Resume length

ajs1976

I know this has been discussed before, is it ok for a resume to be over one page?

Ex 3 jobs over 10 years, Associaties degree, working on a bachelors degree, about half dozen certs.

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ElvisG

You can but it's not suggested. The reason why is because majority of the people doing the hiring spend 5 to 10 seconds on your resume'. Goes a little something like this...

Do they have a degree? "Check"
Do they have certification? "Check"
Do they have enough experience? "Check"

Move the resume over to the maybe pile.

The end!

As fast as you can read the above is about how much time people spend reading your resume. Your resume' needs to be short and sweet with key words to get noticed.

desertmouse

1 page. Period. Unless you're applying for top management and are the sh**. In which case you're probably not needing a resume anyway. 10 years, 3 jobs, and several degrees, and certs can fit on one page easily. Less is more. And forget the action statements.

meadIT

desertmouse wrote: »

1 page. Period. Unless you're applying for top management and are the sh**. In which case you're probably not needing a resume anyway. 10 years, 3 jobs, and several degrees, and certs can fit on one page easily. Less is more. And forget the action statements.

My certs and education alone take up almost one full page

A two-pager has worked pretty well for me. I just put certs, education, and most recent job (important stuff) on the first page, then list past positions on the second page. I've had no negative feedback with this format.

astorrs

Wow I fully disagree. 2 pages is fine for someone in the mid stage of their career. Everyone who says things like "if it doesn't fit on one page they'll never read it" etc is incorrect. It's the top half of the first page that people scan and usually have decided by then if they want to continue reading or pass on the candidate all together. Only a moron would be intrigued by the top half of the first page and then toss out the resume because it had a 2nd page...

Now if you're hitting 3 pages you better be applying for a C-level role.

blargoe

astorrs wrote: »

Wow I fully disagree. 2 pages is fine for someone in the mid stage of their career. Everyone who says things like "if it doesn't fit on one page they'll never read it" etc is incorrect. It's the top half of the first page that people scan and usually have decided by then if they want to continue reading or pass on the candidate all together.

I'm with astorrs. There's now way in heck I'm getting everything into one page. What I usually tell people is be sure your strengths are on the first page. If you're a recent college grad with a few certs, emphasize that. If you have 15 years of engineering experience plus degree and certs, be sure you're mentioning that experience on the first page, and leave off lower level certs from your resume if you hold a higher one in the same track, and leave off details about your college other than your degree, your school, and the year you completed degree.

My last resume was pushing three pages, but now I can go back and pare off much of the "experience" from my early IT career that isn't relevant anymore to where I want to go in the future.

dynamik

meadIT wrote: »

My certs and education alone take up almost one full page

A two-pager has worked pretty well for me. I just put certs, education, and most recent job (important stuff) on the first page, then list past positions on the second page. I've had no negative feedback with this format.

I typically give the one-page recommendation as well, but I'm running into the same problem. The best I could do with my current revision was 1.5 pages. Most people just glance at the first one anyway, and I really don't care if my older employment history gets overlooked.

Bert McGert

Personally, I don't care about the length of a resume. If there's more info/detail than I need, I don't count it against them... I simply don't read it.

For me, the resume is used simply to determine if a candidate is worth a phone screen.

Once someone's brought in for an interview, it doesn't matter to anyone sitting at the table whether you have a 1-page resume or a 5-page resume... it's the interview itself that matters.

HeroPsycho

No way I could get my resume at this point to one page, and it hasn't hurt me at all. I can barely get mine under 2 pages.

rwwest7

If your resume is more than 1 page you better be darn sure the first page is the meat and potatoes. No filler on that first page. 99.9% of the time the second isn't even looked at.

networker050184

If you have enough stuff to legitimately fill more than one page then its fine. Filling two pages with one page worth of sound content and one page worth of fluff is not.

BradleyHU

lol...man, this is like the urban myth of the working world. unless you dont have any experience or very little, then it doesnt matter if its one page or more, as long as it is well constructed. my resume is like almost 2 pages, and i've gotten plenty of calls. I dont know some of ya'll expect to have your resume down to 1 page, if you have a bunch of jobs/positions and degrees, and certifications. plus you still have list your technical or management skills too.

blargoe

Exactly.

Though the points about getting the stuff on the first page such that it make the first cut through HR is still valid. You make it past those people, the hiring managers WILL care about the (relevant) info on pages 2 and 3. Just leave out the fluff.

kate88

Today, some people believe after 4-5 years of experience you can have two pages of information, while others think the required years of experience to warrant two pages would be 8-10 years of related job experience.

Resume Objective Examples Learn Art Resume Objective

WillTech105

dynamik wrote: »

I typically give the one-page recommendation as well, but I'm running into the same problem. The best I could do with my current revision was 1.5 pages. Most people just glance at the first one anyway, and I really don't care if my older employment history gets overlooked.

