RESUMES: MAKE EVERY PAGE COUNT!

I dedicate this advice to all my girls at The Ohio State University who are preparing to take Corporate America by storm after graduation. Listen up! OMGosh - I keep hearing that my grandmother’s generation is still screaming at all of you about the ONE PAGE RESUME! I say, “Leave my girls alone!”

I have been on the recruiting front lines hauling in billions of dollars worth of talent for global market leaders for the last 25 years, so let me state unequivocally that I have NEVER EVER rejected a high caliber employment candidate because his/her resume exceeded ONE PAGE! If I had, most of the executives I worked for would have fired me for not operating out-of-the-box on behalf of our great service-oriented company & you - our valued employment candidate, client and potential future customer!

Your background gets only one shot at making a first impression, so focus on QUALITY when creating a resume; not QUANTITY! Do not listen to the Armchair Resume Experts because every single day terrific employment candidates - like you - fail to transfer critical knowledge & information to all the mysterious gatekeepers guarding the world’s corporate jobs opportunities.

IMPORTANT TIP OF THE DAY: Recruiters – who respect candidates - will call you if the CONTENT in that marketing document - called your resume – compliments the job specifications for an open position they are working on! You must succeed at delivering good, interesting and reliable CONTENT that inspires someone to talk to you! Think about it: To promote your candidacy, you have to do a good job of capturing your varied experiences, skills and competencies!

Okay – one page makes perfect sense when you have little or no work and/or life experience; limited skills; and no activities, clubs, community service or external efforts that highlight times you leveraged your varied talents to reach hard-fought goals.

Think about this important issue like this: Recruiters – who everyone thinks own the shovels in all those corporate black holes - need enough information to assess your background against required skills tied to our open positions. When data highlighting the business/functional areas & industries you have operated in and/or when domain expertise is missing, it makes it very difficult for others to identify the business benefit you delivered at those companies you were accountable to.

In closing, what I know is that too many wonderful employment candidates – like you - never get to a hiring decision-maker because too much of your effort was focused on the number of RESUME PAGES, when the secret has always been in the QUALITY OF THE CONTENT!

Make time to review that resume if it hasn't been doing "it" for you! -Good luck!

Best regards,
Tish