Resume for Semi-Skilled Worker

[billbenson]

I have a friend who is looking for work and needs to write a resume. He is 50 ish, has an arm injury that doesn't allow him to lift above his head. He has a commercial drivers liscense and can drive trucks, forklifts etc. Most of his recent experience is taxi driver, wherehouse work and menial labor.

So he is really looking for any job within reason. Not McDonalds or retail etc as they tend to pay minimum wage though.

With no education, no consistant work experience, what do you put on a resume? He is talking about including "no criminal record" and things of that nature because thats the first thing he's asked. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but I've never looked for a non professional Job. Thats the first question he is always asked.

Since he will do anything he can, but closer to menial labor, what should he do for a resume?

[Spider]

The first thing I would suggest he do is get a library card and start spending some time learning something. Pick a subject in which he has an interest and/or some experience and build his re'sume' from there. At 50-something he surely has some experience that he can pull together into a meaningful and valuable craft - valuable, that is, to some likely employer.

For sure, he will find books on job-hunting, re'sume'-writing and "life-after-50" - he might even find some inspiration to start his own business. Colonel Saunders was 60+ and all he had a social security check and a chicken recipe!

I wish your friend the best of luck - and a whole bunch of motivation.

[huggytree]

a CDL makes him a professional id say (not semi pro)...my Master Plumbers license makes me a professional (at least in my head)

the big problem is trying to find a job for a semi-handicap older man during 10-15 percent unemployment

id not even mention any handicap he has and focus on Age and Experience with his CDL

I wouldnt discuss drug testing...everything should be very positive and should assume he's a clean drug free guy

why has he skipped around with jobs so much?.....by age 50 i would think you'd have 10-20 years in somewhere...whatever that reason is is going to be added on top of the age and handicap

how long has he been at these various jobs? 1 year, 3 years, 6 months?????

i think people would understand at least 3 years per job

[billbenson]

He's lazy and doesn't like authority figures. That's the reason he bounces so much. He also knows everything so he doesn't take unsolicited advice well. He did ask me to help him on his resume tomorrow, so as long as he's asking, I thought I would give him a hand. Unfortunately, I may spend my time having him tell me why my suggestions won't work.

I agree with you huggy on not mentioning the no crime or drug history and keeping it positive. The problem with stressing the CDL is he doesn't really have anything but taxi experience to back it up and taxi jobs don't pay well right now. Driving the forklift in a warehouse is fine, but because of his disability affecting placing boxes on shelves above shoulder height, that could be a problem.

I wonder if there is a strategy in mentioning his disability as companies may want to hire disabled workers and he can still do a lot of tasks?

[nealrm]

Has he looked at Manpower or Kelley services. He could either work as a temp directly for them, they also work to place worker. Given what you have stated so far, I'm guessing that he won't be getting anything but the standard "yes he worked here" from his past employers. Working for a temp company may allow him to get some good referances. However, he is going to have to work at it and learn to work with his managers. Many companies will hire from their pool of temperary help as positions open.

[billbenson]

Has he looked at Manpower or Kelley services. He could either work as a temp directly for them, they also work to place worker. Given what you have stated so far, I'm guessing that he won't be getting anything but the standard "yes he worked here" from his past employers. Working for a temp company may allow him to get some good referances. However, he is going to have to work at it and learn to work with his managers. Many companies will hire from their pool of temperary help as positions open.

Yes, and he thinks he may have a job getting paid to count people getting on and off buses at each stop of all things. Thats a job through a temp agency.

Still, how does someone like him structure a resume and what do they put on it?

[Blessed]

If you figure that out Bill let me know - I have a friend that is likely to be in the same position. In the past 12 or 13 years he's had at least 10 jobs. He isn't lazy but always knows a "better way" to do everything, so when the cuts start coming down the pike - he's one of the first one's to be laid off. At this point he is 38 years old, the longest he's held any job was 3 years and although he is good at what he does (industrial maintenance) and has finally made it into the lower levels of management - it took him a long time to find the job he currently has.

[huggytree]

old
handicap
lazy
cant hold a job
doesnt like authority

wow....can i hire him?

i would say it is impossible to get him a job in this economy......all you have good to say about him is that he's not on drugs

tell him you cant help him with his resume.....a good resume is not possible for this person

old can be a good thing in many jobs and ive worked with plenty of handicap people who did a ok job.....but for a physical job neither are good positive things

name some positive things about him:
1. he's not on drugs
2.
3.
4
5


can you name 5?

