2 Myths About Executive Resumes - Work It Daily

2 Myths About Executive Resumes - Work It Daily For the 2012 Global Hiring Survey from the global professional association, Career Directors International (CDI) surveyed hiring managers, Human Resource professionals, recruiters, and executives to find out what they really look for in executive resumes. Among the respondents, 46% typically dealt with executive and managerial clients. The CDI survey officially busted the following myths about executive resumes: Myth 1: Summary descriptions on executive resumes should be short, not detailed. Nearly half of the respondents preferred a “longer, more comprehensive summary” with only 18% opting for a shorter summary. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of writing a summary that is specific for the position, industry and applicant. In any resume, but particularly executive resumes, content is more important than any arbitrary length. Myth 2: You should add charts and graphs to your executive resume. Just under 20% of respondents found charts and graphs helpful; about the same amount found them distracting. Moreover, as one respondent pointed out, charts and graphs may not scan into a company’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Therefore, Career Directors International recommends making sure that the information in the chart and graph is also part of the text of the resumeâ€"which means you are taking up valuable resume space to give the same information twice. My take? Think twice about placing a graph or chart in your executive resume, especially if it duplicates information already in the text or is so small that it is practically unreadable. Executive resumes myths image from Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!