When I was in my early 40s, I got an opportunity to work at the Dayton Daily News as an artist in Newspapers in Education. This typically was staffed by some 20-something fresh out of art school who didn’t get paid all that much. But I really, really wanted to work at a newspaper at some point in my life and this was my chance. My other option was to go to J-school. They didn’t think I was a fit because of my résumé. I had things on there like VP-Human Resources, Training Director, Regional Manager, etc., but I had also sold exercise bikes to paralyzed people (true!) so these folks could not match me for salesmanship. Long story short, I got that job. It paid crap, but I was working at a newspaper!

I spent about 20% of my time there actually doing the job they hired me for.. (apparently the 20-somethings needed 40+ hours a week to do what I could do in 10) and spent the rest of my time learning journalism and everything about writing and designing for a newspaper. (I could also afford to take a pay cut because I had silent partnerships in several companies…) When 9/11 happened, I was the only one in the entire building who knew how to write AP Style, copyedit, color-correct photos and tag HTML. The PUBLISHER came down to the NIE floor and asked if I could staff the website desk for the day. (I had no idea he even knew who I was!) I promised the DDN 2 years and gave them 4 1/2.

It was an incredible experience that I never would have had if I had not remained curious about a whole range of skills and interests. My jumping-off base was an English degree, Linguistics minor and a few post-baccalaureate classes in Education. (I’ll get that Masters eventually when life slows down enough.) I also had some practical skills with design, software, type and video editing I picked up along the way in various positions.

I think it is easy to get caught up in the age issue, but if you are a really talented designer who is also an accomplished salesman for yourself, once you start talking, most people will forget how old you are. (How many people see John McWade as an old geezer? Exactly!) Stay curious, stay skilled at whatever is happening today but also on the next thing coming up. I’m not sure why, but most people quit learning in their mid to late 20s. Use that knowledge to your advantage.

And quit repairing typewriters. :-) http://gerardmclean.com/repairing-typewriters.html

Sometimes you have to get past the machines — and machine-reading advocates — before you can get to the people you’ll actually be working with. How about seeing a resume as a chance to show your skill and originality while adhering to strictest simplicity — like, purely through typography? It’s a nice challenge, and you won’t scare off the non-designers but will still appeal to the designers. You can save your (highly readable and function-appropriate, of course) super-designed resume for people you know will appreciate it.

Some people insist on Word resumes, others on PDFs (though I think most machine-readers can handle PDFs now). For Word, I’d have one that was strictly linear, no columns or boxes or paragraph spacing or bold/itals, to ensure that it will at least look neat when read on another computer or filtered through a text editor.

Thanks for the inspiration! This kind of wisdom/inspiration only comes with age and experience:

“What do you know about yourself at 50 (or 60) that you didn’t know at 30? How does it apply to design, and specifically to job A, B, or C?

Go for that.”