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In The news
DMNews: The One
Page Resume Myth
May 20, 2004
By: Wendy Weber -- Crandall Associates Inc.
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| The
One-Page Resume Myth |
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May 20, 2004
By: Wendy Weber
Crandall Associates Inc.
wendy@crandallassociates |
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You
can drown it. You can shoot it. You can stab
and wound it severely, but it won’t
die. You can expose it as a fraud, but people
will buy it anyway. And there is nothing you
can do to make it disappear.
We’re talking
about the myth of the one-page resume.
Believers
of the myth have shown contorted creativity.
Some resumes come with half-inch margins or
less, some expand to legal size paper and
others appear with smaller type & and
less space between the lines.
They are cute
solutions, but they don’t win any brass
rings.
Just who perpetuates this myth? They’re
the authors of books, writers for consumer
magazines, well-meaning resume experts and
others who have rarely -- or should I say
never -- hired anyone.
Perhaps in other disciplines,
the one-page resume is demanded or has intrinsic
value. I doubt it, but I really can’t
talk about other disciplines. As the president
of an executive recruitment firm that has
conducted searches only in direct marketing
for 31 years, I can pontifically pronounce
this: Bury the myth & and pour two feet
of concrete over it.
This horrendous myth
will result in many lost opportunities.
When
we, as recruiters, call to explore an opportunity
with potential candidates, and we ask them
to prepare a resume for our interview and
our clients, the question invariably arises:
How long should it be?
The answer is simple:
as long as it takes, as long as you remember
that it’s a resume and not a biography.
Your resume is not intended to be comprehensive,
detailed history, but a summary of your experience,
qualifications and accomplishments. Always
remember that the employer first reviews the
resume for critical words or knowledge.
When
you think of all the elements that should
go into a resume, it’s incredible that
it can be done in two pages, or even three.
But it can be done, and done well.
And in
direct marketing, a discipline that respects
quantification, a resume can be worthless
without numbers and percent increases when
listing your accomplishments.
Since we talk
of quantification, let’s quantify this
article. Based on our most recent 100 recruitments,
here are the figures:
… 18 percent of the
candidates we recruited had one-page resumes.
Generally, their careers were limited to one
company and showed progressive positions.
In most cases, these people were recruited
for lower management positions.
… 59 percent
of those hired had two-page resumes and were
focused in middle management.
… 23 percent
of the candidates who were hired through our
searches had three-page resumes, or even four.
These professionals with longer resumes generally
had longer careers that required a greater
degree of amplification.
But no matter what
the length, put it on the resume if it’s
important.
More
opportunities have been lost because of what
was left out of a resume than what was put
in. It’s a situation that we, as executive
recruiters, try to advise our candidates to
remedy before the candidate loses and the
myth wins again. |
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| Wendy Weber is president
of Crandall Associates Inc., a national executive
recruitment firm specializing in all facets
of direct marketing. She also sits on the
boards of both FIT’s Direct Marketing
Advisory Board and the Direct Marketing Association
of Long Island as well as being a frequent
contributor to the direct marketing trade
press. She can be reached at 516/767-6800
or wendy@crandallassociates. |
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