F.A.Q.:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT RÉSUMÉS
Brief answers to common questions, with links to other places on the site where fuller answers are given, usually along with other information you need on the topic.
Topics under each head are listed in likely order of importance.
Fuller discussions of résumé basics can be found on the Résumé Encyclopedia page.
(There’s a separate section below on Document Formats, Résumé Formats, Résumé Types.)
• How long should my résumé be? Your résumé should be as long as necessary to convey your job-worthiness and answer any questions the reader may have, without wasting the reader’s time and effort. For junior people in most fields, and for many tradespeople and industrial workers, one page is fine, and most of these people should indeed be careful not to go longer.
But for more-experienced people in most skilled positions, two to three pages is common, and anything less would be inadequate. Senior IT people may go to five pages. (U.S. professional CVs may go much longer, but if you need one of these, you’ll know it.)
The myth that nobody’s résumé should ever go longer than one page is one of the most common and most dangerous misconceptions out there. See Killer Myth #1: “Keep It On One Page,” on the Tips & Myths page.
All the executive, management, and senior tech résumés I’ve done are to or three pages, and most are tightly packed, with senior IT résumés sometimes running longer. Back when I was on the market, I got plenty of staff jobs and freelance engagements with my own tightly-packed three-pager.
• On-line job sites—how do I get results from them? Unless you’re already a sought-after person who gets calls from recruiters out of the blue, or perhaps an experienced tech person, your chances of getting a good offer from a desirable employer through an on-line job site are about one in a hundred—if your qualifications are competitive. Your chances of being contacted by low-end operators, who may or may not be employers, are much higher. To learn why, and to learn what on-line job sites are good for, see On-Line Job Sites on the Tips & Myths page, where there’s also a special discussion of The Ladders.
• Keywords (a.k.a. ATS optimization, SEO, search-engine optimization)—what do I need to know? It’s an important topic, but there’s a lot of hype on the subject. You definitely need to read the SEO, ATS, Keywords, Search-Engine Optimization article on the Tips & Myths page.
• Résumé—how do I spell it? See the Résumé Encyclopedia article on this subject.
• Can you make my résumé visually distinctive? I can, but I won’t. Visually distinctive résumés can destroy your job search. See KILLER MYTH #3: “VISUALLY DISTINCTIVE” RÉSUMÉS on the Tips & Myths page.
I did typography and graphics for leading ad agencies and design studios in New York for many years. I use that experience to make my plain-vanilla résumés look better than anyone else’s.
• Do I need a “functional” (also called “skills-based”) résumé? You need to avoid them like the plague. Employers drop these résumés straight into the trash. When people call me and say they’ve gotten no response to their résumés, despite years of solid professional experience, the reason is almost always that they used a “functional” résumé. See KILLER MYTH #2: THE FUNCTIONAL RÉSUMÉ, on the Tips & Myths page.
• What do you charge for résumés? Depending on your field and your level of experience, fees for the Résumé Consulting service range from $1600 to $2000. LinkedIn profiles and cover letters are extra. (Free cover letters are worthless—see the discussion of that on the Tips & Myths page. As for Linked-In, a public Linked-in profile and a résumé designed to sell you to a prospective employer are two very different things.)
High-end fees cover the time and effort needed to deliver the best possible product. Lesser products are available for lower fees—from other résumé services, not from me. The one-low-price-fits-all résumé services you see all over the place are not going to give you much at all, and are certainly not what experienced people in skilled fields need. With résumés, you may not always get what you pay for, but you’ll never get anything you don't pay for.
For some price/value realities about résumés, see Cheap Résumés: Price/Value Realities in the Résumé Business, on the Tips & Myths page. I don’t negotiate fees. I know my market.
The fees listed on the Services page should give you a good idea of what I’ll charge for your project. I’ll give an exact quote when we talk on the phone, after I know what field you’re in and your experience level.
For payment options and policies, click here.
Like all résumé services, I have a no-refund policy. No experienced professional does first-rate work unless they’re certain they’re going to be paid for it—or unless they add a large premium to all fees to cover the risk of non-payment. You’ll see résumé services that offer “guarantees,” but you’ll never see one that will ever give you a cent back. For more on this, go to Half-Up-Front Deals and “Guaranteed” Résumés, on the Tips & Myths page.
Like all résumé services, I require payment in advance before I commit time. I will split it up for résumé consulting projects: half up front, and half after I’ve completed the in-depth interview. Some résumé services talk about half up front, and half on delivery. But those claims deserve considerable skepticism: see Half-Up-Front Deals and “Guaranteed” Résumés, on the Tips & Myths page.
