How Long Should Your Resume Be?

This is a topic that is frequently asked by job seekers. The one page resume myth SHOULD be all but extinct by now, but unfortunately still lives on...

Nick Corcodilos ("Ask the Headhunter") just addressed this question in recent newsletter. (If you haven't signed up to receive it, do it! For those of you who don't know Nick, he spoke at the NRWA conference in Scottsdale a few years ago. He's generally positive about professional resume writers, but down on "resume mills.")

Here's what Nick said:

"My advice: Edit your resume to make it relevant to the employer, and make it as long as it needs to be. Make sure it's long enough so it reaches where it's supposed to go."

Nick Corcodilos Takes On the Ladders ... Again

I've seen a lot more commercials recently for The Ladders, and so I was intrigued when I was catching up on some old(er) e-mails this week and came across this column by Nick Corcodilos ("Ask the Headhunter") about The Ladders.

Resume writers will be especially interested in this comment:

At first TheLadders coaxed its market by contracting with independent professional resume writers to actually do the writing. But once this resume business was launched, TheLadders dumped its stable of professionals and started recruiting "writers" the same way it recruited customers -- indiscriminately. (I know: They tried to recruit me.) Soon I started getting stories from disgruntled resume clients complaining that TheLadders wouldn't let clients talk to the "resume writers" about their $900+ resumes. Then I heard from the resume writers TheLadders dumped. They claimed the operation shifted from professional staff to greenhorns.

Indeed, there was quite a bit of discussion a while back about resume writers who were contracted with The Ladders who suddenly lost their contracts (or had them scaled back).

Resume writers were also concerned about the boilerplate resume critiques being provided by The Ladders -- I wrote about this last June.

Corcodilos reports that the actions of The Ladders suggest they are gearing up to sell the company; whether that pans out is yet to be seen. But given the number of individuals that are contracted to write for The Ladders, it's something to keep an eye on.

A Cautionary Tale: Avoid the Hard Sell

The resume writers and career coaches I know are extremely ethical and reputable, but as our fees rise (as they should!) we have to be careful not to be lumped into the ranks with the Bernard Haldane firms of the world.

Prominently featured on Nick Corcodilos "Ask the Headhunter" website is the story of "Executive Career Counselors, Inc.", a fictionalized name for a real firm ... not a professional resume writing firm, mind you, but one of those firms that promises "access to the hidden job market."

I urge you to read it carefully -- and consider the promises we make to our clients. We are ethically bound not to overpromise -- and we must ensure that they take an active role in their own job search, lest they spread the word about you and your firm.

"Mr. CFO" is complicit in his own misfortune too -- he claims he knew better than to "spam" HR personnel, but admits he sent out over 6,000 resumes through his affiliation with "ECC." They did have some useful ideas for him -- joining professional associations and attending industry conferences -- but he was reluctant to throw good money after bad. He'd spend $10,000 on the EEC services, but not $1,200 to get face-to-face with peers in his industry who know of job openings (by attending conferences).

These types of individuals are ripe for being sucked into scams -- they would rather spend money than their time -- but they are also the first to blame you when "the resume" doesn't get them the job. (Nevermind that, like Mr. CFO, they change the resume.)

It's a cautionary tale -- not just for job searchers but for the careers industry. We are lumped in with these firms and the myth is perpetuated that anyone who you pay to help you with your job search is out to rip you off.

Even when the company name is fictionalized, stories like this give us all a bad name.

More on Acute Spousal Interference

Nick Corcodilos ("Ask the Headhunter") quoted me on his Infoworld blog following up to his original article on Acute Spousal Interference (without mentioning me by name)...

As a professional resume writer, I see this a couple of times a year. Usually it starts with a wife who calls to find out about having a resume prepared for her husband. When she launches into a litany of, "He's not making enough at his current job and he's under-appreciated and he needs a new job," that's when I usually stop her and gently tell her that the process works best when I can work with the client who is going to be using the new resume. I ask her to have her husband call me. Nine times out of ten, he doesn't call. Whether that means that he likes his job (even though it doesn't pay "enough" for her) or if he just doesn't have the initiative, I don't usually find out for sure.

