Resume "Revolution"

I just found a Tweet linking to an article about The Three Things Every Resume Must Have. While, it's interesting advice, I have to mention it also all really needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

ANY resume advice should be, really. Resume and job-hunting advice is out there by the hundreds... nay, thousands... of blogs, articles and employment sites.

I do have some advice to add to the clutter, thank you. But mine is simpler: take what you read and toss 90% of it out the window. It's stuff you already know. And at the point when an employer is receiving hundreds of resumes, that "one thing you MUST have to make your resume stand out" isn't going to stand out anymore, because everyone else is reading that advice too.

What's more, I've read so much conflicting advice on how-to's, that it all really just comes down to tailoring your resume to the job you're applying for.

For an example of conflict, one site says that you MUST have a job objective/summary, otherwise it implies you have no direction for your career. In this economy, I don't think very many people have a direction anymore except to be employed. I've read on multiple other sites that say no employer even looks at the objectives anymore. One site says you have to have a section for "personal attributes" or else you have no way to stand out from the crowd. Others say it amounts to fluffing your resume and taking up valuable space where you could show potential employers what your skills really are... in jobs you've already held, not in the land of "what I wish I was like and want you to think I have".

So what do you believe, and what do you actually write?

Honestly, the Keep-It-Simple-Stupid method has worked best for me. And that's even with adding some graphic kick to mine (since I'm in a creative industry and it's almost necessary to show some of that creativity in a resume. Again, the conflict of the job advice. I've seen articles that say you can absolutely, never, ever, ever, never make your resume creative, because it ruins your chances of being hired. To that I say, "Whatever works for YOU, doesn't work for ME.").

The things that do work for most of us: Keep it simple, clean, and under 2 pages long. List relevant items and show exactly what you've done for a company. Pay attention to the articles that tell you the order to list your jobs or school in order to highlight your strengths and downplay weaknesses. Make sure your grammar and spelling is 100% correct. All the other fluff and advice? Toss it out the window at your own discretion.

There's no scientifically proven method of one extra bit of information being listed over another, no matter who tries to tell you their way is the best or only way to get noticed. Try the things that seem like they're relevant for you or the industry. If it doesn't work, tweak it and try again the next time. There's no magic method or scientific formula for doing this, unfortunately. The good news is, if you're getting interviews, then your resume is fine.

If you're not getting hired after the interviews... well, that's another issue entirely and one that has nothing to do with whether or not you put your objectives on your resume.