Resumes for Non-traditional and Older Applicants

[adelrosario]

Hello! I've started my resume for this cycle but have concerns about it's length. I'm 36 and have had job since I was 16 (sometimes two to three jobs at once) so I've been in the workforce for 20 years. While I've been a part-time sales associate, barista, youth camp director, and youth soccer coach, my actual post-graduate career is in domestic and sexual violence advocacy. As you can imagine, there's a lot to report over 20 years and I feel a bit lost and overwhelmed by the task. On the whole, I think my employment history says a lot about who I am and I'm not embarrassed or ashamed by the more menial or side-hustle gigs I've had, often times on top of working my full-time nonprofit career. What's more, I also want to include a rich community service history. By providing even a brief description of each job and volunteer gig for context, my resume starts to get a bit long and unruly. I've had trouble finding examples or guidance online and would greatly appreciate some tips, advice, feedback or referrals to reputable and reliable resources. Thanks so much!

[Dave Killoran]

Hi adelrosario,

Thanks for the message! The rule here is to shape your resume to reflect a certain message that you'd like to send. In a sense, every applicant needs to brand themselves with an overall theme, so I'd largely drop the non-essential part-time jobs and whittle down your presentation to convey the core of who you are. In your case, that seems to be related to your post-graduate career and rich community service history (and those two elements may end up as part of your Personal Statement too). And the max length is 2 pages, no exceptions (1 is normal, 2 really only applies for high achievers over time).

So, while there is a desire to list all your jobs, many of them should be dropped, especially jobs form years ago, jobs that don't connect to your core history, and part-time jobs you took on top of regular employment. To get across that you've worked hard, have one of your Letter of Recommendation writers talk about that aspect of who you are

Thanks!