Chapter 13

Successful Solutions to Resume Problems

In This Chapter

Squashing the “overqualified” objections

Standing tall as a re-entering woman

Dealing with disability issues

Explaining bad credit

Relaunching after a prison stay

Chances are that not everything in your career history is a plus. Minuses — either fact or perception — like your age (be it a little or a big number) and experience (whether too much or not enough) need special care to keep them from setting off alarm bells. It’s always better to anticipate factors in your background that can screen you out of the running and do what you can to minimize them.

Nobody’s perfect. But rarely are we jammed up against problems so severe that they cannot be solved in some way. Careful resume management is a good start.

Here are some ideas on how to turn lemons into lemonade.

Too Much Experience

Not only is inappropriate experience — too much or too little — often the real reason that you’re turned down, but it’s also too frequently a cover story for rejections that are really based on any factor from bias to bad breath.

Too many qualifications or ageism?

A reader writes that his qualifications for a training position are superior but too ample. He explains:

Preoccupation with age seems to be the pattern. I’m rarely called for an interview; when I call after sending a resume in response to an ad or a networking contact, I’m told I’m too experienced for the position — that I seem to be overqualified. How can I keep my resume from looking like lavender and old lace?

Ageism often is the subtext in the overqualified objection. Deal with it by limiting your work history to the most recent positions you’ve held that target the job opening. To avoid seeming too old or too highly paid, limit your related experience to about 15 years for a managerial job and to about 10 years for a technical job.

What about all your other experience? Leave it in your memory bank. Or if you believe that the older work history adds to your value as a candidate, you can describe it under a heading of Other Experience and briefly present it without dates. Figure 13-1 is an example of a resume that shows recent experience only.

The recent-experience-only treatment doesn’t work every time, but give it a try — it shows that you’re not stuck in a time warp, and it’s a better tactic than advertising your age as one that qualifies you for carbon dating.

If the employer is notorious for hiring only young draft horses, rethink your direction. Try to submit your resume to employers who can take advantage of your expertise, such as a new or expanding company operating in unfamiliar territory.

What if the overqualified objection is just that and not a veil for age discrimination? The employer legitimately may be concerned that when something better comes along, you’ll set a sprint record for shortest time on the job.

On the other hand, another version of rejection based on too many qualifications or ageism occurs when a candidate who qualifies for AARP membership wants to kick back a bit and work at less demanding, lower-paying work. The employer questions the applicant’s true intent — why would an older engineer want a technician’s job? — and consequently doesn’t bother to interview a candidate she suspects of seeking any port in a storm.

Figure 13-1: Focusing on recent experiences is an effort to avoid the problem of being seen as too old.

When you really prefer to take life easier physically or to have more time to yourself, spell it out in your resume’s objective. Writing this kind of statement is tricky. You risk coming across as worn-out goods, ready to relax and listen to babbling brooks while you collect a paycheck. When you explain your desire to back off an overly stressful workload, balance your words with a counterstatement reflecting your energy and commitment:

Energetic and work-focused but no longer enjoy frenzied managerial responsibility; seek a challenging nonmanagerial position.

Too much experience in one job

A reader writes:

I’ve stayed in my current and only job too long. When my company cut thousands of workers, we received outplacement classes. I was told that job overstayers are perceived as lacking ambition, uninterested in learning new things, and too narrowly focused. What can I do about this?

Here are several strategies for meeting this issue head-on.

Divide your job into modules

Show that you successfully moved up and up, meeting new challenges and accepting ever more responsibility. Divide your job into realistic segments, which you label as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and so on. Describe each level as a separate position, just as you would if the levels had been different positions within the same company or with different employers. If your job titles changed as you moved up, your writing task is a lot easier.

Deal honestly with job titles

If your job title never changed, should you just make up job titles? No. The only truthful way to inaugurate fictional job titles is to parenthetically introduce them as “equivalent to . . . .” Suppose that you’re an accountant and have been in the same job for 25 years. Your segments might be titled like this:

Level 3 (equivalent to supervising accountant)

Level 2 (equivalent to senior accountant)

Level 1 (equivalent to accountant)

To mitigate the lack of being knighted with increasingly senior job titles, fill your resume with references to your continuous salary increases and bonuses and the range of job skills you mastered.

Tackle deadly perceptions head-on

Diminish a perception that you became fat and lazy while staying in the same job too long by specifically describing clockless workdays: “Worked from 8 a.m. past 5 p.m. at least once a week throughout employment.”