[Steve B]

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. These folks are stuck with their past and there is no magic way to make it look better.

They just need to put an honest, easy to read resume together and apply for jobs that interest them. The good news is that there are tons and tons of other people with equally bad resumes or worse - so they may actually look good in comparison with many others. I was so frustrated trying to find entry level factory workers that I kept lowering the standard. At one point, I told the agency ALL I required was someone that had had a job for 1 year or more somewhere. I didn't care about education or what kind of experience it was - just they held a job for at least one year. It was actually fairly hard to find these people. This was before the economy tanked, so I'm sure things are quite different now.

[billbenson]

On the other side of the fence, I can see him as a forklift driver in a warehouse and lasting a while as long as his boss isn't a real hard a%# type. A lot of the jobs he's had were the type of jobs were employees are treated like crap.

[dynocat]

I would do his resume in sections. Here's an example of a style I've used for semi-skilled people who did not have a lot of job history, education or solid employer references. You'd have to adapt as appropriate. If you have a way with words ;), it shouldn't be all that difficult. :)


QUALIFICATIONS

Reputation for good work ethic, attention to detail and concern for quality
Proven to be industrious, reliable and motivated self starter
Ability to work independently, use available resources and meet deadlines

COMPETENCIES

CDL with xxx accident free years
xxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx

TOOLS/EQUIPMENT EXPERIENCE

Vehicles: xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx
Forklifts, pallet jacks, etc.
Mechanic's hand and power tools, i.e., xxxx, xxxx, xxxx

EXPERIENCE
Current job - company, address, job title
duties, supervisor, dates
Previous - company, address, job title
duties, supervisor, dates
Previous - company, address, job title
duties, supervisor, dates

REFERENCES

Name, since 1994 Former co-worker, XYZ Company xxx-xxx-xxxx
Name, since 2001 Former supervisor, XYZ Company xxx-xxx-xxxx
Name, since 2004 Owner, ABC Company xxx-xxx-xxxx



For references I used, the "since (year)" because the guys did not have good employer references. In their cases, the businesses had moved, were sold or gone bankrupt. In the example the third reference was really a neighbor, but could confirm his positive attributes. Sometimes you just don't have a lot to work with.

Hope that helps a bit. Good luck

[Spider]

...A lot of the jobs he's had were the type of jobs were employees are treated like crap.Well? Is that surprising, if this is the type of employee they were dealing with? (Okay, treating people like crap not to be condoned, but if the employees are crap, how are you supposed to treat them?!)

Sorry, Bill. Don't mean to be too harsh, but this guy seems to be his own worst enemy. Actually, the re'sume' question isn't difficult to answer. A plain old-style curiculum vitea is all he needs (all he dare offer, perhaps.)

Start off with a short paragraph describing himself and "work attitude" - lie if you have to! Follow with a straight-forward list of past employers. At 50, not being able to hold a job, that list would be quite long, so list employers for the past 10 years or so. Name of employer, year-year, position held, brief description of duties.


ADDED: I also like Dyno's layout - I think that would be a good solution. Two comments, though:

1. Experience: A 50 yo. with lots of past jobs wouldn't want to list them all. Either list only those for the past few years, or list only those with pertinent experience. I question listing the supervisor, though (see next point.)

2. I have always been against listing references on a re'sume'. References should not be given until they have decided to hire you. If necessary, add: "References will be provided as appropriate."

[billbenson]

I agree, I think Dynocats resume is a good layout. I wouldn't put personal references in there but I would put business ones.

[Spider]

...I wouldn't put personal references in there but I would put business ones.Why?

Considering that one does not get hired from a re'sume', the only thing that providing references can do is serve as a means for whoever is screening the applications to call and eliminate the applicant. Why provide them with information to help elminate oneself? (Not to mention annoying your references if you are applying for lots of jobs.)

References are only needed IF YOU ARE TO BE OFFERED A JOB - at no other time is a reference needed. As one's re'sume' will not get you a job, references are out of place on a re'sume'. Submitting a re'sume' has one purpose only, and that is to get invited for an interview. Anything that does not serve that end should not be on there. With one exception - if you can list Tom Peters, or Ben Bernanke.......

