Should a resume be one page only?

edzyyy

On my last resume, I had a lot of useless fat.

After shaving it off and rewording things, it seems as if I don't have any experience

Could that be why employers aren't contacting me for interviews?

My brother looked over it..and told me I should rid of the bullets since it's "old school".

I've only been applying for entry level positions that I know I could do.

What do you guys think?

Here's a link incase the attachment doesn't work
http://i.imgur.com/k8MjZYd.png

dave330i

Bullets are old school? What are you suppose to use now?

I like 2 pages. Give you enough room to elaborate all the stuff you've done w/out it becoming a book.

pert

If you've had less than 2 "real" jobs, then yeah, it probably should be 1 page. If you've had multiple real jobs, it should be 2 pages. If youre a doctor or scholar its probably going to be 4-7. Context matter, not arbitrary rules.

Also, its a sales document. People are not interested in reading it. If youre not pitching your product strong in the first couple seconds of them reading theyre not going to read the whole thing. They have no interest in reading the whole thing unless you make them interested. No one goes around reading other people's resumes for fun. If you havent told them why they should hire you within the first paragraph they aint going to keep looking for it most of the time.

blargoe

I have never believed in one-page resumes, but I do believe that the reviewer of the resume needs to know your strengths and what you can do for them before they get to the end of page one, if that makes sense.

I put the stuff that I want to emphasize on the first page, and put relevant information on the next page if I need another page. My current resume has my earlier work history on page 2, and I have cleaned up those areas to only include a brief summary of projects, accomplishments, and a description of my role at that company.

cruwl

I'm a big fan of a 2 page resume as long as it has enough meat to it. I have been using a 2 page resume for about the last 2 years and it helped me get several interviews and land my last 2 positions.

Yours does look a little cramped, maybe space it out a little more. Add some more details to you experience section and break out your certs to accent them better?

Just my 2 cents, good luck.

ptilsen

There's no collective agreement here. We've gone back and forth on it for pages in multiple threads. I'm in the one-or-two-page-depending-on-your-career-level-but-holy-crap-never-more-than-two crowd. Some are one-page-only-no-exceptions-are-you-crazy? crowd, and others are in the I-don't-get-it-make-it-as-long-as-it-needs-to-be crowd. Search and see if you can find any of the other threads.

If you have some good experience you need to talk about, I'm definitely in favor of making it two. Mine's at two and always will be. From what I see of yours, though, there are probably different changes I would look at before adding a second page.

GarudaMin

I need at least 3 and I am only writing down what I did in the previous 2 jobs. The rest of the jobs, I just put the company names and titles. Can't find ways to make it less even with smaller fonts. Education and certifications taking like half a page and they are all relevant ones.

NetworkVeteran

I have no problem summarizing a dozen years of experience on one page, but if you must write more, at least ensure anything you really want recruiters/employers to read goes on page one, and preferably the top of that page.

edzyyy wrote: »

After shaving it off and rewording things, it seems as if I don't have any experience

At a glance, it looks like 6.5 years of experience, with curious gaps and overlaps to explain.

Could that be why employers aren't contacting me for interviews?

I doubt it. With only one page to look at, it's easy for an employer to match the top line that says "over 5 years of experience" with the three job items that sound IT related.

My brother looked over it..and told me I should rid of the bullets since it's "old school".

::shrug::

What do you guys think?

I think I'd work on polishing what you have. Some of the wordings are clumsy. Be specific about what you actually did. For example, "Made recommendations for customers based on their particular needs for and designed plans for complete solutions." Wow, lots of fancy words. Now what did you actually do? And "ensured profitable department sales" -- how did you do that?

blargoe

GarudaMin wrote: »

I need at least 3 and I am only writing down what I did in the previous 2 jobs. The rest of the jobs, I just put the company names and titles. Can't find ways to make it less even with smaller fonts. Education and certifications taking like half a page and they are all relevant ones.

Curious, how much are you putting down for education? Anything more info than "ABC University, BS Information Systems, May 2010" is too much if you have a bunch of experience and certifications, IMO, unless you achieved some kind of honor beyond just having the degree.

MrAgent

My resume is about 2 and a half pages, but I have been in IT since 96. So I have a number of years of experience. I was always told it should be 1 page for every 5 or so years with a max of 3 pages.

Michael2

Maybe they just look at your resume and figure you can't do anything for them. I have to say it's not impressive. It looks to me like your knowledge and experience is installing computers and killing viruses. I don't know what to tell you. Learn Linux, get more certs.

eLs

you need to learn skills that companies want and just maintaining basic computer systems aint going to cut it. trust me i had the same issue and i got here and started on gathering server skills first since that is a minimum for entry level jobs. active directory, permissions, helpdesk experience is a must. interview i got was only because i setup servers and domains for a small business. everything else was how good they liked me in person and am able to be taught.

while fixing up your resume keep learning more skills on the side and cert up. it took me a while to figure it out in my stubborn head and still learning (crappy resume here too). fix up your linkedin account and put it in your resume as well.

hit up that school as well never lose connections with people you will be surprised when they hear about a job before someone else and that might give you an edge. in the mean time study and lab up the server skills first and then move up on either cisco networking or more microsoft stuff to see if someone will give you a shot.

WintersKnight

Hey there Edz!

Just recently joined the site and to be honest I have yet to even enter the workforce (USN veteran 4+ years) but in preparation of separating I attended a class just about resume writing.

http://www.dol.gov/vets/tap/F-TAPSupplement-CreateanEffectiveResume8.9.07.pdf

This is just about the same thing that we went through. Personally I was extremely grateful for the lessons and feel a lot more comfortable with my own resume writing skills after looking through this. Definitely worth the twenty minutes of reading. I went with the Combination-style (admittedly with my own unique style) and couldn't be happier.

GarudaMin

blargoe wrote: »

Curious, how much are you putting down for education? Anything more info than "ABC University, BS Information Systems, May 2010" is too much if you have a bunch of experience and certifications, IMO, unless you achieved some kind of honor beyond just having the degree.

Well, entire resume is more than 2 pages. For education/certification section I have (this is just for example) and I list up to high school due to honor:

Education
Graduate university name and year
* Graduate degree title and honor such as cum laude or valedictorian

Undergraduate university name and year
* Undergraduate degree title and honor such as cum laude or valedictorian

High school name and year
* honor such as cum laude or valedictorian

Certifications
*Security Cert 1
*Security Cert 2
*Security Cert 3
*Security Cert 4
*Security Cert 5
*Security Cert 6
*Related Cert 1
*Related Cert 2
*Related Cert 3
*Related Cert 4

21 lines on education and certification (but I list them at the end of other sections). My first page has 4 lines of summary of qualifications and my current job experience. And I have about 3 more things I have not listed yet under current job experience. I did not want current job experience to get to 2nd page. I should list them but there're so many information and I can't seem to narrow them down.
Your inputs would be appreciated. The reason I can't narrow down is I did everything from setting up IDS/IPS, APTs, NAC (perimeter defenses) to endpoint defenses (DLP, AV, encryption), etc. I also handle penetration testing, vulnerability assessment and so many things that cover the whole spectrum of information security. Each bullet point is two lines long. For example, I can't just say I did NAC in a bullet point. I say
*Designed and implemented name_of_NAC to block unauthorized devices, restrict guest/contractor devices, remediate non-compliance systems and detect misuse or abuse of systems and applications.