Derail a perception that you don’t want to learn new things by being specific in describing learning adventures: “Attended six semesters of word-processing technologies; currently enrolled in adult education program to master latest software.”

Discount a perception that you’re too narrowly focused by explaining that although your employment address didn’t change, professionally speaking, you’re widely traveled in outside seminars, workshops, professional associations, and reading.

Highlight the issue

In a departure from the normal practice of omitting from your resumes reasons for leaving a job, consider indicating why you’re making a change after all this time.

Neutralize the issue burning in every employer’s mind: “Why now? Why after all these years are you on the market? Downsized out? Kicked out? Burned out?” If the question isn’t asked, that doesn’t mean it isn’t hanging out in the employer’s mind. Even though you may be seen as a moss-backed antique, present yourself as interested in current developments by adding this kind of phrase in your objective:

Focusing on companies and organizations with contemporary viewpoints

In an even more pioneering move to solve the same problem, create a whole new section at the tail of your resume headed “Bright Future,” with a statement along the lines of this one:

Layoffs springing from a new management structure give me the welcomed opportunity to accept new challenges and freshen my work life.

Too Long Gone: For Women Only

The “on-ramping” woman still has an uphill climb. After taking a career break to care for her family, trying to re-enter the workforce — whether by choice or economic necessity — may make her feel as though she’s been living on another planet. A reader writes:

Employers don’t want to hire women if they’ve been mothers and out of the market for more than a year or two. Hey, ya know, for the last ten years, I’ve worked my tail off! Don’t they understand that? Doesn’t intelligence, willingness to work hard, creativity, attention to detail, drive, efficiency, grace under pressure, initiative, leadership, persistence, resourcefulness, responsibility, teamwork, and a sense of humor mean anything these days?

Every characteristic that this reader mentions is still a hot ticket in the job market, but the burden is on Mom to interpret these virtues as marketable skills:

Grace under pressure, for example, translates to crisis manager, a valuable person when the electricity fails in a computer-driven office.

Resourcefulness translates to office manager, who is able to ward off crank calls from credit collection agencies.

A sense of humor translates to data communications manager, who joshes a sleepy technical whiz into reporting for work at 2 a.m. for emergency repair of a busted satellite hovering over Europe.

You can’t, of course, claim those job titles on your resume, but you can make equivalency statements: Like a crisis manager, I’ve had front-lines experience handling such problems as electrical failures, including computer crashes.

If you’re a returning woman, use the tips in the following sections to develop a great resume that connects what you can do with what an employer wants done. Figure 13-2 gives you an example of how it might come together.

Sifting through your past

Identify transferable skills that you gained in volunteer, civic, hobby, and domestic work. Scout for adult and continuing education experiences, both on campus and in nontraditional settings.

Reexamine the informative Web sites you’ve used, the educational television programs that you’ve watched, and the news magazines that you’ve monitored. Go to the library and read business magazines and trade journals that require subscriptions, or read them online if the ones you want are available without subscription.

Figure 13-2: A sample resume showcasing the skills of a family caregiver re-entering the work place.

Using professional terms

In recounting civic and volunteer work, avoid the weak verbs: worked with or did this or that. Instead say collaborated with or implemented. The use of professional words can help de-emphasize informal training or work experience. Chapter 10 lists words to jog your memory.

Professionalizing your domestic experience is a tightrope walk: Ignoring it leaves you looking like a missing person, and yet you can’t be pretentious or naive. Housewife dates you; family caretaker sounds more modern and better describes your role. Refer to home management to minimize gaps in time spent as a homemaker.

Fill the home-management period with crossover (transferable) skills relevant to the targeted position. Examples range from time management (developing the ability to do more with less time) to budgeting experience (developing a sophisticated understanding of priority allocation of financial resources). Other examples include using a cellphone in drumming up support for a favorite charity (developing confidence and a businesslike telephone technique) and leadership positions in the PTA (developing a sense of authority and the ability to guide others).

Knowing the score

Omit all information that the employer isn’t entitled to, including your age, marital status, physical condition, number and ages of children, and husband’s name. Even though the law is on your side, why drag in facts on your resume that can stir up bias? Your resume’s job is to open interview doors.

To help in your quest, seek out seminars, workshops and services offered to on-ramping women. Discover such Web sites as Ladies Who Launch (www.ladieswholaunch.com), which covers creating your own job.

Job Seekers with Disabilities

Millions of job seekers are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which makes it illegal for an employer to refuse to hire (or to discriminate against) a person simply because that person has one or more disabilities.

