Professional Objective & Profile:  One of the things I always want to see in a resume is the Professional Objective & Profile section just below the name and contact information.  I call this the “billboard within the billboard” as it summarizes key information about the applicant in the already abbreviated format of the resume itself.  While people may argue this approach potentially limits their opportunities within an organization, I can only tell them what I typically did as a corporate human resources executive when reviewing resumes without this section – I tossed them in the reject pile. When literally thousands of resumes have been dropped on my desk, I wanted to sort through them as quickly and efficiently as possible.  And if someone didn’t provide a brief overview of their qualifications, I simply was not going to spend the time to determine if the jobs I had open fit their particular interests and skills.  My feelings were, “If they don’t know what they want to do, I’m not going to figure it out for them.” This may seem harsh, but it is reality.  Your goal is to get the recruiters to review as much of your resume as possible. To entice them to do this, make it as easy as possible by including a Professional Objective & Profile section.  Otherwise, just like I used to do, they may not give your resume more than a cursory glance.

Quantify accomplishments: Prospective employers consider a number of factors when determining which candidates match the requirements for an open position.  While skills, experience and education are all important, the demonstrated ability to get measurable results will add significant credibility to your qualifications.  For instance, while many salespeople may be able to talk a good game by highlighting their activities (e.g., “Called on key customers in major markets.”), I am always more impressed with statements quantifying specified accomplishments (e.g., “Increased sales revenue by 45% annually over a three-year period.”).  So while activities are nice, results are a whole lot better.

Summarize the unimportant: For individuals who have changed careers and their previous experience is not relevant to their current career aspirations (or if they are concerned about age discrimination), one tactic is to summarize the earlier jobs and experiences under the heading Previous Experience at the bottom of the Experience & Qualifications section.  For example, “Prior to 1982, I gained valuable computer experience and was promoted to various roles of responsibility including system analyst, programmer and billing coordinator.” If age is not a concern, you can add the span of years such as, “From 1994 to 1998, I gained valuable experience . . .” In this manner, you are submitting a factual resume without revealing too much about the jobs you had when President Obama was still in grade school!

Keep it short:  The resume is not intended to represent a comprehensive history of all of your accomplishments, talents and awards.  Depending on your years of experience, background, professional or occupational standards and career pursuits, the resume may be as short as one page (e.g., young college graduates) and as long as three (e.g., seasoned executives).  Anything more than three pages and a recruiter may find it too cumbersome and detailed and end up setting it aside in favor of more reader-friendly resumes.

Fax it:  Not long ago, employer fax machines were constantly buzzing, beeping and cranking out incoming resumes.  With e-mail, they are much quieter – but not abandoned.  Because recruiters and hiring managers generally receive few faxes, faxing your resume may help it stand out from the e-mail crowd and increase the likelihood it will be read.  Be sure to include a cover letter when faxing your resume.

The encounter was memorable not only because it was the first time I met Bill Marriott but also because it was first time I was called upon to literally deliver an elevator speech.  While I recall sharing something fairly relevant about some recent union organizing activity at our newly opened LaGuardia airport hotel, I knew I could have just as easily said something really nonsensical and embarrassing.  After we exited a few a moments later, I took a sigh of relief and committed to myself that I would be much better prepared for any future such encounters with influential people in the company.

Now imagine you are applying for a corporate marketing job with Marriott and you happen to be riding in the same elevator with a department manager who is escorting you to your interview.  If he or she asks, “So what do you do?” how would you respond before the doors opened?  Both of these scenarios illustrate the importance of the concept known as the “elevator speech.”

Of course, elevator speeches are not confined to dialogue that only takes place in elevators.  They are intended for job fairs, networking events and even social activities.  For the purposes of a job search, you should always be prepared to give a 30-second statement that briefly highlights your skills, experience and career interests in favorable, yet not overly boastful, terms. For instance, an effective response to the question asked by the department manager above may go something like:

“I am a brand marketing manager.  While most of my career has been in the consumer products industry with companies such as Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, I most recently worked at American Express on a new financial services product they plan to roll out to their premier customers.  Right now, I’m very interested in pursuing opportunities that would leverage my skills and experience in the travel and hospitality industries.”

Regardless of your profession, your elevator speech should showcase your talents and be sufficiently open-ended so as to potentially expand your career opportunities into an appropriately broad range of professions or industries.  If it’s too narrowly focused (e.g., “I’m a hotel sales manager”), you may miss out on opportunities where your skill sets are potentially transferable.  If it’s too broad (e.g., “I’m a people person”), it comes across as too ambiguous or whimsical and risks diminishing your candidacy.

