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Sample Resume: Unemployed with Chronic Illness
Sandi Peterson (not her real name) is an Internet Marketing Professional looking for a job in online marketing management. While browsing a company website she found a job post that seems a perfect fit for her. Sample Resume for Unemployed Job Seeker with a Chronic Illness (a new window or tab will open for all sample resume links).
About this resume:
Here's a list of requirements and preferences for the Marketing Management job:
- At least 5 years experience in marketing management
- Able to supervise creative teams
- Work in conjunction with sales team
- Internet marketing and product launch experience
- Social media marketing experience a plus
- MBA preferred
Keywords gleaned from the job post:
- Online marketing
- Product launch
- Management
- MBA
- Creative teams
- Internet marketing
- Supervise teams
- Social media marketing
With this information in hand, Sandi targeted her resume by including all the keywords from the job post and writing about her relevant achievements.
Notice how she highlighted her pending MBA by placing the Education section near the top of the page and listing her thesis in Social Media Marketing Strategies for Profit and Nonprofit Organizations.
What's Not on Sandi's Resume:
Sandi's resume is completely honest. However, here are a few things she doesn't mention:
- Unrelated education:
In addition to the MBA in Marketing she's about to receive, Sandi has completed a Bachelor's degree in Biology, a Master's in Psychology, and a significant amount of work toward a Ph.D. in Education. She omitted everything but her MBA because:
- The other areas of study are not relevant to her job objective.
- If she listed the date for her MBA in Marketing, she would have to list dates for her other degrees. Those dates would reveal her age, which she believes would put her at a disadvantage for the job she's after.
- Her diversity of study might give the impression that she doesn't have clear career focus.
- The other areas of study are not relevant to her job objective.
- Chronic illness
Sandi has Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic disease that sometimes makes full-time work in an office environment challenging. When the time comes, she will have a discussion with her potential employer about how she can manage a full workload and what accommodations her disability requires. Until then, there's no need to mention it on her resume.
- Currently unemployed:
Sandi left her last job near the end 2010. To avoid shouting out "unemployed" on her resume, she listed her MBA program as her current "Job Title." This will work until she graduates in August 2011, when she hopes to have a new job lined up.
This resume was created using Susan Ireland's Ready-Made Resumes (a Job-Hunt Sponsor).
© Copyright Susan Ireland, 2011-2012. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About this author:
Susan Ireland is the author of four job search books including The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume, now in its 5th edition. For more information about writing your resume, read Susan's books or visit Susan's Website SusanIreland.com. For immediate help with your resume and cover letter, check out Susan's Ready Made Resumes and Cover Letters, an online resume builder to help job seekers quickly create an effective resume. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanIreland, visit her JobLounge blog, and interact with her on the LinkedIn's JOBS Group (Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections!) in her ** Let's Talk Resumes ** featured discussion.