What Does a Good Resume Look Like for Disabled Job Seekers?
The above picture is of a woman sitting at a work desk reading a resume with her laptop open.
What Does a Good Resume Look Like for Disabled Job Seekers?
The unemployment rate for disabled workers is twice that of non-disabled workers. Disabled workers face more barriers than non-disabled workers, from SSDI income limitations to a lack of accommodations in the workplace.
Unfortunately, disabled workers can also have a harder time putting together a resume that strikes employer interest. Things like resume gaps can cause employers to overlook perfectly qualified candidates.
What does a good resume look like for disabled workers? How can you put all your skills and experience on display regardless of gaps?
Read on as we share our top tips for crafting a great resume as a disabled worker.
Formatting Your Resume
According to recruiters, how you present the information on your resume matters just as much as the information itself. To make your resume easy to read, try using these tips:
- Break up dense paragraphs into bullet points
- Use the left-hand column for headers, contact information, or skills
- Keep your resume at a length of one to two pages
- Stick with common, readable fonts like Calibri or Arial
Put each section of your resume in reverse chronological order. This allows recruiters to find your most recent work and educational experience first, which is often what interests them most.
Hitting All the Resume Essentials
No matter how long you've been in the workforce or what your educational background is, there are certain elements that belong on every resume. Let's take a look at the must-have sections to include in your resume.
Contact Information
At the top of your resume, whether centered or aligned on the left-hand side, you need to include your contact information. This includes your full name, phone number, professional email address, and physical address. If you have a website or a LinkedIn profile you'd like recruiters to visit, this is the place to include the hyperlinked URL.
Professional Summary
The professional summary is a short, two to three sentence paragraph that gives recruiters the highlights of your experience. For seasoned workers, this is the place to reveal your years of experience, your biggest career highlights, and your most important skills. For recent grads and workers changing career paths, this is an opportunity to summarize what role you're hoping to secure and why.
Work Experience
For each role you've held that you're including on your resume, make sure to start with your job title, the company name, and how much time you spent in that position. Then, outline the responsibilities you had, what you achieved, and what skills you mastered. If explaining everything would cause your resume to exceed two pages, stick with the information most relevant to the kind of job you're pursuing.
Educational Experience
After work experience, include a section on educational experience, formatted in a similar manner. Start with the name of the institution, the degree you earned, and the years you were in school. If you have more educational experience than work experience, you can highlight any honors you earned, major projects or publications, and (sparingly) relevant coursework.
Skills and Certifications
The final section that is an absolute must-have is your skills section. You can include a bullet-point list of skills below your professional summary and above your work experience. If you want to go in-depth with certain hard skills or certificates, you may want to bump this section to the end.
Highlighting Hard and Soft Skills
Many disabled workers have significant resume gaps or haven't broken into their careers as quickly as they'd like. You may not have a long list of work experience, but that doesn't mean that you don't have the skills needed to get a job.
Hard skills are industry-specific skills that require training or hands-on experience. This can include things like proficiency with the Adobe or Microsoft Suite, CPR certification, or Google certifications.
Soft skills are the less tangible qualities that contribute to your performance in the workplace. This can include things like communication skills, strong time management, and creativity.
Make sure to share any relevant skills even if they weren't acquired through work. If you have the space, don't hesitate to add optional sections to your resume, like languages spoken, volunteer work, awards, and extracurriculars.
Explaining Resume Gaps
Resume gaps are any periods of time in your adult life when you weren't working or in school. Interviewers are almost always going to ask questions about resume gaps. If a job is highly competitive or an employer uses resume scanning technology, unexplained resume gaps may even cost you an interview.
One option is to address resume gaps on your resume. To do so, you can list the dates and use language like, "Illness and Recovery," or, "Injury and Recovery."
In your brief explanation of a resume gap, include anything you did during that time to help with your career path. For example, if you completed online certifications during your recovery, mention it.
How to Talk About Your Disability With Employers
We generally don't recommend putting your disability on your resume. Even in explaining your resume gap, you don't need to disclose what your disability is.
If you will need accommodations to do a job, we do recommend bringing it up in your interview. You may need to bring it up when your interview is scheduled if you need accommodations for the interview itself.
Remember, reasonable accommodations are not special treatment. They're modifications that allow you to perform the tasks associated with your job. While you don't want a potential employer to define you by your disability, it is your right to request reasonable accommodations.
What Does a Good Resume Look Like? We Can Help
Navigating work opportunities as a disabled person comes with unique challenges. What does a good resume look like? While there are certain formatting expectations every resume should meet, a good resume is one that highlights your unique skills and experience.
We work hard to provide employment resources that meet the needs of disabled workers. One of our most-used tools is our free resume builder, which allows users to easily create a professional resume with ease. Get started on your resume today.