[dynocat]

I understand that typically references--professional or personal--aren't included on a resume. However, currently in this area and with these type of jobs/employers, I felt it was important to get some names out there. The guys I did these for were applying for semi-skilled jobs where there are several hundred applicants for one to four openings. I wouldn't expect an employer to call any of the references before an interview with the candidate. Sometimes, though, it's WHO you know as much as WHAT you know. So I bent the rules a bit. The important part I thought was to get all the info on one page.

[Spider]

Dyno, you make a good point about including references in cases like this. Actually, I'm surprised a company would want to spend that much time on unskilled, semi-skilled positions that just about anyone off the street could do. Do such jobs really call for a re'sume' and elimination process?

I would have thought a person looking for such a position wouldn't bother with applying along with 200 other people - just go the the office, ask to speak with a supervisor and present yourself ready to start work. A re'sume' to be used in that way might well include references because it would only be presented at an interview.

[nealrm]

For low-skill positions, resumes are used by HR to weed people out. Company's don't want 100's of low skills people showing up and bothering their supervisors. So HR will weed the resumes down to a few select individuals and meet with them.

The format of the resume is not very important, so long as it is clean, clear and can be read in 30 seconds. Remove anything that will give them a reason to reject him.

I still suggest a temp service. Find out what temp firms service the local manufacturing companies and apply to them. In many cases they can place you in a long term temporary position at a company. It is also very common that a company will hire from this pool over those submitting resumes.

[billbenson]

Supposedly he is hitting more temp agencies today. I tried to convince him to throw as many applications / resumes at the wall and see what sticks. I tried to get him to play the pitty card and call the decent employers he has worked for. I know one of them and even though he doesn't really like the guy, he'd give a decent reference. Goodwill has a good counseling service here. If he doesn't go there, I give up.

[Dan Furman]

The important part I thought was to get all the info on one page.

I dunno - I think two pages on a resume is fine.

[Harold Mansfield]

He's lazy and doesn't like authority figures.
That describes a lot of people, including myself, but I always understood that I needed to suck it up as long as I was working for other people. The will to pay bills, eat well, chase women, and buy stuff always overcame my feeling that I was too good take an order or be an employee.
Seems like he would have learned that by the age of 50, and believe me I was never employee of the month much past the age of 20. I traded ass kissing for showing up on time and doing a better job than anyone else.


On the other side of the fence, I can see him as a forklift driver in a warehouse and lasting a while as long as his boss isn't a real hard a%# type. A lot of the jobs he's had were the type of jobs were employees are treated like crap.

Unfortunately, unless you work for yourself, you are going to be treated like an employee because that's what you are. At his age he's probably even more sensitive to it because he will likely be taking orders from someone younger than him and with an "I hate authority" type attitude that has never changed, it's going to be hard on him to suck it up and just make a paycheck anywhere.

To answer your question about the resume:
I'd lead with and emphasize the good first. Having a CDL is a desired qualification, at least it is where I am..many listings looking for CDL drivers in my newspaper...I'd probably also add my updated DMV drivers print out as a second sheet to the resume, just to get ahead of the gun when applying for CDL work.

Other than that, there is not much you can do if you don't have much of a work history.,,lead with the longest job first, even if it is out of order.
I'd be more concerned about how to answer questions about his work history than that of "Do you have a criminal record?"..which is a one word answer

[Harold Mansfield]

Just wanted to add that many times in the Bar business when looking for employees I requested resume's not so much to see an itemized work history, but to judge the competency and intelligence of the person applying. A lot of people have a decent enough interview outfit and know how to present themselves..(unfortunately I learned this with cocktail waitresses), but the resume' is a good way to judge if they have a grasp of basic skills and actually learned anything at all in whatever school level they completed.

I hope this doesn't come off as sexist..it's not meant to be, but I have seen some fabulous looking, gorgeous cocktail waitresses in my time that would turn the head of every guy in the club, but their resume's look as if they were written by a dyslexic 7 year old. When the position deals with a lot of money, extensive drink and food menu and training...a poor resume' is the first sign that their not the brightest bulb in the pack and have poor organization skills. Of course this is true with all kinds of employees in the bar business or every age, sex and race...but it just seems that young pretty women were able to skate along further and continue to get work, even when they sucked.

