Early Retiree Resume Checklist

I have a page listing things that may be causing you Early Retiree Résumé Failure so here is a quick flip-side to that. An Early Retiree Resume Checklist that goes along with my Early Retiree Résumé Tips page. If you want to retire early and often, a good Résumé is probably going to be needed at some point to start that encore career.

As always you must have key words included in your Résumé for computer scanners to find you and pluck you out of the pile for human review. This “human review” is why it is important to make sure your Résumé is readable for human beings. Try to make it more conversational than jargon heavy behind your bullet items.

Early Retiree Resume Checklist

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Here is my Early Retiree Resume Checklist

  • Provide your Name and contact information. Include one phone number and your email address. Include your website if relevant to your profession. If you have decided to include your address. Then you have the option of listing just city and state.
  • The job title is the one you are applying for. Adjust and focus your Résumé based on the target job you are applying for.
  • Consider including a “summary of skills and qualifications” with a quick bullet list of your experiences. Put it at the top of your Résumé. Its purpose is to provide a short summary of what is to follow.
  • In your Professional Experience section list your past positions in reverse chronological order. Concentrate on your last 15 years.
  • Include for each of your jobs the title/position you held, name of the employer you worked for, the city and state, and the date range of employment.
Specific and Measurable Results
  • For each job position you have listed include the measurable results you achieved not just simply listing your job responsibilities or duties.
  • Select the measurable results you are listing with an objective focused on how you will be a benefit to this new employer in the position you are applying for and what you can do for them.
  • When providing your results be sure to lead with action words instead of passive words like “assisted with” or “worked with”.
  • If you are targeting a new career path or industry of which a lot of retirees are trying to do for their encore career be sure to emphasize any of your transferable skills.
Certifications, Education, and Other Details
  • List your certifications or professional licenses and any special training that is relevant to the position you are applying for.
  • Include publications, patents, presentations, honors, and any relevant volunteer experiences, especially if they pertain to the position.
  • List your education level with the name of the college you attended, your degree and/or course of study, the city and state where the school is, and the range of years you attended school there.

Be sure that you have listed all the super relevant details of your working life targeted to the company and job or position you are applying for.

  Important Actions to Complete

  • Proofread your Résumé meticulously. Find and fix any grammatical mistakes, typos, and bad formatting.
  • Check your Résumé and make sure it is easy to read by appropriately using bullets, a good font size that is easy on the eye and comfortable to read, etc.
  • Finally run a quick test to see how your Résumé looks by emailing it to yourself and print it out. Sometimes proofreading the printed copy shows things you want to change that is missed while reviewing it on your PC.
  • Save a copy in both your original Word format and as a text file (txt.) for online submissions. Change your bullets for the Text file to either – or + as bullets may mess with your formatting in text format.

If you can, try to find copies of other people’s successful professional résumés and see if you can gain some formatting and other positive ideas and pointers from them. There are also good online résumé guides that are specific to the type of position you are targeting that can offer additional tips. For example, résumés unique for computer science positions or business analyst. Do a web search on “effective (your desired job title) resume”. I hope you found some value in this Early Retiree Resume Checklist.