I admit that I’m a resume freak. Resumes are one of my passions. I think that a great resume is one of the biggest and best weapons in your job search.

And I’ve seen a lot of them. A whole lot of them. As an executive recruiter, I’d say that I read about a hundred resumes in the average week. Add that up over 15+ years as a recruiter and job-search coach, and that is one heck of a lot of resumes. Short, long, fancy, plain, all styles and approaches.

Lately, it has occurred to me, the worst resumes I see are from the three job categories you might actually expect would result in the best resumes: marketing people, human resources people, and CEOs.

Really, I’m stumped. I mean, aren’t these the people who should know better?

It would seem natural to assume that someone who is, say, in charge of marketing for a company with cool tech products would hold some real reverence for the power of a brochure or ad or any kind of written collateral that needs to impress the potential customer. I’d think they would apply their talents of branding and marketing strategy to their resumes, and create a document with some personality or presence. It seems pretty obvious to me that someone whose very job requires that they oversee making beautiful marketing materials for their company would illustrate that same ability with their own resume.

But that is not really the case. I have definitely seen some off-the-hook gorgeous and impeccable resumes from a few marketing folks in my years, but honestly, most of the resumes I see for marketing executives could be described as much closer to sucking. Big time. I have received resumes of senior marketing execs with layouts whose margins ran off of the page, whose bullets that changed format from one section to the next, who made truly ugly font choices, had glaringly misspelled words, and who wrote gibberish never-ending descriptions that were impossible to actually read or comprehend.

Another surprising group is CEOs, those people tasked with the overall success of a company and who need to have a big picture as well as knowledge of each of the elements of business success. CEOs often have horrifyingly bad resumes. Text formatted so nothing aligns properly, tiny typefaces compressed into huge wide blocks of text that jumble your brain just to look at them, 15 pages of dense overly detailed text, or big missing pieces of information that leave the reader wondering where they worked and what they actually did.

Overall, I often am left with the impression that they had created the whole thing themselves, and even though they know how to format a document, or how to run spellcheck or edit their work, they didn’t bother to enlist the necessary support they needed from someone who did know how to do those things. If they run their company like they create their resume, that is not a good start. It sure doesn’t make much of a first impression of competence, does it?

When recruiting for human resources people, I am always surpised at the number of resumes that are poorly written, badly laid out, or simply not very special. I’d expect HR people to have seen enough resumes to know what works and what doesn’t, but it doesn’t seem to pan out that way.

On top of that, I’m getting a surprising number of functional resumes from HR people. I am not a fan of functional resumes, and I assumed others who worked on my side of the desk would agree. This style of resume makes me feel like I’m on a quiz show where I’m supposed to match the accomplishment on one page with the jobs listed at the end of another entirely separate section. And if I don’t do the puzzle right, I may misunderstand the person’s background and move on to the next resume, and what might have been a great candidate is left wondering why they didn’t get the interview.

Showing your own personality, and your area of expertise will set your resume apart. If you’re an HR person, then show that you understand the challenges of HR, and you understand exactly what the recruiter needs to see. And since you have access to seeing resumes in your own job, you know what average resumes look like. Make yours look outstanding.

If you’re a marketing executive, then your resume very clearly illustrates your taste and approach, your ability to create powerful and persuasive copy, and your design sense.You know what good marketing materials look like, and your resume is a brochure about you. Let your resume show your talent.

If you’re a CEO, then show that you have high standards for the quality of work you’re willing to put your name on, and that you have an ability to see the big picture and then present it in an executive summary kind of way. The personality of your resume is communicating who you are as a manager and a leader. Make sure it shows you in the very best light.

Your resume is often the only thing someone has to go on to decide whether to interview you or not. Good or bad, it shows the reader how you think and how good you are at your job, so make it be as great as you are, and make sure it showcases the aspects of you that are going to get you the job.

This would probably be a good time to mention that if you go to www.TheJobSearchGuru.com, you can sign up for my newsletter and get a copy of my ebook Ten Reasons Your Resume Ends Up in the Trash (and what you can do about it). One never knows…. ;^)