• How long will my résumé take? Typically, it’s four weeks from the time I start the project (agreeing on the schedule and taking care of the payment) to delivery of the approval version of your résumé. A lot may depend on my workload at the time—I'll take that into account when I quote you a schedule.
I’ll need a week to ten days to prepare for the in-depth interview. After the interview, I’ll need another two weeks or so to get you an approval version for your review. Cover letters may require a few additional days to a week. At the approval stage, I can usually turn around revisions within 24 to 48 hours. The same goes for the final package, when all the revisions are done.
I’ll need to coordinate the interview and other contacts with you. So my timeframe depends in part on your schedule, too—on how quickly you get back to me when I need essential input from you, and on when we can schedule the in-depth interview.
• Do you offer a guarantee? No résumé service offers a guarantee. Some résumé services offer what sound like guarantees, but they don’t stand up to examination. (Few skilled service providers of any kind offer meaningful guarantees. Real guarantees are usually for physical products with simple uses.) See Half-Up-Front Deals and “Guaranteed” Résumés, on the Tips & Myths page.
• What’s your privacy & confidentiality policy? It’s total.
• Do you have references? The total privacy and confidentiality policy means I don’t give out clients’ names to anyone. But I do have a page of samples of the feedback I’ve gotten.
• Word Résumés generally—what do I need to know? There are some very important things you need to know. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• Plain Text Résumé—what is it? It’s the most important document format for résumés after Word. It’s much better than Word if you’re pasting your résumé into an on-line form. This is becoming increasingly common for job searches at all levels. You should definitely read the Résumé Encyclopedia article on this.
• PDF (Portable Document Format)—what is it and how do I use it? Don’t use it unless you are certain the recipient prefers it to any other format. Disregard any lists of “acceptable document formats” you may see.
In certain situations in certain industries, such as engineering or IT, PDF is a standard format for résumés. But even in those industries, if you’re sending your résumé to HR, you should send a Word document. You can send a PDF to the non-HR decision-makers if they ask for one. For more about this, and for other important information about PDFs (including how to make them), see the Résumé Encyclopedia article. Crystal Résumés provides all résumés in Word, plain-text, and PDF formats.
Don’t EVER send a PDF made by scanning a paper résumé.
• “Format” seems to have several different meanings... It does. They’re explained in the résumé glossary entry for “Format.” Unfortunately, there’s no way around using the word in several different senses when you’re talking about various aspects of résumés.
• Searchable (or SEO) Résumé—what is it? It’s a résumé written to include likely terms that employers will search for. The thing is, all résumés should be written this way. A LinkedIn profile, for best searchability, should also be written to conform to the peculiarities of LinkedIn’s information structure. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article on Keywords, ATS, and SEO.
• Curriculum Vitae / CV / vitae—what is it? If you don’t know, you probably don’t need one. Note that these terms all mean the same thing—but it’s one thing in the U.S., and another thing in the rest of the world. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• Networking Résumé—what is it? For people whose résumés run to two or more pages, it’s a one-page abridgement for use in non-hiring situations. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• E-résumé—what is it? Just a uselessly broad buzzword for any résumé that isn’t on paper. Electronic résumé formats are so different from each other that there’s no point in lumping them together. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• Federal résumés, statements, etc.—what do I need to know? If you’re applying for a U.S. government job, you need to know a lot. There are books on the subject you should read. Otherwise, you don’t need to know anything—the federal hiring process is a reality unto itself. Only a few résumé services do federal résumés, and they charge a lot, for very good reasons. Probably even fewer do them well. Doing federal résumés well requires a full-time commitment to expertise in the many variations in the federal job-application process and all its nonsense and out-of-control ramifications. I tried it, and decided it wasn’t worthwhile. The only way I could find out exactly what information I needed to prepare for my client was to apply for the same job myself. For a few basics, see the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• A4—what is it? It’s the standard metric equivalent to letter-size. It’s for résumés sent outside the U.S. and Canada—even in electronic formats. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article.
• RTF (Rich Text Format) résumé—what is it? RTF was once preferred by some employers, but the reasons no longer apply. It’s of marginal or no importance now. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article. RTFs are no longer part of our standard package, but we will provide them free of charge on request.
• (OCR-) Scannable Résumé—what is it? It’s been obsolete for well over a decade, but it’s a close cousin of what is today sometimes referred to as a “searchable” or SEO résumé. The hype about both is eerily similar. See the Résumé Encyclopedia article on scannable résumés.
“What you keep out is just as important as what you put in.”
— Marcella Hazan, on cooking.
Her recipes were often very simple indeed; one tomato sauce recipe has three ingredients. In other words, knowledge, experience, and technique are as important as ingredients.