The impersonal digital world is not a fifty-something, unemployed person’s friend.

Experience used to be the qualifying factor for getting a job, which meant that you could be over forty years of age and you would be considered the best candidate for the job. The theory was that you would have had the most experience, this is not so anymore. Resumes that do not explode off the page with just one word are quickly placed in the “save-for-legal-purposes-only ” folder. It is no longer your life accomplishments that interests a hiring manager, but rather if your resume can sell your skills in under a minute.

Recent studies showed that our youth’s brains have begun to adapt to the multi-channeling that surrounds them. As these youths grow in adulthood, or what we like to refer to as today’s “Millenniums” a whole series of things have had to change to reach them. That one aspect of the “digital world” has revolutionized the marketing world. The new requirement in marketing is too “minimize” the message.

This transformation holds especially true for resume writing. Does your resume revolve around one word–one truly unique word? Let me give you an example. I say “quality” and you think “Mercedes”. I say “De Beers” and you think “diamonds”. How does your personal brand stand up to this type of marketing? Are you claiming your own “territory” in this very competitive job market that sets you apart from the masses or do you disappear into the resume abys?

This was a particularly hard lesson for me to grasp. As a Sales and Marketing Specialist, I always believed my skill was in selling myself. But how do I sell myself with one word? Building my own personal brand around one word was mind-boggling and frustrating, just like my job hunting!

The English language with all of its multi-meaning words allows for some very creative interpretations, so I thought to myself “where do I begin looking to find that perfect word for my own personal brand?” Do I begin with my skills? Was there a word that represented me well enough hidden within my skills list? I leave this thought on my list but it was not at the top. The next direction / question crossed my mind, “Should it be personal and from my life lessons”? Not believing this was the right direction for my brand, I leave it on the list somewhere near the bottom. Maybe, I think, it should be a word that represents the position I am seeking. As soon as that thought was written on the paper, I scratched it off. Changing my word with every new job application is very deceptive advertising and every marketing person knows that to sell you have to be consistent and authentic with your message.

Scouring my resume for that one word that stands out, I read it over and over again. Thinking to myself, “I have done this over my entire career for others, why can’t I step outside of my own box and do this for myself?” Inspiration struck and it sent me down the path of where my non-work passions live. Family, food, tennis, Zumba, reading, spreading joy and being creative. It is with that last word that my personal brand takes shape. Creative, that’s me.

It was time to go to work on my brand. I read all the news and updates on resume writing and even had my resume reviewed by a professional service. I then implemented their suggestions, refined my details, and created my resume branding document. The details included on this new resume represented me simply and succinctly. It passed the under one minute test!

The process that it took to get me here made me realize one more thing. I am really proud of who I am and the career accomplishments that were listed on my branding resume and I was darn sure that I was going to get some HR person to read them.

Prior to taking this approach, the digitally filtered world we live in hurt my confidence and being fifty one years old definitely didn’t help it any either. Daily, I dedicated up to 4 hours of my day to searching and applying online to open job postings. For every online application, I created a customized cover letter that matched the open position. I further followed up with a polite email and then waited and guess what? Nothing happened. After sending out over one hundred electronic resumes and cover letters that must have gotten lost in the electronic shuffle since I didn’t get one call back, I decided it was time to get very creative.

My new process after completing my job search online was to then go to the prospective employer’s website and find the right contact person and mailing address. That meant sometimes that I had to call the telephone number referenced on their website and asked the gatekeeper to provide the right name. Most people do not mind giving out a name so I politely asked them to spell it to make sure I had it correct, thanked them, smiled to myself and hung up the phone. That step, I found, was very important because it made the difference between “general” mail delivery and “direct” mail delivery. Once I acquired the correct contact details, I then printed my branding resumes and my customized cover letters that included my newly acquired contact details out on expensive, colorful card-stock paper and hand addressed the envelopes. Now here is where the really, really creative part comes in. I used the very traditional United States Postal Service to personally deliver my beautifully created resumes to the hiring managers of those same open positions. I then crossed my fingers, said a silent prayer and waited.

Miraculously my phone began to ring. Now let me explain, I only referenced my cellphone number on my new resumes, I purposely didn’t include my email address. I knew I was taking a very big chance but when that first call came through, I thought “Finally!”. Our conversations always began with the mentioning of the creative method I used to apply for their open position and how much they appreciated receiving my actual resume. As I sat there smiling I knew I now at least had a shot. My confidence got a big boost and there was a smile in my voice because I knew step two in the hiring process was a possibility. That was one step further than I had gotten digitally.

Now the seemingly perfect finish to this story was that I got a job from one of those USPS mailed resumes but that is not where my creative mind went. Instead, this process helped me to remember that I was all of those things that I had listed and tried to share with each and every job application in my branding resume. At the beginning of this journey I thought that being fifty-one years old meant that I was over my prime and that I was unworthy of being hired for that next great career move. The thought “washed-up”, kept creeping into my thoughts. The mental battle to overcome my own negative opinion of myself was tough. When I finished, I realized I wouldn’t change a thing. The life lessons, job experience and expertise I had acquired over the years was what made me who I am. The lessons learned from this last year made me see that the world needs to be more a little more personal and a little less digital so… I decided to hire myself.

Since today’s USPS mailboxes are very under-utilized and most peoples and companies email inboxes are full and filtered, I wanted to help people figure out what I had spent the last year learning. My new business uses today’s digital technology and the combination of both traditional and digital marketing. We create business marketing tools that help bridge the impersonal digital gap.

Yup, that’s me, the creative fifty-something, female and happy!