Yesterday Ari Herzog sent me a link and asked if this one page resume advice was contrary to my thinking. The link he sent was this one by Alison Doyle. I respect Alison as one of the people in the career industry who is thoughtful and gives accurate advice. I read through the article which begins:

Should your resume be longer than one page or should you try to condense it to keep it on a page? There isn’t a yes or no answer, the length of your resume depends on the type of candidate you are and your level of experience.

I agree with that advice. It doesn’t recommend a one page resume for everyone. But then Alison shares data from Saddleback College Survey which says in part:

According to a Saddleback College Resume Survey most employers want a one page resume unless the position requires experience. In fact, the percentage of employers looking for one page resumes increased to 48% last year, up from 35% in 2010.

Note the UNLESS and understand this is one survey done in Orange County, California. There are things in that survey I agree with too. But there are things that I don’t think are a national trend. Like this:

Nearly 30% of employers would prefer a 2-sided printed resume over a 2-page resume to conserve paper.

Now that contradicts most employers I know. So many resumes are read online or submitted via applicant tracking systems that I think it is a mute point. Saving paper is a nice idea but I think there are many other ways to do that. The resume isn’t one of them.

Misconceptions about resume writing are everywhere

The one page resume is one of the misconceptions. People get so focused on this one-page resume idea that they don’t put anything of value into the resume just so they can keep it on one page.

I think employers who believe in one-page resumes need to rethink their goal with the resume. You want candidates who can do the job. You want them to be succinct in their ability to communicate but you need them to tell you what they can do. Here’s another point from that Saddleback survey that I do agree with:

Mentioning where they worked (and years of service) but providing no information on what they accomplished. Projects completed. The overall details of their work.

The title of that page was the #1 resume mistake. Give job seekers a break. Let’s tell them loud and clear that to be hired or even considered for an interview, they need to provide value to the employer. Examples of your accomplishments are much better than a boring list of duties neatly set to fit on a one page resume.

Ari asked what my recommendations are and this is it: At Design Resumes, the resume is a marketing document that promotes you as the product to the employer. Proof is always in whether job seekers are hired. I can tell you success story after success story of my clients. They make me so proud. My clients (including students) have gone up against the worst economy in 80 years and found positions that they love by using 2 page resumes filled with value and accomplishments and implementing networking strategies to make sure their resume is read.

This from a student client from Wausau who graduated from the University of Minnesota with Bachelor of Chemical Engineering – Biomolecular Engineering Concentration, 2011, moved to California and used his value-filled two page resume:

243k jobs added? Make that +1. Started my new job at Medtronic today!!

What do I think? Write a resume that shows your value and you will be hired. Let’s give them some meat (think value and accomplishments) to read!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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But that overwhelming, repetitive message of “buy this” or “go here to… fill in the blank (lose weight, make fast money, become beautiful…)” makes me block and report. I don’t want you in my stream.

Are you doing this in your job search?

Have you passed the point of using common sense and reaching out to become a pest? Do you really think this is going to work?

Everyone I know hates telemarketers. Yet businesses employ them. Why? Because once in awhile they find a lonely person or a vulnerable person who bites. Blasting the same message on social media, calling the HR department every day, or sending email after email will not get you results.

Change up the game

Start building relationships. One step at a time. You would be surprised how being positive, being helpful, and being kind makes you the person people want to connect with.

Go ahead and ask for a connection but then don’t blast people with unwanted messages. Build communication. Think about talking to your neighbor over the fence or when shoveling snow. Or the person you ride on the train with every day. Open the door to a kind conversation but don’t turn it into a steady stream of pushing your needs on them.

You will find that using this strategy does build the network you desire and may end up giving you the connection to your next gig.

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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But then, who am I? Julie Walraven, yes, I may be the owner of Design Resumes, a professional resume writer, and even a CPRW, but really, should I go up against the Wall Street Journal? The Wall Street Journal should be right, yes?

Should we dismiss the time-tested resume?

No! And happily I followed a tweet by Jorgen Sundberg,  Undercover Recruiter to this post by John Hollon, the Vice President for Editorial of TLNT.com, and the former Editor of Workforce Management. His post is entitled: Weekly Wrap: Why Are We So Quick to Dismiss the Good, Old Résumé?

Mr. Hollon points out that the “some firms say” is really a study of 3 firms… Yes, I said 3. Yup, I really believe an information that bases the opinion on three firms instead of in-depth research with reliable results. This article is so good that I recommend you do read it later but I want to share my favorite part:

Ok, I get that traditional résumés are old school — boring, old technology, one directional, often poorly done — but they haven’t lasted as long as they have by accident. They work, even in our technology crazy times, because of one simple thing: they allow a hiring manager or recruiter to get a quick, brief snapshot of an applicant.

