What to Do When Your Résumé Is Ignored

When you do follow up, keep it brief, she advises. Share why you’re interested in the job and perhaps any new accomplishments or skills you’ve added since submitting your résumé.

Get professional assistance. You may also find some help breaking through the job-search silence from a résumé expert or career coach, Kursmark says. Professionals — including résumé writers and career centers — can give objective feedback and practical suggestions to improve your résumé, helping you spot issues you might otherwise miss.

Test and adjust. As you tweak your résumé, you may start to notice what’s grabbing employers’ attention and getting responses, Layfield says. If you do, track what’s working and keep those elements. If you’re still not getting attention, make more changes and increase your networking for job leads.

The job-search process can be challenging and discouraging, especially when you’re not getting the response you’d like. But don’t get discouraged, Layfield says. Seeking out others who are looking for jobs, being open to new approaches and working hard to build warm connections can be essential to finding your next role.

Résumé Basics

Keep your résumé focused. If you feel like your résumé is being ignored, it’s time to look at whether you’re truly shaping the document for the jobs you want or “simply providing a generic résumé for every role that you apply to,” Layfield says.

The job search process has changed dramatically over the past 15 or 20 years, and it’s important that résumés be customized to include the keywords, skills and experience listed in the job posting, he adds. This is particularly important in an era when many companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to store and retrieve candidates’ résumés. If your résumé doesn’t have the right keywords, you might be missing opportunities to be matched with appropriate roles.

Keep your résumé modern and scannable. Just as job searching has changed over the years, so have résumé norms. If your résumé’s format is outdated, you could be putting up barriers to the job you want.

“A simple way to put it is: It’s not about your age—it’s about presentation. If your résumé feels outdated, hiring teams may assume your skills are outdated too, even when that’s not true,” says Huang.

He suggests using a clean, modern template, consistent formatting and strong section headings. Drop dated features like an objective statement at the beginning or “References available upon request” at the end. “They don’t add credibility, and they date the document,” he says.

Avoid triggering age bias. Unfortunately, AARP research has shown that age bias is often an issue for job seekers age 50-plus. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of workers 50 and older have reported seeing or experiencing age discrimination in the workplace. But there are a few things you can do to make your age less obvious to recruiters and hiring managers.

“Age-proofing is really about removing distractions and making your value obvious in the first 10 seconds,” Huang says. “You want your résumé to show you’re still learning, still current, still producing results.” So, be sure that your impact is clear within each role you list.

Layfield suggests limiting the experience you list to the past 10 years or so, eliminating graduation dates and avoiding phrases like “30-plus years of experience” that allude to your age.

Start with a strong opening. Treat your résumé like a storytelling document. Huang says it’s important to lead with a strong hook, “because recruiters scan top-down, and you can present valuable work experience that other candidates may not have,” he says. Start with a summary of what you do and the impact you have had, then connect it directly to the job you want.

He also recommends choosing your words carefully. “Avoid generic labels like ‘experienced professional,’ and use a niche-specific opener that makes your lane clear right away,” he says. For example, a technology professional’s summary opener might read: “Business-to-business account manager with 15+ years of experience growing renewals and upsells across mid-market portfolios.” From there, tailor the summary to the role you’re targeting.

Focus on updated skills. As you consider limiting the jobs you list to the past 10 or 15 years, remove outdated skills and roles. “Listing obsolete skills or very old experiences can unintentionally date you and make your résumé look unfocused. Highlight only what’s current and directly applicable,” says Kursmark.

Layfield adds that if you’ve spent time acquiring new skills, make sure that’s evident, especially if they’re technology-based. This can help fight stereotypes that older workers aren’t as good with technology as younger workers are. “Maybe even create a ‘technical skills’ or ‘tools and technology’ section,” he says.

Keep your résumé concise. Kursmark suggests keeping sections brief, with bullet points that focus on the impact you’ve had in current and previous roles. And avoid too much detail: You want your résumé to be easily skimmed. Including the most important and relevant information makes the document easier to read.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article was published on June 19, 2020. That article has been replaced with a new version based on new reporting.