ADA protection covers a wide spectrum of disabilities, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), alcoholism, cancer, cerebral palsy, diabetes, emotional illness, epilepsy, hearing and speech disorders, heart disorders, learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), mental retardation, muscular dystrophy, and visual impairments. The Act does not cover conditions that impose short-term limitations, such as pregnancy or broken bones.

Generally, the ADA forbids employers that have more than 15 employees from doing the following:

Discriminating on the basis of any physical or mental disability

Asking job applicants questions about their past or current medical conditions

Requiring applicants to take pre-employment medical exams

The ADA requires that an employer make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals who have disabilities, unless doing so would cause the employer “undue hardship.” The undue hardship provision is still open to interpretation by the courts.

If you have a disability that you believe is covered by the ADA, familiarize yourself with the law’s specifics. The U.S. Department of Justice’s ADA home page can be found at www.ada.gov. For even more information, call your member of Congress, visit your library, or obtain free comprehensive ADA guides and supporting materials from the splendid Web site maintained by the Job Accommodation Network (http://askjan.org).

Deciding whether to disclose a disability

Do not disclose your disability on your resume. Remember, your objective is to get an interview. Save disclosure until a better time, if at all. Here are a couple of guidelines for deciding when and whether to disclose a disability:

If your disability is visible, the best time to disclose it is after the interview has been set and you telephone to confirm the arrangements. Pass the message in an offhanded manner: “Because I use a wheelchair for mobility, can you suggest which entrance to your building would be the most convenient?” Alternatively, you may want to reserve disclosure for the interview.

If your disability is not visible, such as mental illness or epilepsy, you need not disclose it unless you’ll need special accommodations. Even then, you can hold the disclosure until the negotiating stage after you’ve received a potential job offer.

No matter what you decide to do, be confident, unapologetic, unimpaired, and attitude-positive.

Explaining gaps in work history

What can you do about gaps in your work history caused by disability? In years past, you may have been able to obscure the issue. No longer. New computer databases make it easy for suspicious employers to research your medical history. And with health insurance costs so high, they may do exactly that.

If your illness-related job history has so many gaps that it looks like a hockey player’s teeth, I’ve never heard a better suggestion than writing “Illness and Recovery” next to the dates. It’s honest, and the “recovery” part says, “I’m back and ready to work!”

If you have too many episodes of “missing teeth,” your work history will look less shaky in a functional or hybrid format, which I discuss in Chapter 9. Online resume discussion groups, which you can find through the Job Accommodation Network (http://askjan.org), can serve as further sources of guidance on this difficult issue.

Asking for special equipment

If you need adaptive equipment, such as a special kind of telephone, I wouldn’t mention it — even if the equipment is inexpensive or you’re willing to buy it yourself. Instead, stick with the “time-release capsule” method of sharing information: Dribble out revelations that may stifle interest in hiring you only when necessary. Never lose sight of your objective: to get an interview.

When Demotion Strikes

Kevin Allen (not his real name) was the district manager of five stores in a chain when he was demoted to manager of a single store. The higher-ups were sending him a message — they hoped he’d quit so that they could avoid awarding a severance package of benefits. Kevin ignored the message, retained a lawyer, kept his job, and started a job hunt after work hours.

He finessed his resume by listing all the positions he had held in the chain, leaving out dates when each started and stopped:

Demoting Store Chain, Big City

District Manager, 5 stores

Store Manager, Windy City

Store Assistant Manager, Sunny City

Store Clerk, Sunny City

Throwing all of Kevin’s titles into one big pot seemed a clever idea, but it didn’t work for him. After a year of searching, Kevin got interviews, yes, but at every single face-to-face meeting, he was nailed with the same question: “Why were you demoted?” The interviewers’ attitudes seemed accusatory, as if they’d been misled. Kevin failed to answer the question satisfactorily and didn’t receive a single offer during a year’s search. How did all the potential employers find out the truth?

Among obvious explanations: (A) Kevin worked in a “village” industry where people know each other and gossip. (B) Employers ordered credit checks on him; credit checks may show employment details. (C) Employers authorized in-depth background checks.

No one knows what really happened, but in hindsight, Kevin may have done better had he accepted the message that the chain wanted him out, negotiated a favorable severance package that included good references, and quit immediately while his true title was that of district manager.

After two humiliating years of demotion status, Kevin took action by “crossing the Rubicon,” an ancient Roman phrase that universities have adapted. It refers to those who seek a new beginning by returning to college for a law or business degree. Kevin enrolled in law school to make his happy ending.

