The Standard Resume Still Has a Role in Job Searches

By Hal Lancaster

Is the resume an essential career management tool or relic of the old economy?

It’s still the document most employers want to see, traditionalists say. But a pack of naysayers insist resumes don’t work. Richard Bolles, in the CD-ROM version of his career guide, "What Color Is Your Parachute," cites a study that indicated that only one in 1,470 resumes sent out results in an accepted job. "Would you take a plane flight if you knew that only one in 1,470 flights reached its destination?" he asks.

Added to this confusion the conflicting advice from countless resume gurus on what constitutes an attention-getter. I always thought it was simple: Be clear, truthful and brief and sprinkle liberally with evidence of your accomplishments. My wife set me straight. "It’s easy for you, you’re a writer," she said. "For the rest of us, it’s torture."

So, after considerable research here’s my take on the resume: It remains an essential document, not only because most employers require it, but because done properly and regularly updated it can help you shepherd your career even when you’re not job hunting.

A good resume is a flexible marketing document that can be customized for different situations. It’s a repository for samples of your best work, available upon request to prospective employers and for your own use in gauging current work progress and preparing for performance reviews and promotions.

Writing one also forces you to focus on your career goals. "The value of the resume is not when it gets delivered, but when it gets created," says Yana Parker, author of "The Damn Good Resume Guide." "When people write their resume they have to really look at what’s relevant to where they want to go."

A resume certainly isn’t the only -or even the best job hunting tool. Personal contacts probably will get you into a department head’s inner sanctum quicker. But even the best networkers can’t always schmooze their way into an interview, and end up having to send a resume to someone.

Bruce Tulgan, who writes and consults about managing Generation X employees, recommends narrative job-proposal letters that outline the employer’s needs and how to use your skills to fill them. It should include "free samples" of your work -"tangible examples of what you’ve achieved in the past to prove you can do what you say you can do," he explains.

So what gets you the interview? The answers are as numerous as employers. "What works," says Tim Jones, vice president of human resources for Forte Software, Oakland, Calif., "is what tells your story relative to the needs of the organization."

"Here in the Bay area, it’s not unheard of to be hired without a resume, especially in hot technical areas," Mr. Jones says. Forte, for example, offers bonuses to employee recruiters. It’s all word-of-mouth," he says. "You know where they’ve been, their areas of expertise, the product they’ve developed - and the resume is superfluous."

Still, he estimates, resumes serve as "the prelude to a person’s candidacy" in 90% of hirings at Forte.

Unsolicited resumes almost never lead to job offers at Atlanta’s Target Marketing Systems, which relies on search firms and personal references, says CEO Alston Gardner. Still, candidates are expected to have resumes, he adds.

Both employers like to see facts on achievements - such as sales figures or quotas that have been attained - in the resume, as long as they’re concise. Beyond that, common sense rules. Be brief and clear and tailor the document to each employers’ needs. You need to constantly edit and customize your resume, Mr. Gardner says.

You’ll also need a separate resume larded with key words for those companies using scanners to screen applicants. An expanded portfolio version, with your free samples, can be used during interviews and to track your work progress in your current job.

Should you go to a resume writer? Jeffrey Heller, CEO of JDM International, which mounts job-marketing campaigns for senior executives says everyone should visit a pro a least once. "You need someone to pull your accomplishments out of you," he says. "You’re so close to this forest, you really don’t see the trees."

That’s particularly helpful for people who don’t write or self-promote well. But technology is making it easier for the average person to create a flexible, multipurpose resume. Using Professional Web Resume software from Pacifica Software, Bob Rindner, a Boca Raton Fla., stockbroker, created an electronic resume that helps him job hunt and expand his network of contact: He routinely refers contacts to a WEB site where they can study his resume. This has led to consulting assignments from as far away as Tulsa, Okla.

The document reads like a traditional resume, but the reader can click on highlights that will link him, for example, to Web sites that explain brokerage concepts Mr. Rinder espouses. The hyperlink can also connect to samples of your work, thus creating an electronic portfolio that doesn’t clutter up the basic document.

That’s important, because one thing everyone agrees on is that you don’t have long to grab the readers’ attention. "If it’s over two pages, I’m not going to read it," Mr. Gardner says. "I don’t have that big an attention span."

This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal.