fill them in later.

Once you've made an outline of your life story, go back and start filling in the details. Add the projects that you handled promotions, classes and training, technologies, processes, and responsibilities of each job. Add the name of your supervisors. It’s probable that you won’t remember a lot of details, but you can add them as you think of them.

Once you have completed your master resume, you’ll find that writing targeted resumes will go a lot quicker. The more familiar you get with specialized resumes, the easier it will be to polish the wording of your accomplishments so that your application shines.

Does your resume date you?

The proper way to write a resume is changing as quickly as the other areas in your life. If you don’t stay in touch with the new ways of finding a job, you risk looking out of touch.

Thankfully, your age and date of birth is no longer expected on your resume. Little did I know that I included enough clues in the information I was proudly sharing with prospective employers for them to know that I am a baby boomer.

I was so anxious so share my skills and accomplishments that I included my last four jobs in the work experience of my resume. I polished the wording of my skills until they shined. What employer wouldn't want to hire me?

The instructor of the resume writing class I attended pointed out that I started the job that gave me such wonderful experience over 25 years age. Surely, she said, I didn't want to date myself like that, especially since she seemed to feel that I was overly concerned about my age.

I realized that touting 40+ years of experience in my cover letter didn't win me any points, either.

Show your work experience going back five years. If you get the interview, you can always discuss your responsibilities prior to that time. That doesn't mean that you have to keep your talents hidden. The latest resume format is to have a special skills section in addition to work history.

Other resume errors that can date you include the very things that may have worked well in the past. Don’t use outdated tactics.

• Long lists of job responsibilities can be boring to the person who is reading your resume, unless they mirror those listed in the job description of the opening. Focus on what you accomplished. Eliminate the words “Duties included”, “Responsible for”, and “Responsibilities included” and devise ways to focus on selling your accomplishments.
• Don’t add information about your high school education unless you just graduated.  Teenagers can get away with it, but for mature adults, why would you want to imply that graduating high school decades ago is your best accomplishment?
• Don’t include references. Do even refer to them unless asked. The prospective employer will assume that if you are looking for a job, you have people who will say good things about you.
• Did you know that it’s outdated to put the objective statement on the resume, but that it’s important to state the job title of the position you are applying for?

A modern resume that will highlight you has to show that you can be the best sales person for yourself and will show that you keep up with the times by having your LinkedIn or other social networking link included.

Happy hunting. Please add tidbits of information that you picked up in your job search. We’re all in this together.

Jobs are hard to find. I have a lot of skills and decades of varied work experiences. Who knew that this would be a hindrance rather that a boost up when looking for employment.

Yes, I'm a mature woman. Well past the age of 50. But I need an income, too, so I started submitting my resume to any posting that seemed appropriate. Never got a nibble.

I don't like to be ignored. I'm determined that someone will read my resume and be interested enough to invite me to interview for a position that will allow me to have a roof over my head and enough food to survive. I started researching resume tactics and was amazed at what I learned.

I know there are others who are discouraged by the exhausting maze of looking for unemployment and decided to start a blog to share what I have learned.

If you have tips that have led to an interview, and better yet, tips for a successful interview that has led to a job offer, please share.