I put in my vote here as well. I've been working for about 4 years and have 1.5 pages. If I really wanted to I could cut out my FIRST employer but I'd then just have 1.25 pages so I dont think I'd hurt to keep it on.

Basically how everyone else said it here -- if you can get get the meat and your best qualifies/first employers on the first page thats all that really matters. For my personally the 2nd page is simply there for completion sake detailing my old jobs.

Paul Boz

Guys, the size of your resume is largely irrelevant. I do technical interviews after my bosses do the initial interview and 9/10 of our candidates have two page resumes. Generally the speculation about 1 page versus 2 versus more comes from people who have never worked in HR or in a hiring/firing position.

I see it this way: If being thorough with your resume means going into a second page its worth it. I'd rather an employer know fully what I'm capable of than compromise content for the sake of page length.

You can also do like I do and use split columns like a news paper. I get a lot of very good feedback about my resume's format and style. Liberal arts major, woop woop.

GT-Rob

Paul Boz wrote: »

Guys, the size of your resume is largely irrelevant.

Very true!

People get hung up on the wrong things! 1 vs 2 vs 3 pages will not make or break an interview (since thats all a resume is, is to get that interview). I really don't see anyone not getting called back, because they're resume was 1 page too long.

I say (and many recruiters have taught me), the more relevant information, the better. No don't put details about you cleaning the McDs grill during highschool, but by all means don't be afraid to go in depth into your experience in each relevant roles (or even education or skills).

blargoe

I was told in college to keep it to one page. Today, I think they told me that because in college I don't really have anything relevant to say that would take more than one page.

spaat

Ditto GT-Rob. I've been doing interviews for a Net Admin position at my company for the last 2 weeks and typically the resumes have been avg about 2 pages. My IT Director and myself have been both going over the resumes of potential candidates and never once did we make a decision to grant an interview based on number of pages. Still in all I say keep it to two if at all possible. If you have no other choice then to do three to highlight all relevant skill-sets and experience then by all means do so.

mikedisd2

No idea how anyone could fit a resume onto 1x page. Mine is 3x full pages with a 11 year work history.

A HR officer will only read the qualifications section (look at all the pretty letters). An IT manager will be checking the skillset and job history. If you've done it before, it means you can do it again.

Come on, 1x page? Why sell yourself short. Must be different in the States.

networker050184

mikedisd2 wrote: »

No idea how anyone could fit a resume onto 1x page. Mine is 3x full pages with a 11 year work history.

A HR officer will only read the qualifications section (look at all the pretty letters). An IT manager will be checking the skillset and job history. If you've done it before, it means you can do it again.

Come on, 1x page? Why sell yourself short. Must be different in the States.

With 11 years of work experience there isn't a problem with more than one page. I'm sure you have plenty of relevant information on all the pages.

I think the issue most people are speaking about are people with one or two past jobs, yet their resume is two to three pages long. Your resume isn't a detailed life story, but a short sweet attention grabber to make the employer want to bring you in for an interview. I still fit my resume on one page, but may have to move to a two page to add my current role.

Like I said before, more than one page is fine if its relevant information. A three page resume with fancy formatting and crazy borders that could fit on one without that is not ok IMO.

pipemajor

Most resumes are scanned into a database where keywords are searched and qualified candidates are selected (or missed) because of lack of pertinent information.

I've been in the workforce for over 30 years, have a total of four degrees (plus non-degree coursework from another institution) and 3 technical certs. My recent experience (i.e., first page) is mostly short-term project and contracting work. My first job out of high school lasted almost 20 years and my military service (25 years ago) was some of the best experience I've had to date.

My resume is 3 pages and I don't include every employer I've ever had. It really isn't length so much as it is readability.

I'm continually amazed at the number of candidates who don't bother to write a cover letter - or for those who do write a very poor cover letter.

RTmarc

Paul Boz wrote: »

Guys, the size of your resume is largely irrelevant. I do technical interviews after my bosses do the initial interview and 9/10 of our candidates have two page resumes. Generally the speculation about 1 page versus 2 versus more comes from people who have never worked in HR or in a hiring/firing position.

I see it this way: If being thorough with your resume means going into a second page its worth it. I'd rather an employer know fully what I'm capable of than compromise content for the sake of page length.

You can also do like I do and use split columns like a news paper. I get a lot of very good feedback about my resume's format and style. Liberal arts major, woop woop.

/thread

For the record, my resume is 2+1 pages. The first two are education, certs, experience, and skills. The final page is references.

RTmarc

pipemajor wrote: »

Most resumes are scanned into a database where keywords are searched and qualified candidates are selected (or missed) because of lack of pertinent information.

...

My resume is 3 pages and I don't include every employer I've ever had. It really isn't length so much as it is readability.

I'm continually amazed at the number of candidates who don't bother to write a cover letter - or for those who do write a very poor cover letter.

Very true. I admit I've been guilty of this a time or two. Whether or not it has hurt me I couldn't say.