Resume tip #7: Don’t go over two pages

Previous posts in series:

• Resume tip #1: Use numbers to tell stories about your accomplishments
• Resume tip #2: Eliminate grammar and spelling errors
• Resume tip #3: Don’t use unusual colors (or get too fancy in other ways)
• Resume tip #4: Include or do not include an objective in your resume, depending on the circumstances
• Resume tip #5: Don’t concoct appealing but spurious details or falsely embellish (i.e., lie)
• Resume tip #6: Don’t plagiarize

Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager for a moment. You are looking at resumes. You are hoping to find the right person for a job. You need to hire someone–it’s mission-critical. Which type of resume would you rather look at?

Resume #1: It’s three pages long and full of detailed job descriptions. Yet nothing really jumps out at you. There are no numbers, nothing to tell you just how successful this person was. You are forced to slog through the verbiage, doing your best to guess what the person’s career has been about.

Resume #2: It’s one page long. Accomplishments jump out at you, backed up by numbers. Much is said with few words.

Needless to say, resume #2 is preferable.

In the world of recruiting, we see a lot of resumes. Some people genuinely seem to believe that putting as much information (relevant or not) as possible in two or more pages will impress the reader through its sheer volume. To the contrary, hiring managers are, as a rule, impressed–and relieved–by brevity and order.

As for the actual page count, one page is best. Even in this era of electronic documents, a one-page PDF has a certain appealing neatness to it that multi-page resumes can’t match. If your career is not too long, it’s better to chisel away the less relevant and more distant facts of your career and make things fit on one page.

Those with longer careers may find they simply have to use two pages. That said, less is still more. Try to use only part of the second page instead of filling it with text.

Just as brevity is the soul of wit, it’s also the soul of a good resume!

Matt
The Key Corporate Services Blog Team