In cases like Kevin’s, a strategy that’s forthright but doesn’t flash your demotion in neon lights may work better than trying to cover up the demotion. Combine only two titles together, followed quickly by your accomplishments and strengths, as you see in Figure 13-3.

Figure 13-3: Sample of combining a demotion with a higher position.

No matter how well you handle your resume entry, the reference of the demoting employer may ultimately end your chances of landing a new job that you want. In trying to mend fences, you may appeal to the demoting employer’s fairness or go for guilt. Point out how hard you worked and how loyal you’ve been. Find reasons why your performance record was flawed. Ask for the commitment of a favorable reference and a downplaying of the demotion. If fairness or guilt appeals are denied, see an employment lawyer about sending the demoting employer, on law-firm letterhead, a warning against libel or slander.

The basic way to handle demotions throughout the job-hunting process is akin to how you handle being fired: by accentuating the positive contributions and results for which you are responsible. But being demoted is trickier to handle than being fired. Being let go no longer automatically suggests personal failure — but being demoted does.

Gaps in Your Record

Periods of unemployment leave hiccups in your work history. Should you (A) fill them with positive expressions such as family obligations, (B) fill them with less positive but true words such as unemployed, or (C) show the gap without comment?

Choosing B, unemployed, is dreary. Forget that! Choosing C, leave-it-blank-and-say-nothing, often works — you just hope that it isn’t noticed. My choice, however, is A: Tell the truth about what you were doing but sugarcoat it in a dignified, positive way. A few examples: independent study, foreign travel, career renewal through study and assessment.

An info-blizzard of tips has been published on how to repair resume interruptions. Unless you were building an underground tunnel to smuggle drugs, the principles are simple:

Present the time gap as a positive event.

Detail why it made you a better worker — not a better person, but a better worker with more favorable characteristics, polished skills, and mature understanding, all of which you’re dying to contribute to your new employer.

How can these principles be applied? Take the case of a student who dropped out of college to play in a band and do odd jobs for four years before coming back to finish his biology degree and look for a job. The student knows that employers may perceive him as uncommitted. In the resume, he should treat the band years like any other job: Describe the skills that were polished as a band leader. Identify instances of problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, and budgeting.

Do the real problem-solving in the cover letter that accompanies such a resume. You might say something like this:

After completing two years of undergraduate study, it was necessary for me to work to continue my education. Using my talents as a musician, I organized a band and after four years was able to continue my education. I matured and learned much about the real world and confirmed that an education is extremely important in fulfilling my career goals.

The chief mistake people make is assuming that a positive explanation won’t sell. Instead, they fudge dates from legitimate jobs to cover the gaps. You may get away with it in the beginning. But ultimately, you’ll be asked to sign a formal application — a legal document. When a company wants to chop staff without paying severance benefits, the first thing that happens is an intense investigation of the company’s database of application forms. People who lied on their applications can be sent out into the mean streets with nothing but their current paychecks on their backs.

Lying isn’t worth the risk — it’s a mistake.

Another method of papering-over glaring gaps is to include all your work under “Work History” and cite unpaid and volunteer work as well as paid jobs.

Suppose that you’ve been unemployed for the past year. That’s a new timing problem to overcome. Even in a job-starved economy, some employers may wonder why you’re still jobless if you’re such a good worker. Some advisers suggest the old dodge of allowing the recruiter to misperceive the open-ended date of employment for your last job: “2008–” as though you meant “2008–Present.” The open-ender solution often works — until you run into a recruiter who thinks that it’s way too calculating.

Work history breaks are less obvious in a functional or hybrid format, which I discuss in Chapter 9. In the final analysis, if you can’t find a positive explanation for a gap, say nothing.

If you possess a not-so-pristine past, stick with small employers who probably won’t check every date on your resume.

Too Many Layoffs That Aren’t Your Fault

Hard to believe, but good workers sometimes experience one layoff after another. One of my readers writes that he’d experienced four no-fault severances within seven years.

When you’ve been to the chopping block a few too many times, explain the circumstances after each listing of the company name:

Carol Interiors (company closed doors) . . . Salamander Furnishings (multirounds of downsizings) . . . Brandon Fine Furniture (company relocated out of town) . . . Kelly Fixture Co. (plant sold and moved overseas).

Offering brief explanations takes the blame from your shoulders — but I suppose that a cynic might think that you’re a jinx.

