Results tagged “executive” from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog

Among the resume “rules” you may have heard is the one in which resumes should be limited to one page. While it’s true that most entry-level job-seekers should try to limit their resumes to a single page, this length is rarely appropriate for those at senior and executive levels. Top-level job-seekers will find it virtually impossible to capture the breadth of their experience and accomplishments in a single page, and some employers expect longer resumes from those candidates, sometimes up to five pages. In a 2007 survey by Accountemps, a specialized staffing service, only 7 percent of senior executives from human resources, finance and marketing departments favored one-page resumes for executives, while 61 percent favored two pages. Respondents were receptive to three-page resumes for executive roles, with nearly a third (31 percent) citing this as the ideal length.

One-page resumes can be useful for candidates in certain situations, such as networking, in which the job-seeker wants to give potential network contacts a thumbnail glance at his or her career.

A summary of guidelines on resume length:

• One page is usually preferred for college students and new grads, but those with rich campus backgrounds and work/internship experience may need two pages.
• Two-page resumes are suitable for many job-seekers.
• Three or more pages may be required at the senior level.
• Job-seekers should never sacrifice readability (tiny type, narrow margins) just to squeeze a resume into a certain number of pages.
• When a resume spills onto an additional page, it should fill up at least half of that page. If not, try to condense.

See our article, The Scoop on Resume Length: How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be? for a variety of opinions and guidelines on resume length.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

“A great interview-generating executive resume is all about differentiating yourself from others competing for the same jobs,” writes executive resume and branding expert Meg Guiseppi in her article for Quint Careers, Five Top Trends for Executive Resumes. “With constantly changing trends in strategic resume writing, new ways to accomplish this differentiation are always coming forward. If you take advantage of the latest trends before they mainstream, you are much more likely to stand out, make a positive connection, and stimulate the attention you deserve.” Read the trends here.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.

Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book, Top Notch Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves: Resume has spelling errors, typos and grammatical flaws.

Hiring decision-makers cited this peeve more than any other. It may surprise some that misspellings and typos pervade even executive-level resumes, but they do. A job-seeker-submitted sample considered for the executive resume book, for example, contained the common error of spelling “manager” as “manger.” You’ll note that this misspelling won’t be picked up by spell-check functions because “manger” is a correctly spelled word. So is “posses,” the plural of posse, which I often see on resumes when the job-seeker intends “possess.”

“I once received a resume where the applicant misspelled the name of the University from which he received his MBA,” said Jeff Weaver, regional manager for a global information services company.

“Poor spelling and grammar … is particularly worrying,” said Pete Follows, senior consultant, for SaccoMann, Leeds, UK. “If a candidate is not giving due care and attention to a document to improve their own personal circumstances, what care would they take with documents with less personal significance?”

A few tips on avoiding typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors:

• Use spell-check functions but remember that they aren’t enough.
• Proofread. Then put the resume down overnight and proof it again in the morning with fresh eyes.
• Try proofing from the bottom up. Reading your resume in a different order will enable you to catch errors that you may have glossed over before because your brain was accustomed to reading your verbiage in the expected order.
• Ask a friend or family member to proof, preferably one who is a meticulous speller and grammarian.
• Be careful about company and software names, which are frequently misspelled and can damage your credibility.
• Consider hiring a professional resume writer.

See all 30 peeves: executive resume peeves 1-10 in Part 1, executive resume peeves 11-20 in Part 2 and executive resume peeves 21-30 in Part 3.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document? Order today from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service.