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The
BLOG
Ch-ch-changes
Place a modern resume next to a resume written in the seventies and you will notice a significant difference in not only appearance but content. Resumes, like language, have changed over time. Employment patterns and jobs have changed, too. Very little is the same today as it was in 1975 in resumes and in society in general.
In the seventies and eighties, a resume had to be one page in length. There were several reasons for this. Most job seekers had had few jobs in their lifetime. It was a time when employees and employers were more loyal to one another. A thirty-year career with one company was a sign of a great employee whereas frequent job changes were seen as a sign of a problem. When there were only one or maybe two employers over the span of a career, getting the content into one page was much easier.
Today, resumes average two pages with three pages being acceptable for senior executives. The additional length helps accommodate the types of careers people have today. The average time an American worker spends in one job is three years. What used to be seen as “job hopping” is now considered normal. A jumpy career history might even be a sign that an employee is a “hot commodity” in the marketplace.
With resumes being stored in databases in electronic format, page length does not become a storage issue. Monster and CareerBuilder have millions of resumes stored in their databases. Can you imagine the filing cabinets it would take if those were all in paper format?
Thirty years ago, resumes pretty much followed a set format – centered header at the top (sometimes with the word “Resume” at the very top) followed by an objective, followed by an education section, followed by an employment history, followed by a category of interests/hobbies. Today, resumes don’t use objectives and the education section usually comes last. A summary is used at the top to give the reader a quick overview of what the job seeker has to offer. A fairly detailed career history follows with job description and accomplishments covered thoroughly. There is often a technology skills section that lists computer software, hardware, and abilities.
In the seventies and eighties, a resume was a bare-bones, facts-only resume. Today, the resume is a marketing document for a job seeker’s career. It is written with many factors in mind – strategy, target, keywords, impact, and visual appearance. The resume only details the last ten years of experience rather than covering every job every held. It focuses on the results a job seeker has achieved in his/her career so the reader can compare those with their needs.
The resume is read differently now than two decades ago. Hiring managers read the summary, scan the career experience looking primarily at job titles, then glance at the education section. Before the hiring manager even gets the resume, it has been read by computers and had a keyword search performed on it. The gatekeeper is rarely the front desk receptionist these days but rather a Human Resource Information System that culls resumes from the database according to the specifications entered by the hiring manager.
Unfortunately, many job seekers (and even some professional resume writers) still write with the seventies resume in mind. Such misplaced focus results in poor resumes, poor results, and few interviews. It is absolutely vital to write with the reader in mind when developing a resume. After all, who else matters?
November 2005 /
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