At this time, I recommend you take a moment and grab a blank sheet of paper and draft your 30-second elevator speech.  While it may seem awkward and silly, I also encourage you to practice your speech in front of a mirror or a video camera until you feel comfortable with not only the content of your remarks, but also your delivery style.  As with any step in the job search process, there’s simply no substitute for practice and preparation and that includes your elevator speech.

It really depends on how much relevant work experience you have.  If you have less than three years of professional-level experience or if you have changed your career objective and you are now pursuing a field that matches your education but not your work experience, I’d recommend you insert your educational credentials on the first page right beneath the Professional Objective & Profile.  If you have been in the workplace longer than three years, it’s generally best to reference your education at the end of the resume.  Just be sure your work experience truly complements your education and doesn’t detract from your overall qualifications.  For instance, if you are seeking management positions but your jobs have all been at hourly jobs, your soon-to-be-earned MBA should get top billing.

How do you handle putting temp jobs on the resume?  I have had six temp jobs since being laid off.

Treat them all as one experience under the job title of  Contracting Assignments and use one time reference to capture them all (e.g., 2008 to Present).  Depending on your actual responsibilities, begin the “job” description with something like, “Delivered critical project management support in various contract and temporary assignments.  Responsibilities included . . .” In interviews, be prepared to provide a list of the six temporary assignments and the durations of each assignment.  Chances are, however, you will only need to verbally summarize who they were.

What is the strategy when an online application asks minimum salary requirements? The box has to be filled and you do not know the range of the role applying for. You risk the chance of putting in a salary that’s too high or too low.

Use a conservative number that is less than what you really want but not so low you’d never consider accepting it.  For instance, if you are used to making $60,000 and that’s the figure you really want, you may want to enter $45,000.  It’s still in the ballpark and may help you get an interview – which is precisely what you want.  That’s because if you do well in the interviewing process, most employers are willing to negotiate a higher salary for the right candidate (I once received an offer with a salary that was 33% more than what the headhunter told me the employer was willing to pay for the position).  If you disqualify yourself too soon by inserting a salary requirement that is too high, however, you’ll never get that chance.   

If you end up receiving an offer for the salary amount you submitted, don’t feel like you are under any obligation to accept it.  If the employer questions why you are asking for a higher salary, simply and politely explain that through the interviewing process you learned the role and the responsibilities are greater than what you understood from the online job posting.

Even if you reply with a low minimum salary and it turns out to be non-negotiable, there may be other things that will make the position attractive such as the benefits, bonuses, commissions, working conditions, commute, hours, etc.  Unless you first get an interview, you may never find out about these things.

How can I make my resume more attractive if I am trying to relocate to Orlando?

If you are concerned employers may not want to hire someone from outside the area, you may want to ask any friends or family living in Orlando if you can use their home address on your resume (if necessary, you can always explain that it’s your temporary residence).  If you feel that’s stretching the truth, on the cover letter mention you are in the process of relocating to Orlando.  Either way, prospective employers will know you don’t expect relocation assistance – which few employers are willing to offer in this economy, anyway.

The more you can convey you are already established in Orlando (or soon will be), the less likely your actual location will prompt employers to disqualify you as a job candidate.

Does it make a difference to apply through a Web site like Hcareers as opposed to applying through a company’s Web site?

It shouldn’t make a difference, but the best bet is to apply on both Web sites. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

When I was looking to fill positions in my corporate jobs, I generally had job openings first posted on my employer’s Web site and then on job boards if I didn’t get a sufficient supply of qualified candidates.  Not only did I never “penalize” anyone for posting their resume on both sites, but sometimes the same resume would end up on my desk from one source but not the other.  What that implies is one of their two submissions had been rejected and had it not been for their decision to post their resume on both sites, I would have never seen it.

Do people really look at executive resumes submitted online (i.e. Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.)?

Actually, they do.  In today’s economy, many hiring managers and HR departments are sourcing executive job candidates through job boards and their employer’s Web sites versus through executive search firms.  While search firms are popular when the labor market is tight, there’s such a tremendous supply of unemployed executive talent that many cost-conscious employers are opting to conduct the searches themselves rather than pay placement fees that can easily run into six-figures for a single executive job opening.  In addition, many search firms routinely post job openings on CareerBuilder and Monster when sourcing job candidates for their clients. 

