Or how not to brand yourself a dinosaur

There’s just no substitute for plain old experience, I grant you that. It’s safe to say we are all experienced. It’s when you drop the number qualifier — 25-plus years, or what have you — as I advised in a previous blog post, that you start straining for other adjectives. And that’s where you can get yourself in real trouble.

Do you seriously want to risk sabotaging your job-search campaign and all-important sales pitch by making yourself sound old and tired, or leathery like a well-done steak? No, of course not.

You want to sell the sizzle. You want to appear ripe for the picking. Not too ripe, mind you, but fresh with pluck, promise and enthusiasm. You’re bristling with it. Not only are you up to the task, you know how to present yourself in as flattering a light as possible, as the solution to an employer’s prayers.

Now let me rhyme off a few choice descriptors that can send your résumé straight to the circular file:

  • Seasoned
  • Well-seasoned
  • Extensive track record
  • Veteran
  • Mature professional
  • Long tenured
  • A long and illustrious career
  • Long-standing
  • Long-time

Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative

What most job seekers of a certain age fail to understand, and I’ve certainly been guilty of this, is that your value to a prospective employer stems not from your years of experience but from your personality, attitude and the unique skill set you can bring to the job in the here and now. In a buyer’s market such as this, you can ill afford to misplace the emphasis.

Repeat after me: It’s your strengths, capabilities, qualifications, and achievements — not your previous job titles, duties and length of service — that you need to underscore.

What’s your wow factor?

As in, “Wow, we need to talk to this person!”

Choose language that is empowering, attention grabbing and persuasive. Good writers make it a point to use the active rather than the passive voice because it’s direct and in the moment. Think about applying that same rule when composing your cover letter and résumé.

To be able to articulate the many talents you can bring to an organization — to convince hiring managers that you’re a candidate worth meeting — consider using these or similar terms to better convey your can-do attitude and intrinsic worth:

  • Dynamic
  • Enthusiastic
  • Energetic
  • High energy
  • Prodigious energy
  • Excited
  • Self-motivated
  • Skilled
  • A quick study
  • Ready to hit the ground running
  • Thoroughly schooled in
  • Well-versed in

So start compiling a list of your positive attributes, business accomplishments and successes, all of which speak to your strong work ethic, and you can’t help but demonstrate your complete confidence in your own brand.

— Judy Margolis