By: J M Auron
One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is “How long should my resume be?” This question can be particularly challenging for the senior executive. The need to balance completeness with readability is crucial to accurately portray a distinguished leadership career, and to make you stand out from a crowded field of candidates.
While there are no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answers for executive resumes, five points are crucial. An executive resume needs to 1) tell a story, 2) be readable, 3) be concise, 4) be complete, and 5) be conservative. Achieving these goals may be challenging, but the results are well worth the effort.
Let me give more detail on each of these five points.
1) Tell a STORY. This may seem counter-intuitive; resumes are often perceived as dry, “just the facts, ma’am,’ documents. Although that was true in the past, it is much less so currently. An executive resume needs a clear trajectory of where you’ve been and where you’re going; that trajectory needs to be unique to your career.
Make certain that most recent positions have the greatest weight. Great achievements a decade ago, with little discussed since, can hurt your chances of winning the first interview. There are as many approaches to telling your story as there are successful careers, but every executive resume should have strong, quantifiable achievements, and adequate ‘backstory’ to explain those achievements.
2) Make your resume READABLE. This is as much a matter of formatting as of content. Better to have a longer resume with a good clear font and adequate whitespace, than a cramped two page in Arial 8.5.
Make your resume clear, approachable, attractive, and easy to read through, with clear differentiations between company names, job titles, duties, and accomplishments. After all, recruiters and hiring managers have enough on their plates without fighting eyestrain. If a resume is too difficult to read, it may simply be moved to the bottom of the pile.
3) Keep your resume CONCISE. Include all crucial data, but don’t overwrite. I realize that this is challenging, and leads to the question “How much is enough?” Professional resume writers work with that question every day, and there is no one answer for every career.
A general guideline, however, is to write your resume in tight language, with no wasted words, no unnecessary digressions. Keep the resume clear and succinct. Use strong, active language that will capture and keep a hiring authority’s interest.
4) Be COMPLETE. Don’t worry about trying to jam an accomplished ten year career into just two pages because that’s a ‘rule,’ that rule went out with the end of the last century, if not before. No hiring authority will ignore a strongly written, well-presented resume simply because it’s a page longer.
Don’t do HALF pages. Whatever the length of your resume, it’s best to have clean, full pages. Half pages look unfinished, and give the impression of being less that professional. Tweaking margin and font sizes is often sufficient to bring the resume to good, full pages.
5) Be CONSERVATIVE. Executives are judged on accomplishments and track record. So be careful to avoid any information or visuals that may detract from that record. Avoid flashy formatting. A few tasteful underlines/borders work well.
But too much formatting visually overwhelms the reader. Also, I only include personal interests or accomplishments if those interests are exceptional. If a candidate has won a triathlon, I’m more likely to include that detail than if the candidate is a weekend golfer.
So keep your resume readable. Include everything important in your career. And don’t worry about fitting everything into two pages.
Don’t omit vital information and accomplishments. It’s crucial that all accomplishments are clearly presented, particularly in today’s challenging marketplace.
Content, not length is paramount. You really DON’T have a second chance to make a good first impression, and your resume is your best first impression, your calling card to a recruiter or company.
Be as thorough as necessary, but don’t overwrite. Be certain that every word has a purpose, and every accomplishment/detail tells a clear story of career progression.
That ‘story’ of success and increasing responsibility is one of the primary things a recruiter wants to see. Even in the best of times, recruiters are swamped with resumes for every position; when I was a recruiter, we’d see, on average, several hundred for every job we were working on.
Things are much more competitive now, with the number of qualified candidates skyrocketing. So make the resume stand out with strong writing, and solid accomplishments, to enhance your chances of winning that interview.
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J.M. Auron is a published executive resume writer and former recruiter who partners with leadership professionals to gain access to top jobs among Fortune-ranked corporations. For more information, visit Auron Career Services.
Article Source: Article Maniac
