Posted under Branding, Career Management, Resumes on April 28th, 2008
Thanks to Louise Fletcher for her recent blog echoing a frustration I sometimes have with clients editing resumes I’ve written for them. She calls it “worditis” when job seekers insist on including every defining moment in their careers, from the time they entered the workforce.
Some executives come to me believing their resumes need to be complete career bios, especially if they haven’t been in the job market for several years and/or haven’t been in on reviewing resumes for new talent recruitment. I educate my clients in the early stages of our partnership about branding and differentiating them in their resumes, and have them view samples of my work to gain an understanding of what top interview-generating resumes look like today and what they can expect in their resumes.
Even so, when presented with the final product, some find it hard to let go of all the details encompassing their career history and concentrate on only the most salient points that will drive home their value. It can be painful for them to choose some contributions to set aside, although I reassure them their career story can be supplemented through supporting documents and in interviewing.
This dilemma presents itself only occasionally, but when it does, it can be a challenge to convince some job seekers that less really is more. Along with determining what information is the most important and compelling to include, part of my job as a resume writer is to package it all in a document that will actually be read. A resume needs to provide just enough information to capture and hold the reader’s attention. That can be accomplished in 2 pages. Too much information can turn the reader off and land their resume in the “maybe later” pile.
It makes sense that, with so many hiring decision-makers reviewing career marketing documents on Blackberries, possibly while they’re on the go, resumes offering concise, hard-hitting bites that are easy to get to will be better received than those packed tight with dense paragraphs. These “new” resumes make their jobs easier and can truly help the job seeker hit the mark and land faster.
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