Do not use Microsoft Templates to ensure that your resume stands out from the crowd and be sure to research the job before applying for it and this way you will be able to create a customized resume which is cognizant to the needs of the job and hence ensure at least a interview.

Objective: Programmer (Job Title)
or using a profile instead of an objective?

Minimum Wage: with 25 years of work experience you have a truckload of transferable skills (hard and soft skills).

There’s a line from the Tao Te Ching: “good speaking leaves nothing to pick at”, however, the fact that everyone is picking at the same thing (chaired committees and objective) gives me the impression that what you’ve written is very good. So good that “we” only want to “fix” two things to make it perfect. So congrats! :)

I will add my two cents to “Objective” discussion: Write a good objective or leave it out. If you don’t think that you can write a good one, leave it out. I like mine, it’s brief, it’s distinct, it says that I’m here and I’m going there. The same things go for personal interests.

My interests include Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour Competitor. This isn’t small potatoes, this is big money, I got a free flight to Geneva! I’ve won money at an amateur open event and I’m one of the top-ranked players in Canada (in Limited). In a brain field, this is a relevant hobby.

Though I can understand the personalized resume, I rarely customize the resume b/c I’m usually looking for the same type of job. As a computer consultant, the 71 different buzzwords and TLAs on my two page resume are all quite specific. I usually just spend extra time (1+ hours) to customize the cover letter.

Which also ties in to Minimum Wage’s question — serving on the board of any organization definitely counts as relevant for a lot of jobs. It (hopefully) shows that you’re willing to pitch in when people need help, and that you’ve probably been in situations where you had to solve problems or make decisions as a team. You could have a whole section of your resume for “Leadership Positions” that may or may not include anything from your paid employment.

However, if you can do two different blurbs, having it at the top of your resume will 1 – reinforce the idea, and 2 – show your employer that you didn’t just copy and paste a blurb from the web, because you were able to organize your skills in two different ways. I think its a great idea to replace the mission statement with a pitch.

Good stuff!

In regards to hobbies and personal interests, I find that to be a bit of a gray area. Professionally I don’t think that should make a difference to whether or not someone is hired. Their life outside of the job is their own business. On the flip side you want to hire someone that fits with your team and common interests can be an easy way to have a conversation and find out a bit about someone’s personality.

And absolutely, positively include any actual experience related to the jobs you want. Just because you didn’t get paid, doesn’t mean it’s not work experience. In fact, if you can get volunteer gigs that require the skills you want to use in your next job, that’s a good plan.

Did you accomplish anything impressive on these boards? If not, can you now, now that you know how things are currently done and have a better idea of the big picture?

Another approach is to get an entry-level job in a company that also hires people for the kind of job you want. I’ve even heard of people crossing the invisible barriers–I know an assembly line worker who got a job as an engineer in the same firm just by speaking up at a meeting once (in addition to doing awesome work).

Another approach is to join the professional associations that people who have the job you want next belong to and do committee work so that you can meet people and get good advice on what to do next.