Archive for the ‘Executive Resumes’ Category
Resume Writing Tips for Executive Resumes: Tip #1 Length of Resume
How many pages are appropriate for Executive Résumés?
The one-page synopsis is a thing of the past. And now that I’ve said this, all you employers please put your teeth back in, take a valium and read on.
First of all, length is really irrelevant compared to content in executive resumes. Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager for a moment and I’ll explain why. The hiring authority must sift through dozens, or even hundreds, of executive résumés to choose a first list of candidates who MIGHT be qualified. Give him a break! And not by giving fewer words, but more meat. When you synopsize, you run these risks:
1. You assume the reader will read between the lines and come up with the correct evaluation of what it is you can do, or will do. As a recruiter, I get very frustrated with this. I can’t tell whether you are lazy, modest, or have no idea why anyone would want to hire you.
2. You assume the reader knows the size and structure, the product or service and the marketplace of your current employer.
3. You assume the reader will be impressed by your title(s) and know where you fit in the hierarchy of responsibility in your corporate structure.
4. You assume that using vague business platitudes on an executive resume will “sort of cover every possible job opening” and therefore, not limit your chances.
5. You assume the reader is in the business of using his own time and imagination to try to figure out what your potential could be within his company, in other words, what his company could do for you to help your career growth.
When you make these assumptions, you are putting the responsibility [of translating your executive resume content] onto the hiring manager. Your chances of being chosen for an interview are only 50 – 50, because the reader can only relate to your verbiage from his own experience in the business world, and his own pre-conceived ideas about certain companies, titles and résumés AND his own time table for filling this position. Don’t limit your job search chances by vagueness. TAKE CONTROL. BE SPECIFIC. Don’t make more work for a hiring manager than he already has. The only “limiting” this will do is limiting the amount of time wasted by you and the interviewer. Remember that executive resumes are a tool to obtain face-to-face job interviews.
Appropriate Length for Executive Resumes:
Unless you have only 1 or 2 short jobs to relate, executive résumés can easily be 2 pages without being overkill. The longest executive résumé I have seen without any fluff is 8 pages. Of course, this included 3 addendum pages of appropriate publications, languages, and key business relationships, and was a paper customized for a Marketing position that called for detailed technical writing skills.
The point here is that if you write a very full, factual, chronological résumé you should be covered. A skimmer-type of hiring manager should be able to skim and see the important facts jump out. A detail person will be able to glean the answer to all his basic questions and also get a good sense of you as a person.
Don’t be shy. Executive resumes need details. Not only will a hiring manager “get you” on the first skim, but the online ATS (applicant tracking systems) will find all those keywords and phrases that will catapult you to the top of the pile of executive resumes.
Incoming search terms for the article:
Video Job Interview Data is Crucial Addition to Keyword Search for Candidate Screening
Traditional screening technology has created some obstacles for the Job Seeker that the video job interview just might relieve. Currently candidates with an electronic resume can shoot it off to an electronic job description with an electronic screening set of rules and take their chances that they included the right KEYWORDS.
Job Seekers also gamble that the human who is looking through the “screened” resumes will understand all the jobs on the resume and what that experience could mean to a new employer.
For the infrastructure employee, or those who will perform specific repeatable tasks, this is not a bad way to save time in screening. But a search for anyone who can think outside the box, bring new and interesting solutions to old problems, create new revenue streams by discovering new channels, cut product development time by 50% by revamping the architecture, or structure inventive alliance partnerships to get around old commerce rules… this KEYWORD recognition thing just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Employers are still struggling to find and hire the right candidates… and have been doing so for the past 20+ years.
Let’s look at the real problems in the market. Employers are still struggling to find and hire the right candidates… and have been doing so for the past 20+ years. “No keyword searching tool has solved the iterative process that is inherent in a thorough due diligence process.” A partial answer to this problem that has huge value could be the video job interview.
Whereas Keyword searching provides a good “first pass” at a stack of 200 applicants by narrowing the pool according to “the 3 S’s”:
- Skills (which keyword skills are on the resume, e.g. C++, sales, project management)
- School (which college, degree, and date of graduation)
- Status (employed, unemployed, recently laid off, re-entering the workforce)
…the Video Job Interview can provide tremendous value-add in “the 3 C’s” to a recruiter or hiring manager.
- Composure/Poise
- Communication Skills
- Corporate Culture Match
Granted, the traditional first in-person interview would provide these 3 C’s, but at what cost? Business moves too fast in today’s world to wait days to reach a candidate, and to coordinate the interview team’s schedules for that first meet — or even for that first video job interview conference. And how many times has a candidate been brought in for a day’s worth of team interviews, only to find in the first 10 minutes of the day that the 3 C’s are lacking
There really is a 4th “C” on this list: Convenience.
There really is a 4th “C” on this list: Convenience. Schedules don’t always match up nicely in order to coordinate an in-person interview, or even a Live Video Job Interview. A stored “on-demand” video interview that can be viewed at any time along with the other due diligence (resume, endorsements, etc) can save weeks of time, particularly for executives who travel often.
The convenience afforded to all interview team members by offering a stored video job interview for screening at any time, day or night, (and repeated visits to the same video job interview) offers the freedom of screening at a time when the team member can focus and concentrate on all the factors that may affect a critical quality hire — especially for the executive job interview. Imagine being able to choose “finalist candidates” in a matter of 2 weeks instead of 3 months. And calculate the savings:
- Fewer airline tickets for candidates
- Fewer hotel rooms for interview travel
- Fewer workday hours spent on first interviews by productive team members
- Fewer hours spent on phone screens by recruiting staff
In the spirit of progressive technology solving difficult problems, the video job interview has lots going for it, provided it’s done correctly.
Stay tuned for the next blog installment on this subject…
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