Why résumés still work

It may not be the best view they get, but it is one they can get quickly and easily with little muss or fuss. Give me an hour and a two-foot pile of résumés, and I’ll give you the Top 5 or 10 candidates in that stack. Yes, I still want to see their social media presence, but I can thumb through and scan that résumé pile pretty quickly — and a lot faster than I could track down and eyeball all of their LinkedIn profiles or Facebook pages.

It’s frankly silly and somewhat dishonest for The Wall Street Journal to take what three companies do and give the impression that it is the big new trend. Yes, a résumé isn’t the perfect way to evaluate a job candidate, but it’s a good start that is easy to access and understand, especially for your technology challenged CEO.

And yes, both the hiring managers and job seekers are buried

Brilliant! I understand that recruiters and HR managers are buried in resumes and I know many job seekers do it wrong by blasting out volumes of poorly written resumes instead of carefully targeting just the jobs they are both qualified for and really want. But the need for the right, well-written, accomplishment-laden resume to open the door for the job seeker has never gone away, especially in the worst economy in 80 years.

One more quote from Mr. Hollen’s article:

Oh, and by the way, that same WSJ story about the expected death of the résumé noted this way down in paragraph 16:

At most companies, résumés are still the first step of the recruiting process, even at supposedly nontraditional places like Google Inc., which hired about 7,000 people in 2011, after receiving some 2 million résumés. Google has an army of “hundreds” of recruiters who actually read every one, says Todd Carlisle, the technology firm’s director of staffing.”

Imagine that. Google still uses old school résumés. I wonder if that has anything to do with how they’re doing?

I stand by my belief that the resume is indeed the foundation of your job search. Just spend some time getting that resume right and then some time actually targeting your job search coupled with a very healthy dose of networking and you will be on your way to a new career!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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Career folks always did talk though. It was just that no one could see us talking. There are still career industry e-lists from Career Directors International (CDI) and others. When I joined the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARWCC) back in 1999, I think it was the beginning of me feeling like I was in an industry.

Career Industry is populated by sole proprietors

What you may or may not know about career professionals is that though there people who have larger practices with multiple writers, most of us are sole proprietors. I didn’t start out with the idea to be a stay-at-home mom. I started out with the idea that I could work from home and save on child care costs.

When I lost my job in property management in Naperville, IL, we moved back home to Wausau, WI and I looked for other employment. But my sons are 13 months apart and in 1987, people were offering me $7.25/hour. I got frustrated fast. I figured I would burn more money in child care than I would earn. I decided to pick up writing resumes as I had as a side business when we managed property in Wausau. It was then that the business name of Design Resumes evolved.

Job Search Resources Then and Now

In the years before PARWCC, I used books I found to grow my knowledge but there was no Internet. But the books were hard to find. It was only through PARWCC and then in 2000 by joining Career Masters Institute (CMI) that I learned about the great books available written by industry pros like Wendy Enelow, Lousie Kursmark, and Susan Britton-Whitcomb. It took Susan Guarneri moving back to Central Wisconsin in 2003 to get me to try the Certified Professional Resume Writer exam. And I passed!

Now there are multiple books by the authors I mentioned above plus blogs like this one and many other resources that were never there when I started in the industry. I just became an Associate of Career Thought Leaders, which was founded by Wendy Enelow:

We are the Career Thought Leaders Consortium, a think tank of career industry leaders working collaboratively to support both our colleagues and job seekers worldwide by providing expert leadership and innovation throughout all phases of career development, job search, long-term career management, and career fulfillment.

Career Thought Leaders Conference in 2010 was the first conference I attended. I was a little star-struck meeting so many of my peers and the industry leaders in one place. The best part of the industry is getting to take those relationships to the next level of phone or Skype or meeting in person.

Why do Career professionals talk to each other?

Career professionals talk to each other because its how we learn. In this field, a quality resume writer or career coach doesn’t typically do high volume. Customized resume writing and career marketing services are designed to fit the client. It takes listening skills and writing skills to make it in this industry.

The career professionals I know are caring, compassionate people who are drawn to resume writing because they genuinely want to help others. However, they too have mortgages, need food on the table, and everything else jobseekers need. So, while they are a helpful community, they do charge to help their clients.

On the other hand, the volume of free advice put out by career professionals, including resume samples and posts about how to effectively write resumes or effectively network your way to a job could help millions.

If you have been wondering why career people talk to each other? It’s pretty easy. We like each other!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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