It tells so much more about a person other than where they worked.

I like Dynocat's example too. Stress the positives.

[dshaddock]

Hi--

New to the forum and have followed this interesting thread. A perspective from the HR side of the fence: Hiring managers and HR recruiters will want to read about his overall work history and experience so a resume could be important depending on the company. One approach could be to use a "functional" resume; a style of resume that focuses on providing bullet points of one's overall skills and experience as opposed to a chronological listing of place of employment and job title, etc. Functional resumes tend not to include dates of employment.

Functional Resume Example:

Experience:

Ten years of experience in the following areas:

*Truck Driver, (commercial drivers license)
* Forklift Operator
*Commercial Taxi Driver
*Warehouse Administration, (fill in the blanks as to what that means...tracking inventory, packing boxes,etc)
*Skilled Laborer

He could then list the companies he's worked at below this along with the dates, (or not list dates) like this:

Companies:

*Red Truck, LLC
*Warehouses Unlimited
*Yellow Cab Company

In this way, he's emphasizing the skills and experience an de-emphasizing work history. Since my example is a quick and dirty version, take a look at this sample
functional resume that I found on the web to show your friend: Functional Resume Example (http://www.resume-resource.com/exfunctional.html)

Hope that helps!

[Steve B]

I know HR managers are different. But, when I was in HR I would immediately get rid of those functional resumes for the exact reason that many people decided to use them. Because, to me, it was an obvious attempt to hide a poor work history. If they didn't inlclude the actual dates of employment on the resume, I didn't consider it.

Of course, if they did show me their work history and it was poor - I wouldn't consider them either so I guess they might as well take a shot at using a functional resume. However, when they get to the application stage - all applications that I've ever seen asks for specific dates of employment.

[dshaddock]

Hi-

I agree that a red light will go off when viewing a functional resume and HR styles are different. My style is to not automatically rule a person out who has a functional resume as I'm interested in the story behind the work history; especially if I'm intrigued by the overall skill set.

If I decide to bring the person in for an interview based on overall qualifications, I'll ask questions about the work history and make an assessment from there.

If a position calls for submitting a resume, a functional resume could help the person to get their foot in the door if the skills are more important than the work history.

[Spider]

é

I think these last few posts clearly demonstrate the games being played with résumés. From the applicant's point of view, the purpose of his résumé to get him included in the short list for interview. From the HR point of view, the purpose of each résumé is to find a reason to exclude the applicant. All the more reason, therefore, to do everything one can to avoid HR.

* Without ascii convertion, words like re'sume' (which require the accented e), cannot be spelled correctly. We probably can't use fractions, either - ½ ¼ ¾

See! Not to mention %

Let me try this agin so it's readable---

I think these last few posts clearly demonstrate the games being played with re'sume's. From the applicant's point of view, the purpose of his re'sume' to get him included in the short list for interview. From the HR point of view, the purpose of each re'sume' is to find a reason to exclude the applicant. All the more reason, therefore, to do everything one can to avoid HR.

[dynocat]

Actually, I'm surprised a company would want to spend that much time on unskilled, semi-skilled positions that just about anyone off the street could do. Do such jobs really call for a re'sume' and elimination process?

I agree. The job market here is so tight, companies don't take phone calls and don't want drop ins. The receptionist will take a resume or give you an application to fill out. That's it.

I know someone (who is skilled) who just started a part-time, seasonal job at KMart. It took him four trips and 2 interviews to get the job. Did I mention this is a minimum wage job? I couldn't believe the hoops he had to jump through. It sounded more like a position for Homeland Security!

It's crazy, but that's how it is.

[Harold Mansfield]

It is really bad out there. 3 years ago people were aggressively looking for employees to fill positions and today, from what I hear, employers treat applicants like they are a nuisance..even when they have positions available.

A few months back I went to meet with a potential local client that runs a chain of gaming bars. We were to meet at one of the locations. When I walked in and asked the day shift bartender for him, she snapped at me that he doesn't talk to walk ins and that I needed to go to the corporate office to fill out an application.

Of course my first reaction was to say "&$%@, I have an appointment. Who are you to dismiss me and walk away?" But of course I didn't..I saw him and just walked over greeted him and we sat down and started our meeting.
I brought that up to say that people are really getting arrogant towards job seekers, almost like what I imagine it was like during the depression when businesses and whole towns would post signs saying "No work here, move on".

