The Resume Is Not the Candidate: Looking Beyond the Resume in Executive Search

I am a father of three (they are all now adults – late 30’s/early 40’s).  Every year, they had class photos taken.  (They grew up before smartphones.)  As a parent, we knew the date (and time) of the photo shoot.  Outfits were carefully selected.  Hair was ‘precisely’ combed/prepared.  At school, the photographer set the stage – the backdrop and lighting; they had extra combs there as well.  They knew how to get the right look. 

Enter today’s smartphone.  We now take 50 pictures to get one we like.  And, of course, we select the best picture, not the one where our eyes were closed.  None of this, by the way, makes the photo dishonest – but nobody would suggest that the photograph tells you everything about the person.  A resume isn't all that different.

A resume is marketing material – not an assessment

Candidates naturally put their best foot forward.  They emphasize accomplishments, select favorable language, and leave out things that aren't necessarily beneficial. That's normal. The resume's purpose is to get attention and hopefully an interview, not to provide a complete evaluation of the person. 

Sometimes the resume isn't even entirely the candidate's work

Many busy executives ‘delegate’ the resume writing process to outside professional resume writing services.  In other cases, a candidate in transition who is getting career transition assistance will have their resume drafted by a career consultant. 

• I don't recommend this. 

That said, I am a strong believer in getting advice on a resume.  I am less enthusiastic about having someone else actually write it for you.

The work of Retained Executive Search is to hear and interpret the candidate's voice, not a professional writer's interpretation of that voice.  A beautifully polished resume can actually make it harder to understand how the executive thinks, communicates, and describes his or her own career. 

Resume-writing skills and job-performance skills are not the same skill 

Some terrific candidates don't have terrific resumes.

A successful executive who hasn't looked for a job in 12 years may have a mediocre resume precisely because they haven't needed one.  Conversely, someone who changes jobs frequently may be exceptionally good at writing resumes and interviewing.   Neither fact tells you who will perform better in the position.  Bluntly, unless you are specifically hiring a resume writing expert, the written resume should not be used to make a final judgment about a candidate.  

Retained versus Contingent Search

In a Retained search, the client isn't paying us to collect and forward resumes.  Let me be clear: 

• Retained isn’t good and Contingent isn’t bad.  The distinction is largely in the assignment: a retained firm is engaged – and paid – to conduct the search and evaluate the market, rather than being compensated primarily when a candidate is hired. 

Retained firms are engaged to identify, recruit, interview, assess and recommend people.  If our value were simply finding resumes that match a job description, LinkedIn and AI could probably do much of our job.

Our value begins after finding the resume:

• Why did the person make each career move?
• What did they actually accomplish?
• What was their personal contribution versus the team's?
• Why did they leave?
• How do they lead?
• What motivates them?
• What aren't they telling you?

And perhaps most importantly:

• Would we put our reputation behind presenting this person to our client?

The Resume Can Be Wrong in Both Directions

A great resume can make an average candidate look exceptional.  An average resume can make an exceptional candidate look ordinary.  Neither should determine who gets serious consideration.

The resume should start the conversation – not finish the evaluation

• To candidates: don't obsess over making the resume perfect at the expense of being authentic.
• To hiring executives: there is a reason we don’t simply forward resumes.  It is critical, when we do forward a resume for an opinion, that you don't reject someone simply because their resume doesn't immediately "wow" you.  

This is one of the reasons clients hire a Retained Search Firm – to see well beyond the document. 

Today, there is yet another factor.  Virtually anyone can take an average resume and, with the help of AI, make it polished, keyword-rich and professionally written.  That makes the resume better as a marketing document but potentially less useful as evidence of the person behind it.

A resume tells you what someone has done

Search and assessment should determine how they did it, why they succeeded and whether that success will transfer to the client organization.  

After more than 30 years in Executive Search, I have seen outstanding resumes attached to average candidates – and average resumes attached to outstanding candidates. The document is important. But the person behind the document matters much more to us.

Maybe we need to treat a resume the same way we treat that carefully selected photograph.  Appreciate it for what it shows us, while remembering there is a great deal it cannot show us.

The resume is important . . . . . but the resume is not the candidate