More and more executive mobility is going beyond borders, especially outside the United States, with individuals seeking a fast-track having a willingness to go where the action is in the market for top talent. This movement of course, is predicated on the industry sector or market vertical for any executive, but the globalization of the workplace provides worldwide opportunities in any sector or vertical.

Languages fluency can be an advantage, but not a deal-breaker that inhibits relocating to new global markets, given that English seems now to be the universal business communications tool. The cultural differences are diminishing rapidly as we converge iPhones or Blackberries in hand to a common communication style with one another.

Resumes (CVs) are the most ubiquitous tool of the job search in any country. Though their emphasis in the initial search process is decreasing, eventually one needs to have something tangible to handover to human resources/personnel for their records. Certainly it is assumed that the hiring manager would want a document to review and use as a contextual format for the actual interview with a candidate.

We still erroneously assume resume styles diverge markedly from one another in Asia, Europe and the Americas, where in fact they are converging. The new global resume is an amalgam of the more modern USA look with the content expectations of Europe and Asia. This is because former notions of resume construction have dissolved or gone by the wayside with the advent of the internet.

Length of the Resume

If you are not writing an academic CV - this has remained fairly traditional and consistent - then the conventional wisdom about the length of a resume is now blurred across continents. The dated rule of the one page resume lingers only in the MBA resume book, and for executives in the workplace, the length of a resume has no hard and fast rules.

The one page resume in the USA has given way to multiple pages because when read digitally, as 99% are nowadays, the length is ignored while scrolling down the screen. Thus, American resumes have come more into alignment with the typical length of European and Asian resume standards, e.g. two or more pages.

BlueSteps members can access the full article to learn about the etiquette of photos, how to present personal information, which language to use and how to format your resume. See below for more details:

Author - Patti Wilson

Patti Wilson has coached Fortune 500 and start-up executives on how to optimize their careers and successfully transition to new opportunities. Join BlueSteps to  gain access to her knowledge and expertise through full length articles and a complimentary career consultation.