Seriously, just put all of my responsibilities now, skills, etc.?
I can’t imagine previous jobs being an issue.
Non-degreed, so I know the computers will bounce my applications, but I have found 1 great opportunity in exactly my field and industry that does not specify educational level.
If you want that one position so bad, you better hustle to find some inside connection to the company. With so much experience, I’m sure you’ll be a viable candidate, but you’ll need an inside edge.
Well, it’s a competing company, so I suspect that’s somewhat of an edge. But, thanks for answering. I know 3 of our former employees have jumped to this company.
Contact those people and ask if they’d be willing to be your references.
Also, there are a number of different resume styles. Do some searching for a format that focuses on skills/certifications rather than chronological listing of jobs held.
Surely over that 20 years, your job has changed somewhat and/or you’ve gained responsibilities and done different projects?
If so, then list those in much the same way that you would discrete jobs if you’d bounced around a lot - time, etc…
You could pay someone who writes resumes to write yours.
They’ll interview you and elicit pertinent information about job skills and actual work experience, then translate that a format that HR departments want to see.
Resume formats change a bit over time, and it’s worth it to pay $50-$100 for someone else to update/write yours if it gets you a new and desirable job.
This. List different positions and assignments as if they were for different companies, separated by time interval. I trust you didn’t do exactly the same thing for 20 years.
Good question and looking forward to some helpful replies. I’m trying to put my resume together, have been with the same company almost 18 years, the company has been bought/sold/changed names at least 4 times, I’ve had a few different job titles with different responsibilities… Trying to fit that all in a one or two page resume is a real challenge!
Thirded.
OK, so your “place of employment” is
Company A (joined Date), acquired by Company B (Date), merged with Company C (Date), rebranded to Company D (Date-currently).
And then under that you list the different jobs, indicating dates again so if you were Job 1 and stayed so when Company B became Company C, it’s listed only once.
Work LinkedIn like a mo-fo. Hire a professional to write your resume.
Fourthed, I think we’re up to.
I’ve been working for the same agency for 15 years, and in the same position for the past 10 years. But I’ve taken on (and in some cases originated) increasingly complex projects over that time, and I’ve gone from worrying about taking care of just my own little professional niche, to taking more of a leadership role.
If you’ve experienced a decent amount of professional growth within your position, DGH, then you should be able to make that apparent through the approach Voyager suggests. (And if you haven’t, the less said the better.)
Agree with the above that you need to lump your job responsibilities by year. You also should start it with a profile paragraph that contains a couple of sentences that encompasses what you offer to the prospective position. End it with conferences, classes, volunteer experience, etc you have.
Good luck!
PS - Some links:
http://blog.resume-help.org/2011/04/writing-a-one-employer-resume/
http://career-advice.monster.com/resumes-cover-letters/resume-writing-tips/one-employer-multiple-jobs-resume/article.aspx
One general piece of advice on resume writing: add a “personal statement.” I thought the whole idea was stupid, but I was working with a resume builder website for programmers that kept bugging me to add one. I finally sat down and wrote a few paragraphs that talked about how I’d been programmer since I was a kid, and I thought it was more fun than work and blah blah blah.
At that point, my resume turned into what I now call “My Magic Resume.” The damn thing was exactly the same as it was before, only it had 3 smarmy paragraphs at the top. Suddenly, I got a response every time I sent it out. Seriously. I almost don’t want to say it because it sounds like shameless bragging, but I got a 100% response rate (ie interview request) on that damn thing. I only sent it out to 6 or 8 places, so maybe I just got lucky, but still… I consider a 25% response rate to be really good.
Yeah, I remember in a business writing class I once took they mentioned that there is such a thing growing in popularity called an “achievement based” resume rather than a “skills based” resume.
The work history line will be small but your “skills” section should be either replaced or supplanted by a section where you describe ideas you’ve had enacted and the result. Problems you’ve solved. Policies you helped influence. etc.
I want to restate what I said before. Hire a pro. Do not do this yourself.
Out of curiosity, how do you go about hiring a pro for resume writing?
Check your Yellow Pages for a resume writer. Or look online: try googling “resume writers <your city here>”, for instance.
I found a good one on Craigslist. Monster also offers that service.
$100 is about what you should pay, more or less.
Trust me, they know the language, the key words, etc. It’s worth the C-note.
Unless you have a lot of experience with resumes in your field, I’d do this. Different fields are going to have different resume demands and focus. Especially for someone with a couple decades (or more) in the workforce.