The first thing in your list should be "KNOW YOUR MARKET" .....

Item number 7 (Seek advise from managers ...) is the key item.

I'll use Toronto as an example.

As you've hinted ... managers and headhunters (internal or otherwise) ... are looking for different things. You've explained what managers are looking for quite clearly. However, the headhunters are looking for tag words and the RIGHT format (read my way or the highway) and most of all - a little (predetermined) box they can slot you into.

Unless, you can bypass the headhunters and deal directly with the managers, writing a resume for the managers will bring nothing but heartache as the gatekeepers rip your hard work to shreds and demand that you rewrite to their format.

Now, 10 years ago, I would have said that your advice would work in Toronto. 20 years ago I would have said that was the only way. If you could get the resume on a manager's desk it would be scanned and if interesting, forwarded to HR for contact. If you couldn't get it on a manager's desk, there were always external headhunters who could. These people handled both sides of the market and were often former managers and/or technicians. A good one understood the market, the technology relationships and the duties of different jobs.

Today, in Toronto, it won't work. Why? Today, the manager will just send it over to HR. Effectively, the process has reversed. HR scans the resume, decides who is interesting and then forwards their best guess to the manager.

And the external headhunters have been gobbled by the big companies. Now, you'll contact a person who deals only with hiring and they'll come out of an HR background. They won't understand the market, won't know the technology beyond the buzzword let alone the relationships and believe that a job title accurately describes the position.

All of which means that if your resume doesn't fit into the buzz-word list and isn't in the format they think is best then it'll never get to the manager's desk.

Not a good thing for any one ... but that's the reality in the Toronto market (I'm not going to go into the why but there are reasons for the change).

In short, you need to be aware of your audience before taking advice like this. And your audience is determined by the market you are in. You may need multiple resumes ... one that you send to the HR types and one to hand to the manager. Only by knowing your market will you know what you really need.