Job-Seeking Executives Dissatisfied with Their Own Resume

Job-Seeking Executives Dissatisfied with Their Own Resume

61% Say They ìKnow it could be Betterî in TheLadders.com Survey

10% Admit to Having Lied

Job seekers at the top of the pay scale are wrestling with the quality of their resumes, according to a survey conducted by executive job search service TheLadders.com. When asked: ìHow would you rate your confidence in the quality of your resume;î 61% of the surveyís 590 respondents answered: ìI like it, but I know it could be better.î

I like it but it could be better
61%

Itís perfect
23%

It needs help
11%

Not sure what separates good from bad
5%

How confident are you in the quality of your resume?

While the clear majority of executives strode the line between complacence and doubt about the quality of their resumes, 23% of those surveyed are brimming with confidence, stating that their resumes are ìperfect.î Eleven percent of executives responding to the survey say they know their resumes ìneed help,î and 5% say they ìdonít really know what separates a good resume from a bad oneî (see table at right).

ìThe growth of online recruiting has placed a much more significant emphasis on the first line of communication, making an air-tight resume absolutely essential,î explained TheLadders.com founder and president, Marc Cenedella. ìOur readers, who represent a cross section of the nationís top $100K talent, have recognized that we live in a world where recruiters receive 200 or more applications for every high-level opening. Accordingly, savvy executives are starting to treat their resumes as sales brochures ñ direct marketing tools that need to be regularly tweaked and polished to generate the best response rate possible.î

The survey of registered $100k executives was conducted on TheLadders.com Web site from July 1 through July 31, 2004. The margin of error is 4.02%.

In a related survey of 437 executives, 10% of respondents admitted to having lied on their resumes. This survey was also conducted online at TheLadders.com, with a margin of error of 4.68%.

Now reaching over 120,000 readers, TheLadders.com has succeeded in this exclusive slice of the market by turning the traditional recruitment business model upside down: it does not accept money from hiring firms, recruiters, or recruitment advertising agencies. Each month, the TheLadders.com team of experts reviews over 160,000 jobs to select more than 10,000 jobs for inclusion in their weekly newsletters. The company searches the Internet for job postings, or, alternatively, employers can list them free of charge ñ a critical difference from traditional job boards because it enables TheLadders.com to list every appropriate $100k job opening on the market, not just paid listings.

This distinction allows TheLadders.com to filter out any questionable job listings that do not meet the companyís standards. TheLadders.com does not charge a fee for its basic job leads newsletter for job seekers. Instead, it generates revenues by offering a premium service to job seekers, which includes a greater number of job listings, more detail, early delivery, and more features for $25 per month. TheLadders.comís premium service fee keeps unqualified candidates out of the applicant pool and, thus, encourages employers to look at TheLadders.com applicants first.

Marc Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in July 2003 after a tenure as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, at HotJobs.com, ultimately shepherding that companyís sale to Yahoo, Inc. (NASD: YHOO) in 2002. In May 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by award-winning marketing newsletter, MarketingSherpa, which cited TheLadders.comís unique business model as a key to its sustained growth.