After 10, 20 or even 30 years in the workforce, you would think writing a resume would be easy.
After all, you've got plenty of experience.
You've probably held senior positions, managed teams, delivered major projects, solved difficult problems and built up a long list of skills.
So why do so many experienced professionals struggle to write an effective resume?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
The more experience you have, the harder it can be to know what to leave out.
And that's where many experienced professionals get their resumes wrong.
Your resume isn't your career history
One of the biggest mistakes experienced job seekers make is trying to put their entire career onto the page.
They include every position they've held, every responsibility they've had and every skill they've acquired.
The result can be a five- or six-page document that contains plenty of information — but makes it difficult for an employer to see what's actually important.
Your resume isn't supposed to be a complete record of your working life.
It's a marketing document.
Its purpose is to demonstrate why your experience makes you the right person for the particular role you're applying for.
That means your resume should focus on the experience that is most relevant to where you want to go next, rather than simply documenting where you've been.
The "I've always done it this way" problem
Experienced professionals can also fall into another trap: using the same resume they've had for years.
It might have worked five or ten years ago.
But recruitment has changed significantly.
Employers are increasingly using online application systems and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), while recruiters and hiring managers expect resumes to be targeted towards individual roles.
A resume that worked for your last job isn't necessarily the right resume for your next one.
Your career may have changed.
Your industry may have changed.
The type of position you're targeting may have changed.
Your resume needs to change with you.
Your responsibilities aren't your achievements
After years in a particular profession, it's easy to forget just how valuable your experience actually is.
You might write:
Managed a team of 15 employees.
But what did you achieve as a result?
Did you improve productivity?
Reduce staff turnover?
Deliver projects ahead of schedule?
Increase revenue?
Improve customer satisfaction?
Introduce new systems or processes?
These are the things that demonstrate your value.
At Resume Masters, one of the important parts of our process is extracting those achievements and identifying the contribution behind the job title.
Sometimes the person who has achieved the most is the person least likely to recognise their own achievements.
Don't assume your experience speaks for itself
There's another common misconception among experienced job seekers:
"They'll see my job title and know what I'm capable of."
Unfortunately, that's not necessarily how recruitment works.
A hiring manager may spend only a short amount of time initially reviewing your application.
They don't know your career.
They don't know the challenges you faced.
They don't know that you were the person everyone came to when something went wrong.
And they certainly don't know what you achieved unless you tell them.
Your resume needs to make that value clear.
What about older experience?
This is where good judgement becomes important.
If you've been working for 25 years, you don't necessarily need to provide the same level of detail for a position you held 20 years ago as you do for your most recent role.
Older experience can still be valuable — particularly if it demonstrates leadership, specialist expertise or achievements that are relevant to your target position.
But it should earn its place on the page.
Ask yourself:
Does this experience strengthen my application for the job I'm applying for?
If it does, keep it.
If it doesn't, shorten it or leave it out.
Don't hide your career changes
Experienced professionals often have another concern: their career hasn't followed a perfectly straight line.
Perhaps you've changed industries.
Maybe you've moved from technical work into management.
Perhaps you've taken a step sideways, started a business, returned to study or taken time away from the workforce.
Don't automatically see these things as weaknesses.
A well-written resume can connect the dots between different stages of your career and highlight the skills that transfer from one role to another.
The key is to give the employer a reason to understand why your experience is relevant to where you are going next.
Your experience is your advantage
Having 20 or 30 years of experience isn't a problem.
Failing to present that experience strategically can be.
A strong resume doesn't try to prove that you've done everything.
It identifies the experience, achievements, skills and qualities that matter most to your next career move.
That's particularly important for experienced professionals because you've accumulated something younger candidates simply don't have:
a substantial body of real-world experience.
The challenge is turning that experience into a clear, concise and compelling story.
Sometimes you need someone else to see what you can't
Writing about yourself is difficult.
It's even harder when you've spent years doing something so familiar that you no longer recognise how valuable your experience is.
A professional resume writer can look at your career from the outside, ask the questions you may not think to ask yourself, identify achievements you have overlooked and position your experience around the job you actually want.
That's the approach we take at Resume Masters.
We don't simply take your existing resume and put it into a new template. We take the time to understand your career, research your background, identify your strengths and achievements, and create a document that demonstrates your value to employers.
Because after years of building your career, your resume should do more than list what you've done.
It should show employers what all that experience is worth.
Ready for a resume that reflects your experience?
If your current resume hasn't kept pace with your career, it may be time for a rethink.
Resume Masters provides professionally written resumes, application letters, selection criteria responses, interview coaching and LinkedIn profiles for clients throughout Australia.
Contact Resume Masters to discuss how we can help you present your experience at its best