[Steve B]

At a bigger company - avoiding HR is not possible because it's part of the standard procedure and all candidates must go through the same process. But, regardless of who it is that is looking to fill a position, when someone gets 100 resumes for one position the first thing anyone has to do is weed down the pile to a more manageable number. It's not special evil "HR" training - it's just a matter of simple logic. I have 100 - I only need 1. I don't have time to interview 100 - so who doesn't justify a phone call. Hmmm - here's a guy that seems to be avoiding disclosing his work history - ... next.

[Harold Mansfield]

I totally agree that appearing to hide work history and draw focus to skills instead could be a red flag, but, when you are 50 years old with a spotty work history and no valid reason for why you can't hold a job, you don't really have a whole of cards to play.
You gotta play your hand and hope for the inside straight flush. Pretty much the same odds. Slim.

[Spider]

Actually, it's very possible to avoid HR in large companies. I worked for several very large international companies, over many years, and never dealt with HR until after I was hired. Which to me was very natural. HR - human resources - is, I believe, the human resources the company has - their employees. HR takes care of, and deals with matters concerning the company's employees. And they are very good at that. The mere fact that we are having this conversation shows the disconnect between HR and the needs of the company when it comes to hiring.

A supervisor, manager or whoever needs a new person for their team needs to know, first and foremost, what that person can do, not who he worked for and when. A job applicant's skills are far more important than a chronological history of their time in the national workforce. That they worked for large, important, well-regarded companies is an asset, certainly, but their abilities is what a company hires - their skills and their experience. By rejecting re'sume's because they focus on the very things a manager needs to know in a new hire, shows that HR is probably rejecting the best people for the job most of the time.

For this reason, I always applied to companies who were not advertising (and thus HR was not accepting applications at that time) and sent my application letter directly to the person who would be my boss, were I to be hired. And I always used a skills-based CV. (http://frederickpearce.com/resume.html)

When I went for an interview, I was the only one being interviewed. Much better odds!

[Harold Mansfield]

I can certainly see that approach working. Have used it myself quite a few times.
However in this climate, and for a person who is pretty much unskilled with the exception of a CDL, a spotty work history, probably no decent references...he probably won't get the time of day unless he knows somebody and can bypass normal channels.
What he really needs is a "Favor" job. A friend of a friend who can put in a good word for him somewhere.

[Spider]

A friend putting in a good word beats a re'sume' every time -at least it gets an interview, which is all a re'sume' can be expected to do. I also think knocking on doors shows a bit more determination than mailing an application - and a lot more determination than an e-mail application.

[Harold Mansfield]

A friend putting in a good word beats a re'sume' every time -at least it gets an interview, .

That's how I got 90 percent of my work my first 12 years in Vegas. Everything was a referral or I knew somebody. It's kind of how things work out here.
Glad I don't have to do that anymore.

[billbenson]

While my experience is similar Spider, I think the times are radically different since either of us have actually interviewed - although I did interview a few times 5 years ago or so. I don't ever remember interviewing first with HR. It was always a sales manager who called me and I met with first. Of course it may have been HR that gave the sales or marketing manager my resume, I have no idea.

Also, since a very high percentage of jobs today are filled by knowing someone, that would take HR out of the loop for those. Then again I am starting to talk about my experiences which are very different than a non professional job.

BTW, my friend may have found a limo driver job. He also knows he needs to hold it or he will be living under a bridge. He's got to get stable, save enough to buy a car etc.

[Spider]

Yep! For a 50-something, getting stable is a good idea!

Twenty-five years late, but better late than never.


Ask Harold for tips on being the best limo driver he can be.

[billbenson]

He seems to have a job he likes. Driving a limo, he gets to take it home and work whatever hours he likes (the busy hours), and its in a wealthier / vacation area so he likes the clientèle and gets more tips. I guess the difference seems to be working the job where he can make money and pleasant customers. Before he was taking people home from bars and spent a lot of time just sitting. The area wasn't great and a fair number of taxi drivers have been robbed. People in borderline areas that just use taxi's to go home from bars don't tend to tip.

[Harold Mansfield]

Good for him! It only takes a few well tipping regulars to get something started and increase your income.