I think that it’s fairly obvious that with the internet we are still in the ‘wild west’ phase, where no one quite knows what is going on. And it is ‘cooler’ to say things like ‘ditch the resume’ than to give solid advice like you give here. Especially because it can be easier and more fun to add some fancy graphics to your resume rather than do the harder, and more useful, work of tailoring your resume to the specific situation (which I think means not only industry, but company and position).

Regarding the staples — I hear what you’re saying. And maybe this is a matter of preference on the part of the recruiter. But, for those professionals sorting through stacks of physical resumes, many of which are two pages these days, paper clips are a serious nuisance. They cling to one another and can collect pages above and below them which can mix stuff up. Staples prevent that. But whatever; if you’ve been told that’s a serious no-no, don’t do it. But to say that pulling a staple out is too difficult to do without damage isn’t, in my opinion, really a valid reason to avoid staples altogether. Others may disagree with me so I’d say that a staple or paperclip, whichever you choose, will likely not get your resume thrown out or in.

Regarding the contact info and page numbers – look, whenever you send a document that has multiple pages to any business you MUST assume the pages will get separated. It happens all the time. If your resume gets pulled apart, how is anyone to know which pages go together unless they see your matching contact info? If you just want to put your name, that’s fine. But if the page that has your phone number gets lost and they want to reach you, you’ve just lost the interview. I say, better safe than sorry. Stick it in the header or footer if you’re concerned about space. Page numbers – again, if the pages get separated (which they will 90% of the time—yes, that’s a wild guess) how is anyone to know that you sent over a two page document? If they’re looking at 1 page, with no indication that there is a second, that’s all they’re looking at. We all do this with faxes for the same reason. It’s another “better safe than sorry” thing. But again, it probably won’t get you tossed in or out of the game.