Explaining Mergers and Acquisitions

A reader writes:

Upon graduating from college, I went to work for Company A. Several years later, Company A was acquired by Company B. More years passed, and Company B was acquired by Company C. Eventually, Company C merged with Company D, and as a result, after ten years with the four companies, I was laid off.

My question is how best to handle this work history on my resume? I worked for four different corporate entities, with four different names, without ever changing jobs. Do I list all four on my resume? Or just the last one?

Always try to show an upward track record — that you acquired new knowledge and skills, and just didn’t just do the same thing over and over each year. And, you don’t want the reader to assume that you worked for only one company that laid you off after a decade.

Taking these two factors into consideration, can you show correlation between your job titles and responsibilities with the changes in ownership? If yes, identify all four owners:

Job title, Company D (formerly Company C), years

Job title, Company C (formerly Company B), years

Job title, Company B (formerly Company A), years

Job title, Company A, years

If you can’t show an upward track record that correlates with changes in ownership, just use the current owner name with a short explanation:

Job title, Company D, years(Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the entities for which I have worked since college graduation were known as Company A, Company B, and Company C.)

The reason for naming every entity is perception. Background and credit checks will turn up those company names, and if your resume doesn’t mention them, it sends up a red flag for your potential employer!

Here a Job, There a Job, Everywhere a Job, Job

I once interviewed a man who had held 185 jobs over the course of his 20-year career, encompassing everything from dishwasher to circus clown and from truck driver to nursing aide. He wrote to me, not requesting resume advice, but to complain that a potential employer had the nerve to call him a job hopper!

Talk about an antiquated term: In the 21st century, the notion of job hopping is as far out of a reality circle as the concepts of job security, company loyalty, and a guaranteed company pension. The Great American Dumping Machine will continue to sack people who sometimes have to take virtually any job they can to survive.

Adding insult to injury, some employers cling to a double standard — hiring and firing employees like commodities, then looking with disfavor on applicants who have had a glut of jobs by circumstance, not by choice.

Overcoming a job-hopping image

Even when it wasn’t at your initiative, holding five or more jobs in ten years can brand you as a job hopper. The fact that you’re out of work now underscores that impression. Even employers who are guilty of round after round of employee dismissals instinctively flinch at candidates they perceive to be hopping around.

Take pains to reverse that disapproval. When you draft your resume, post a list of negative perceptions on your desk; when you’re finished writing, compare your resume with the list. Offer information that changes negative perceptions of you as a job hopper. The following list identifies perceptions employers often have of a job hopper and ways to counter them.

Perception	Counter
Is disloyal and self-focused	Perfect attendance, volunteer office gift collector
Will split in a blink for a better offer and take company secrets along	Competition of projects
Doesn’t know what he/she wants and is never satisfied	Diverse background that promoted impressive results

After checking for damage control, go back and review your resume for accomplishments that enhance your image, such as the following:

A fast learner: Give examples of how your skills aren’t company-specific and you rapidly adjust to new environments.

A high achiever: Show favored skills much courted by headhunters, and at end of each job mention, put “Recruited for advanced position.”

A quick adapter: Mention examples of agreeable flexibility in adjusting to new ideas, technology, and position requirements.

A relationship builder: List praise from co-workers for commitment to team success.

A determined worker: Briefly mention your commitment to meeting standards of superior workplace performance despite the tough job market of recent years. Use terms such as “positive attitude” and “cheerful perspective.”

When your current joblessness comes after a background that a quick-change artist would admire, use your resume to prepare the way to acceptance. Emphasize project completion and career progression, using years not months. If you still have trouble landing interviews, include more positive statements in your cover letter to tackle your history. For ideas, read my book, Cover Letters For Dummies, 3rd Edition (Wiley).

Cleaning out your job closet

The harsh realities of business may force you to detour from a single career path to alternative tracks where you can acquire new skills and experiences, even if they’re not skills and experiences of choice. If so, you need serious creative (but truthful) writing to keep your resume focused on the work history that is relevant for the next job sought.

Use these workarounds when you find that you have too many jobs in your history:

Start by referring to your diversified or skills-building background.

Use a functional or hybrid resume format (see Chapter 9) and present only your experience relevant to the job you seek.

Alternatively, you can list jobs relating to the position you now seek first under “Relevant Work Experience” and cluster the nonrelevant jobs under “Other Work Experience.”

Express your work history in years, not months and years.

When Substance Abuse Is the Problem

Substance abuse is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you’re recovered from the addiction, you’re entitled to all the Act’s protections. If you’re still abusing a substance, such as alcohol or illegal narcotics, you’re not covered by the Act. Don’t disclose previous substance abuse on your resume.