While CareerBuilder and Monster are the two biggest job boards based on the number of postings, The Ladders (www.theladders.com) specializes in executive job postings.  Unlike the other two, you must pay a fee to apply for the jobs they have listed.  Another job board worth checking out is www.indeed.com.  Indeed conveniently pulls the job openings listed on other job boards as well as from employer Web sites so that you don’t have to go to multiple sites in search of a job that may be of interest to you.

I worked in two positions at one company; the older one was longer and more impressive. Can I put this first?

It really depends on how much more impressive the former job was and how long you were in the most recent position.  Generally, you want to stay with the chronological order unless you were in a position for a very short time and it was more transitional in nature (for instance, a project or temporary role).  If the less impressive position was clearly a demotion, consider not listing the job title in the same place as the former role and instead reference in the text section where you cite your experience, responsibilities and accomplishments.  For instance, if you were the President of a division and subsequently moved into a Vice President of Sales role, the very last line or bullet point in that section may read something like, “Assigned to sales leadership role responsible for driving revenue growth by 18% in new product category.”

The challenge here is you need to be truthful so you will need to reference your last job somewhere in the space where you are describing your duties with the employer.  At the same time, you don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to a position you’d rather not spend much time talking about.  An exception is if you were in the position for a very short period of time (e.g., less than three or four months).  For instance, in my upcoming book, Job Search Skills from the Reluctant Expert, I share how I referenced events after a re-organization prompted me to leave one company where I was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for a smaller role as the Global Vice President of Talent Management for another.  After working 20 days with my new employer, a worldwide restructuring resulted in the elimination of my job and the entire global team.

Rather than include such a short stint on my resume and risk it diverting valuable interviewing time away from more relevant experiences, I would mention the job in interviews by simply saying, “I didn’t even bother putting it on my resume as I was there such a short time.”  By always bringing up the job in the interviews and including it on the application, I was able to focus the interviewer on what was important (i.e., my previous positions) while protecting myself from potential claims the omission was somehow dishonest.

Don’t wait!  If the posting reveals the identity of the employer, submit your resume and then immediately call the hiring department and ask to speak to the person the job reports to.  Have your 30-second elevator speech ready and ask if you can meet with the person – even if it’s just to drop off your resume and introduce yourself.  If you get the run around, try to get the hiring manager’s name and e-mail address and follow-up electronically.

Networking can be particularly helpful in this situation.  Leverage networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, college alumni associations and your own contacts to find someone who will forward your resume directly to the hiring manager or to someone elsewhere in the organization who will do it for you.  As this approach means your resume won’t be electronically screened out, you stand a much greater chance of being considered for the job.  If your efforts at networking aren’t successful, then consider making a personal visit to the employer’s facility, if at all possible, and ask to see the head of the department or his or her administrative assistant. 

How does one with 30+ years of experience highlight career without disqualifying himself for being too old?

Chances are that whatever career experiences you had over 30 years ago will mean little to the employer.  So rather than offer a bunch of detail about what you were doing when President Obama was still in grade school, summarize the earlier jobs and experiences under the sub-heading of Previous Experience at the bottom of the Experience & Qualifications section.  For example, “Prior to 1989, I gained valuable computer experience and was promoted to various roles of responsibility including system analyst, programmer and billing coordinator.”  In this manner, you are submitting a factual resume without revealing too much about your age.

If my resume is supposed to promote me, would it be okay if I put the position on top of the company I worked for in a chronological resume?

Absolutely.  If your position or level is more impressive than the brand power of your employer, give it top billing.  This is particularly true if your employer is relatively unknown to the general public or within the industry you are applying.  Just be consistent and don’t flip-flop the position and employer throughout the Experience & Qualifications section of your resume.

Is it a good idea to have a photo on a hard copy of your resume?

While Europeans often include photos and personal information such as nationality, age, marital status, children and place of birth on their resumes (commonly referred to as a curriculum vitae or CV), it’s generally not a good idea to do so in the U.S.  There are, of course, exceptions such as positions in the entertainment industry or wherever one’s looks are a bona fide job requirement.  Otherwise, a photo risks making you appear insecure and superficial and not someone whose candidacy should be taken seriously (not to mention human resources departments may conclude your resume is nothing more than the spearhead of a calculated ploy to file a discrimination claim against the employer).

What is the best format for a resume?  Word or PDF?

Your call.  As the sender of resumes, I always used the Word format just because it requires less memory and I’m comfortable with it.  As the recipient of resumes, it has never mattered to me.  I will say some people strongly prefer the PDF format because it’s essentially tamper-proof.

If you have done that and you are still not getting any leads, you should expand your network (which you should already be doing) and consider broadening your search to include jobs where your experience, skills and interests are easily transferable.