Longtime Manager Revamps Job Search

(CBS)  For the past year-and-a-half, Jack Iannaccone's "job" has been looking for a job.

He worked for a pharmaceutical company for more than two decades, and was living the American dream, a manager making a six-figure salary.

Now, says consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen in Part Two of the series, "Early Show Job Squad," every day is a struggle to find a new job, in a market that's one of the worst since the Great Depression.

The last time Jack passed out his resume, Ronald Reagan was president, "Bette Davis Eyes" was song of the year, and Jack's wife, Jennifer, was just about to give birth to their oldest son.

Things have changed since then: Jack's oldest is now a fighter pilot, and his younger two children are living at home.

The company Jack helped grow started sending its work overseas, and Jack fell victim to downsizing.

"You realize," he says, "that all the stuff that kept you busy every day was all of a sudden no longer required, apparently."

At first, Jack was hopeful about a new job. But weeks turned into months. His severance came to an end. His savings started to dwindle.

Jennifer is now working two jobs, and they feared having to sell their home.

"The children worry," Jack observed. "I mean, they're concerned. They don't show it too often, but I can see it in their eyes."

"We've have gotten through tough times before and we will get through this," Jennifer says, encouragingly. "I tease him and say, 'I will get a third job if I have to.' I don't want to --- or we will find a smaller house. He'll find a job."

To help Jack on his mission, The Early Show sent in our "Job Squad" -- three professionals to help Jack get back on track:

Lisa Panarello, a career coach

Nick Nicolette, a financial planner

And Lisa Johnson, an image consultant

First task? Redo that resume!

Lisa updated Jack's resume by maximizing his experience with bullet points right at the top. And, by eliminating some dates, she minimized his age.

"For Jack and those who are senior," Lisa explained, "we want to reduce the age discrimination factor. We will take much of his experience for the past 10 to 15 years and then, anything beyond that, you create a whole new section and call it 'previous experience' or 'additional experience,' and then you can take off the years."

And, in the age of Internet searches and job-seeking Web sites, Lisa added keywords to the bottom of Jack's resume, terms such as "operations director" and "quality assurance."

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[lynxes]

I have to comment otherwise I will not respect myself in the morning. I am sorry this man has lost his career, yet he had a SIX-FIGURE income. I am sure he is not hurting for money. CBS`S job squad, how about helping a family with 30k or less a yr. finding a job.
Iam not talking about myself, I am 43 and unemployed for the last five months. I am talking about the people with a family...children who have to suffer. Please do not forget about the hard working people. Thank you.

[ramos1129]

I own and operate a small business. Jack's resume has one very fatal flaw. It has no way to contact him; no phone number, no fax number; no e mail address. Other than that, it is a great resume. I know because I downloaded it and read it. I even tried using Linkedin to try to reach him. NADA.