5 Resume Quandaries in a Challenging Job Market: Your unique predicament has a solution!

Unemployment is at historically low levels nationally, so it should be easy to find work, right? Yet, new grads, workers downsized from the government, universities, and other industries report having a tough time. Business Insider just reported that the unemployment rate among recent college grads is 5.8 percent. A recent grad their reporter spoke with reported that one job he pursued received one-thousand responses. That is more than 20 times the number of applicants than posted jobs received 30 years ago.

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t is no wonder, then, that almost everyone who contacts me says they are stuck because of their particular situation. A few of the issues that cross my virtual desktop include:

1. Employment gaps,
2. No “real” work experience,
3. No accomplishments,
4. Overlapping jobs, and
5. Experience from 20 or more years ago.

Everyone is unique in their own way. That is what makes work—and life—interesting. Nonetheless, the resume and career marketing issues jobseekers speak with me about are surprisingly similar. As a result, I can offer a few general suggestions.

Employment Gaps

Gaps in one’s work history are surprisingly common. And it has been shown that you are less likely to land interviews when you have been out of work for six months or more. So, this issue is worth addressing even though employment gaps, sometimes called career breaks, are not unusual.

Short gaps in employment may not be a problem. Time passes quickly, though, so a short career break can suddenly become a gap of six months or more. And that means employers will be less likely to select you for an interview.

LinkedIn makes a career break even more of an issue despite a feature that was probably meant to help. Employers and recruiters that use LinkedIn talent solutions apps, I’ve been told, usually search for candidates who now have a job with the title they need to hire. So, it you do not have a “current job” on your profile, you will not appear in their search results.

Action Item: Take steps right away to avoid a career break of six months or more on your resume or LinkedIn profile. The “classic” approach, in my opinion, is to get involved in freelance work, volunteer work, or a project for friends and family. Ideally, the project should bear some relationship to your career track so you can put a related job title on your resume and profile. While unrelated projects may not be as good, it is better than leaving the time period blank.

There are other approaches you can use, too. Most importantly, do not lie. Brainstorm with a friend or career coach to find a strategy that will work for you.

Also, avoid using the LinkedIn “career break” choice. LinkedIn talent solution apps do not display career break entries to recruiters. This choice, perhaps created with good intentions, is useless in my opinion.

No “Real’ Work Experience

Recent graduates often tell me they have no work experience. But new graduates, I’ve found, have more experience than they realize.

The reality is that many students work while in school because they must pay for school. A client, for example, told me he was “just a maintenance man” when he worked part time to pay the bills. When we spoke in more detail, though, we learned that he led the team of four students that cleaned a fitness center and laundered the towels. He implemented specific strategies to motivate his team. Furthermore, he completed a fitness trainer certification and sold fitness packages. This job became a lynchpin of his career marketing strategy. And it built his confidence for job interviews.

Action Item: Take a close look at what you did while you were in school. You may have more experience to use on a resume than you think!

No Accomplishments

The career marketing strategy I advocate is to focus on your accomplishments instead of your job description. But a surprising number of jobseekers tell me “I just do my job.” A New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) medical social worker told me, for example, that she: just signed-off on client files all day so the City got payments from the Federal Government.

We unpacked two key accomplishments from this statement alone. First, the Federal Government paid HRA for every case she reviewed and approved. As a result, she met 100 percent of the payment goal. Even better, her caseload was three-times as great as the caseload she was supposed to handle—something quite common in social services—so she achieved 300 percent of her case management goal.

Action Item: Give thought to what you do every day even if you are in a seemingly routine government or social service job. You will find a surprising number of professional problems or opportunities you address daily through specific actions to get the results your organization and its clients need. There is no such thing as “just doing my job.”

Overlapping Jobs

Years ago, most of us had one full-time job. Increasingly, this does not seem to be true anymore. Jobseekers I speak with may have a full-time “day job,” a “side-hustle,” and “gig work” such as driving for a rideshare company or doing freelance tasks online.

It is an editorial challenge to fit so much work on to a one-or-two-page business resume. And it can suggest to a prospective employer that you will not be focused on their job. The solution, in most cases, is to include the most relevant job on the resume and LinkedIn profile.

There are situations where the day job and side hustle are both relevant to a job target. For example, I spoke to a downsized public health researcher who had a government job and a part-time consulting business. The best solution was to include both jobs because they are both related to public health but show that the consulting work was part-time.

Action Item: If you work at more than one job simultaneously, include only relevant work on the resume. When you do have to include concurrent jobs on the resume, show which role is the main job. Portfolio careers are increasingly common, but employers still want to know you will focus on their business problems and opportunities.

Relevant Experience from 20 or More Years Ago

The best practice in resume writing is to include only recent and relevant experience on the document. This works fine when you have been working in your occupation or profession for the last ten years or so and do not plan on changing careers.

Suppose you had relevant experience 30 years ago, but do not want to appear older than your prospective peers at a new job? Often, we can briefly list older jobs under a heading such as experience prior to 2015.

Even a 30-something professional can occasionally want to acknowledge experience they got nearly 20 years ago. A fashion designer, for example, started her career at age 12 in her parents’ high-end boutique. We decided that an “experience prior to…” section would work better than giving the impression that she was in her 40s or 50s.

Action Item: Make sure your resume has not become a lengthy biography, sometimes called a “tombstone resume.” Emphasize recent and relevant experience that uses current technology.  Find a creative, but honest, way to include prior relevant experience when needed.

Concluding Comments

Your career differs from everyone else’s career. This is one of the reasons it is important to take the time to create an accomplishment-based resume instead of simply listing job descriptions. It also means that you probably have a somewhat unique question about the best way to present certain situations. You will have to find a creative solution to stand out in today’s challenging job market.