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Anonymous

06/18/20 at 5:48PM UTC

Career

Experienced friend with WAY outdated resume skills

Hi - what's the kindest way to ease a qualified, older friend into an updated resume? Ex. a .comcast email. #yow Thanks!

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Barb Hansen

6.68k

Startup Product, Growth & Strategy

06/18/20 at 8:53PM UTC

I would just tell her. You want to help her and that is a good place to come from. I had a similar experience about six months ago with peer of mine who was having trouble getting a job. He was having issues way before COVID and in a state where in later half of 2019, there were plenty of jobs around. He is a senior level developer with over 25 years of experience. He is super talented and very experienced but he wasn't getting any responses when was applying for jobs. I offered to take a look at his resume for him to see if I could see any red flags that he was missing (there had to be something that was preventing him from getting responses). Oh my gosh -- his resume was horrible in almost every way possible. Poorly formatted using a 15-year-old Word template, 20-year-old style objective statement, listing 25 year old certificates (yes, I understand that you were proud of your Windows 95 certificate, but really?), listing development languages and tools that are no longer used, and he had no performance numbers. I hire developers so I'm used to reviewing technical resume and his was one of the worst I've ever seen. I told him what I thought was wrong with his resume (see the partial list above), I sent him my resume (which may not be the best resume but it's pretty good) so he could see a more modern version and then I offered to redo his resume. He was grateful to say the least and he got a job about a month after the resume-update.

Shelley Sanderson

Administrative Assistant/Home Organizer

06/18/20 at 8:40PM UTC

Well, funny....my friend just did this very thing. She told me I needed a resume face-lift. To be honest, I welcomed her insight. She sent me a copy of hers - which I LOVED, she then sent me the blank format and away I went! I asked her to look it over when I was done and she added a few extra touches to it. I was elated for the feedback. I believe we all feel we need assistance in this department, we are all just working at home hoping we are doing it the best way - and when we are offered true help - we embrace it!

Rebecca Lee V

2.22k

Operations Analyst

06/18/20 at 8:19PM UTC

I know from experience it is hard to hear but when I finally listened to the advice I've had amazing response with my updated resume.

Jacquelyn Lloyd

869

Coach & HR Consultant

06/18/20 at 6:14PM UTC

Tell her how awesome she is and that her current resume doesn't highlight her biggest accomplishments and/or competencies as you see them. Ask her if she wants help updating it. If she does, then help her do it. OR - You're a writer, tell her you are working on an article and ask her if she will help you with an "experiment."