It arrived as a WORD file--about 2.4 megabytes large.

At first, I thought someone emailed me a PowerPoint presentation converted to WORD. But upon opening it, I discovered that the file in my inbox was actually a candidate résumé--the largest one which, in over 14 years of hunting heads, I had ever received. Here, the stats:


• 

• 14 pages
• 

• 1,800+ words
• 

• 9 sections
• 

• 12 candidate references, and
• 

• 13 color graphics (bar charts, pie charts, and a big honkin' profile portrait on top of each page)
• 


If the sender's purpose was to shock me then all I can say is MISSION ACCOMPLISHED--indeed, [you] got my attention.

However, once shock subsided I soon realized that the mega file did not include a résumé. Rather it held a
catalogue raisonné--an exhaustive listing of 
everythingwhich this executive experienced in over 12 years on the job. YIKES!

If I, the recipient of such largesse, had been a direct-hiring manager and not a headhunter, then I am certain I would have quickly escaped and moved onto something or someone else.
Careful editing is a critical component of the résumé-writing task. Yet some seasoned executives--afraid that opportunity in a tough and competitive job market will be gotten only when all of their granular details "get ink"--add to their CVs everything
including the kitchen sink. (Bad move.)
To paraphrase the iconic line from JFK's inaugural address: let the word go forth from this time and place...that résumés shall be only as long as they need to be.

I am not against in-depth presentations, but I do believe the proper place for sharing a long and detailed career narrative--and for
going granular--is the face-to-face interview session. There, a detailed pitch may make a very powerful and positive impression on the hiring manager.

However, to get to the point of a face-to-face interview, a candidate will have had to survive the triage stage during which the hiring manager--allocating mere seconds of eyeball time--saw enough good stuff in [the candidate's] résumé to pull it from the big folder and reach out by phone or email. So do use the résumé real estate extremely well; write and edit it to be only as long as it needs to be.

Are you struggling writing, re-writing, or editing your résumé? Have you thrown into it everything including the kitchen sink, but gotten scant response from hiring managers? Well take heart--help is close at hand. There are several top quality résumé-writing guides on the market from which to choose. The Green Suits recommends
Susan Ireland's The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume (F....