Cover gaps in your work history with the Illness and Recovery statement (see the “Job Seekers with Disabilities” section earlier in this chapter) or simply don’t address the issue at all.

Be careful when deciding which information you put on a job application — remember that it’s a legal form and that lies can come back to haunt you (see the “Gaps in Your Record” section earlier in this chapter).

If you were ever arrested for smoking pot or being intoxicated — even once in your life — the fact may surface to damage your employment chances. Asking about arrest records is illegal, but a few private database companies don’t let that stop them — they compile electronic databases of such arrest information and sell them to any employer who will buy.

Avoid mentioning booze or drugs, be careful about application forms, and be honest at interviews — if you have recovered or if the experience was a brief fling or two.

If you’re still held prisoner by a chronic, destructive, or debilitating overuse of a chemical substance that interferes with your life or employment, no resume tweaks will benefit you. Get help for your addiction.

A Bad Credit Rap

Job seekers who won’t be handling money are surprised that employers may routinely check credit records. Credit histories — called consumer reports — hold much more than payment history. A consumer report contains data from names of previous employers and residential stability to divorces and estimated prior earnings.

Employers are wary of hiring people awash in debt because they fear that stress will impact job performance or that you have inadequate management skills or even that you may have sticky fingers with the company’s funds.

Consumer reports have serious implications for students who graduate with sky-high education loans and credit card balances, especially if they or their families have missed payments. Divorced individuals may have interview-killing credit problems caused by the split-up and never know why their resumes aren’t delivering interviews.

Among consumer protections against unfair credit treatment is the requirement that employers must get your permission in a stand-alone document to check your credit (Fair Credit Reporting Act) — no blending the request into fine print in the employment application.

After an employer receives a report on you — but before any adverse action is taken, such as rejecting your application for a job — the employer must give you a free copy of the report with related legal documents. Receiving a copy of the documents gives you a chance to correct mistakes and clean up your credit record if you can.

Background checks are even more invasive than credit reports. They include records for driving infractions, court and incarceration histories, workers’ compensation, medical histories, drug testing, and more. For details, visit The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (privacyrights.org — search on Background Checks).

Ex-Offenders Job Hunting

Each year millions of offenders leave state and local prisons for the free world or circulate in and out of American jails and detention centers at the city and county levels. If you’re one of these people, this book can help you — especially when it comes to meeting today’s need to customize and send out your digital resume — but you need specialized help of the type that I describe at the end of this section.

Negative info kills your chances

Never forget that the purpose of your resume is to get a job interview. Period. Your resume is not the place to confess your sins, accentuate your weaknesses, or lie about yourself. Make sure your resume is future-oriented and employer-centered. Use your resume to clearly communicate to employers what it is that you can do for them. Issues concerning your criminal record are best dealt with during the job interview.

Avoid the chronological format

The reverse chronological format (Chapter 9) is not your friend. This format, with its emphasis on employers and dates, tends to point up the two major weaknesses of ex-offenders — limited work experience and major employment time gaps. Instead, choose a functional or hybrid combination format (Chapter 9) that emphasizes your qualifications as they relate to the job you seek — skills, competencies, and personal qualities.

Present prison experience in nonprison terms

If you acquired education, training, and work experience in prison, be careful how you list that experience on your resume. Instead of saying that you worked at “Kentucky State Prison,” say you worked for the “State of Kentucky.” Both statements are truthful, but the first statement immediately raises a red flag that can prematurely screen you out before you get an interview.

Get help with job search moves

Unless you have strong analytical and writing skills, read specialized books and reach out for help from a local nonprofit group that functions to assist ex-offenders in writing resumes and finding jobs. Here are some resources:

Find the best specialized books at www.exoffenderreentry.com.

Discover re-entry resources in all 50 states at the National Hire Network (www.hirenetwork.org).

Consider hiring a professional resume writer; see Chapter 20.

Look for Ways to Scoot Past Resume Blocks

You can’t always move directly from start to finish of a successful job search with a single resume strategy. While suggesting solutions to difficult resume situations, I may not have addressed your specific concern. If not, use the illustrations here to inspire a creative solution to your difficulty that doesn’t rely on telling lies. (Lies are time bombs!)

Need encouragement? Michael Jordan, widely considered to be the greatest player in the history of basketball, has a few words to say about the very kinds of obstacles you may face in creating a great resume on your way to a job interview:

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.