Whoo-wee. I think we touched a nerve. I'm not sure whether I worry more about the interfering spouse, or the job candidate who lets it happen. I'm not worried about the employers at all -- not one wrote to say they hired either half of such a team.

"Acute Spousal Interference"

Nick Corcodilos, in a recent Ask the Headhunter weekly e-mail, wrote an interesting article the other day that most professional resume writers can relate to. He wrote about the concept of "Acute Spousal Interference" -- the tendency of spouses to become overly involved in their spouse's job search.

Most professional resume writer recognize this type of individual. She's the wife that is calling for her husband -- not because he works the overnight shift, but because "he needs to take control of his career. He's underappreciated and underpaid."

While that may be true, you're going to get sucked into a quagmire if you don't nip the spousal interference in the bud up front. Otherwise, you'll likely find yourself working with a reticent husband while the wife tries to be the "client." And unless she's going on the job interviews too, that's a recipe for disaster. Wait a minute -- if she went on the interview too, that's even worse.

So what can you do? Take charge. Tell the wife that you really need to speak with her husband. You can provide general information about how the process works and pricing, but you need to speak with him directly to fully gauge what services are appropriate. Don't be put off by her comments, such as "He's too busy to talk to you, so he asked me to call" or "I can tell you anything you need to know." Just reinforce the need to speak to him directly, at his convenience. You might also make the point that "a job search requires an investment in time to be successful." If he doesn't have time to talk to you, will he make the time to do the things required to find a new job?

We all need clients, but we don't need all clients.

Ask the Headhunter®

I always enjoy the musings of Nick Corcodilos, author of "Ask The Headhunter." Here is more information about his approach to the career search.

1. The best way to find a good job opportunity is to go hang out with people who do the work you want to do -- people who are very good at it. Insiders are the first to know about good opportunities, but they only tell other insiders. To get into a circle of people, you must earn your way. It takes time. You can't fake it, and that's good, because who wants to promote mediocrity?

2. The best way to get a job interview is to be referred by someone the manager trusts. Between 40-70% of jobs are filled that way. Yet people and employers fail to capitalize on this simple employment channel. They pretend there's some better system. That's bunk. If companies took more of the dollars they waste on Monster and CareerBuilder and spent them to cultivate personal contacts, they'd fill more jobs faster with better people. When a respected peer puts his good name on the line to recommend you, there is nothing more powerful.

3. The best way to do well in an interview is to walk in and demonstrate to the manager how you will do the job profitably for him and for you. Everything else is stuff and nonsense.

What's the main difference compared to the traditional approach? That's simple, too. The traditional approach is "shotgun". You carpet-bomb companies with your resume and wait to hear from someone you don't know who doesn't know you. Lotsa luck. ATH regulars know that I never wish anyone luck, because I don't believe in it. I believe in doing the work required to succeed. ATH is a "rifle" approach. You must carefully select and target the companies and jobs you want. It takes a lot of work and thought to accomplish the simple task in item (3). There are no short-cuts. No one can do it for you. If you aren't prepared to do that, you have no business applying for the job, and the manager would be a fool to hire you.

I'll leave you with a scenario that illustrates why the traditional methods don't work well. You walk up to a manager. You hand him your resume. You hand him your credentials, your experience, and your accomplishments -- your carefully crafted "marketing piece". Now, what are you really saying to that manager? "Here. Read this. Then you go figure out what the heck to do with me."

You know as well as I do what the odds are that a manager will bother.

The job candidate who uses the Ask The Headhunter approach keeps the resume in her pocket and says to the manager, "Let me show you what I'm going to do to make your business more profitable."

That's who you're competing with, whether she learned this approach from me or whether it's just her common sense. The beauty of this approach is, few people will step up to the plate.

-- Excerpted from the Ask the Headhunter newsletter.
http://www.asktheheadhunter.com