How many of us have offered friendly advice to our friends or candidates on how to write resumes? How many of us have told them that the professional resume writers had it wrong? I have however over time I realized there is no one way to write a resume. Preferences in your resume vary among recruiters, human resource professionals, and resume writers.

Many employers prefer and demand a chronological resume to track your career path and, job tenure, and past job progression. I have spent time with different professionals ranging from hiring managers to multiple MSP program managers and each one had they're own preference and style they wanted the resume in. In some cases I have seen resumes discarded just because they felt the resume was too long. I have worked with clients that prefer to see everything the person has done in the past.

Then there are those who only look for the most recent job relevance. I have seen an individual become offended by the length of the resume. Who decided that resumes were only to be two pages or one? Contract staff particularly in the IT field have longer resumes, considering a typical contract only lasts 6 months.

I think before you offer to help a friend write a resume. Look for examples relevant to their career. Learn who the client is – tell them to look on Linked In to see if they know anyone that can help move the resume along. Then most importantly rewrite have them resume fitting the format of the client.