Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search, 7/11

Q-Tips: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life

Job-hunting tips from the July 11, 2011, issue of QuintZine.

In "Botox for your Resume and other Job Search Tips to Combat Ageism," Matthew Levy offers a number of ideas to assist mature job-seekers. Here's what Levy suggests for resumes:

Remove graduation dates from your education. The year you graduated is no longer relevant and allows the resume reviewer to calculate your age by adding 18-22 years to the date.
The same concept applies to the first position(s) you held in your career. Why list that early job on your resume? After 20+ years of experience I doubt that job is relevant any longer. Also, junior jobs, early in your career devalue the brand that you have likely created over the years. [Editor's note: Be careful here. Many employers and recruiters want to see your entire history, which will be revealed anyway if a background check is conducted. A safer strategy is not to leave off old jobs but to list them in bare-bones fashion without dates.]
Consider using fonts such as Georgia and Verdana and steering away from overused fonts like Arial and Times New Roman.
An "objective" heading is out; a "summary" heading is in.
"References available upon request" is no longer used on resumes.
It's not necessary for experienced job-seekers to cram down to a one-page resume. Multiple pages are fine. After all, most resumes are read on a computer with a flick of the mouse. [Editor's note: Two pages are fine, but the trend is toward shorter resumes, so try to avoid "multiple" pages.]

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In a similar vein, from a recruiter perspective, is Should My Resume Disguise My Age?, in which Harry Urshel says it's "a bad idea not to acknowledge your entire career on resumes you present to prospective employers." Reasons? The employer will discover your age (at least approximately) at the interview and may feel deceived if you've hidden part of your job history. If an employer is inclined to discriminate, leaving content off your resume will only delay the inevitable (and would you want to work for an organization with such a bias?).

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MoneyRates.com identifies the best and worst states for making a living after analyzing four factors in each state that affect an individual's ability to make a living: average wage, unemployment rate, state tax rate and ost of living. These four factors were combined to form an adjusted average income for each state, a representation of how good or bad a living the average person in that state is making.

Job-seekers who consider relocating for work may want to investigate their options to ensure they're not simply trading one bad set of employment conditions for another, advises Richard Barrington, spokesperson and personal-finance expert for MoneyRates.com. "You might want to avoid some states if you're thinking of moving to improve your career."

The 10 best states for earning a living, as well as each state's corresponding annual adjusted average income, according to MoneyRates.com:

Illinois -- $41,987
Washington -- $41,456
Texas -- $41,427
Virginia -- $41,120
Delaware -- $39,105
Massachusetts -- $38,665
Georgia -- $38,228
Tennessee -- $38,038
Colorado -- $38,020
Minnesota -- $37,722

The 10 worst states for earning a living:

Hawaii -- $22,108
Maine -- $29,159
Montana -- $29,496
California -- $29,772
Vermont -- $29,986
Oregon -- $30,343
Rhode Island -- $30,612
Mississippi -- $30,953
West Virginia -- $31,357
South Carolina -- $31,627

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Q-Tips: Quick and Quintessential Tips to Guide Your Job Search and Work Life

Job-hunting tips from the July 11, 2011, issue of QuintZine.

Review all our Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips.

Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.