Sharing some Twitter conversations (in my Twitter alias -- ExperienceLive) with resume experts from around the country lately has been illuminating for me, since the topic of what makes or unmakes a great resume is like a bad traffic accident -- you just can't turn away.

Some of the "controversial" resume advice that I saw:

• one-page vs. two-page resumes (it depends)
• functional vs. chronological resume (it depends)
• objective vs. personal brand statement (it depends)
• not enough vs. too much information (it depends)
• hard skills vs. soft skills (both)
• keywords (yes)
• expertise, not responsibilities (yes)
• love of iguanas (no -- please, no!)

A few things are pretty clear -- there's a lot of confusion and a lot of differing opinions out there about resumes, how they should look, what should be included or excluded. How do I know this, personally?

True story -- I met with some members of a respected outplacement firm a while back, and they analyzed and helped me revise my own resume. Here's the kicker, though. After the first meeting with one analyst, I revised my resume exactly as she suggested.

The next day, I met with a second analyst, who also recommended that I revise a number of items. Fascinating, since I showed him the version with the changes I had made based on the first analyst's advice. More fascinating, since many of his recommendations involved deleting or changing some of the items suggested by analyst #1. (Note: afterwards, I went back to my original resume -- sometimes you just have to trust yourself!)

OK, aside from the question of who is really an expert, here's an alternate question: how much do you really know about good resume writing? After a lot of conversations about resumes and other things, I've concluded that most people -- regardless of the amount of career experience -- know more about Vampires than about resumes. And, despite its lack of depth in career guidance, you're probably far more interested in seeing a new vampire movie (Vampire's Assistant opens next weekend) than a webinar on resume writing.

What about you, where do you get your resume advice from? Career experts or Vampires?

[Vampire Poll update -- friends and experts tied for sources of resume advice. Twitter came in next, and Vampires did score 1 vote (let us know how you did with a Vampire-approved resume, OK?)]

photo by wonderferret