How Long Should your Resume Be

How Long Should your Resume Be How Long Should your Resume Be Of course, as the years go by and you find yourself winning awards and adding to your volunteer and work experience, it has probably become much mora difficult to sell yourself using just that one page. But what about the age-old advice? Doesnt that ring true anymore?Truth be told, it does not and the prevalence of one-paged resumes is lessening. You will still see candidates who have one page, but they are, for the most pspecies, college graduates or those who have very little experience. If youve been around the block (and we are talking more than a few years of experience) then it is perfectly acceptable to have your resume move into the big leagues and use two pages.With a fresh start of just eight days into the new year, many people are still seeking employment so, fine-tuning your resume for 2013 may not be a bad thing.One important piece of advice is that if your resume is two pages and youre sending in a paper co py, avoid making that copy two sided because, chances are, whoever is reading it wont think to flip the page over. It seems like common sense, but you would be surprised at the number of people who dont regularly look at the backs of pages. Im guilty of doing this too.Perspectives differ on including references in the second or final page of a resume. Including references available upon request at the bottom of a resume is a waste of space if you are applying for a position recruiters will rightfully assume you already have a reference. An editor I know once said HR managers are going to ask for references anyway, so why not just give the names to them?If your resume is longer than three pages (which it should definitely not be, unless you have 20+ years of experience) then there are a few ways that you can whittle it down to two pages.If your career objective still heads up your resume, it needs to be removed immediately. Why? Well, if youre applying for a job at a healthcare organ ization, isnt your objective to secure a position as (insert the position you are applying for here) in healthcare? It is redundant and in some cases, it can hurt you.Point in case, I sent out a job posting for a Personal Support Worker and received a resume with an objective that said Looking to secure a position in retail as a customer service agent. Well, what are you doing applying for a job working as a health care aide? If you do have a career objective listed, make sure it is accurate and up-to-date.Other great ways to reduce clutter is to keep your skills list to just the essentials and get rid of any experience that isnt relevant or that is more than two decades old.From an experience standpoint, Ill tell you that people who have pages long- were talking anywhere between three and five pages- applying for even a senior or executive level position rarely get hired. Its overkill, plain and simple.So as a good rule of thumb, unless you have decades of work experience or extrem ely specific technical expertise that you need to include, keep your resume between 1-3 pages.Master the art of closing deals and making distribution policyments. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.How Long Should Your Resume Be The question of how long a resume should be has been a subject of debate among professionals for amany years, but the fact is that relevance and substance are the keys to determining the proper length of any resume. Additionally, your years of experience, key achievements, number of employers, audience, industry, and career goals should be factored into the decision as well.Helping You DecideIf you are a recent college graduate, changing careers, have less than10 years of work experience, or have held multipleroles with the same employer, a one-page res ume is generally sufficient to showcase your skills, qualifications, and achievements.However, bear in mind that you do not want to miss out on an opportunity by omitting important relevant details for the sake of keeping the resume limited to a certain number of pages.To help streamline your resume, lets say you are a project manager with an extensive project portfolio. If youd like to include more career highlights in your resume than one page allows for, try adding an addendum. The addendum is not specifically a part of your resume more a supplement that organizations can look over once your resume has enticed them to learn more about you.It is important to note that there is no blanket rule that works for everyone. The idea here is to allow relevance and substance to primarily drive your decision regarding the length of your resume.What to Cut and What to IncludeRecruiters are looking for position fit, relevance, and brevity. Your professional resume is a marketing tool, not a biography.Carefully consider your quantifiable scope of achievements, interpersonal skills, abilities, endorsements, awards, certifications, and education in an effort to use your resume real estate wisely. When possible, highlight instances where you saved money, improved processes, or led a team to achieve a key milestone within your opening statements and within different positions to show how your competencies align with your target companies and/or roles.Use LinkedIn as ExtraSpaceRegardless of your career stage, LinkedIn can be a great place to showcase internships, projects, recommendations from colleagues or clients, community involvement, hobbies, interests, coursework, and publications while also including an extended skills profile.Web portfolios or personal websites are also additional avenues to further communicate your brand, personality, causes you are passionate about, and interests.Focus on RelevancyKeeping in mind the 10-second human scan, tailor your professionall y written resume for each position and utilize a compelling qualifications summary or headline stated in roughly 3-4 sentences to help strengthen your connection with the human reviewer.Considering the resume is a marketing tool, information should be presented in a focused, clear, attention-grabbing, and easy-to-read layout. I often recommend keeping a master version of your resume that houses many of your career milestones, jobs, education/training details, and accomplishments. Update the master resume as your leadership career advances, you change jobs, you get promoted, or you expand the scope of your responsibilities.Then, as you apply for jobs, this will allow you to plug and play relevant information as needed for each targeted position. Avoid being too wordy on the resume, as some of the job details can be discussed during an interview.Build out your professional experience section with possibly 3-5 succinctly written, keyword-rich bullets per job to showcase your accomplish ments, as opposed tosimplyarticulating your duties and responsibilities. (Note In some cases, it may be necessary to extend the bullets beyond 3-5, depending on the amount of relevant information you have to share.)Try describing job details in two-line bullets for each position. This helps to keep your writing concise and offers great skimmability for the human reviewer.Utilize white space appropriately i.e., the final page of your resume should extend to at least half of the page. If it doesnt try to scale back so that your resume fits without bleeding over. Keep relevancy in mind when making cuts, and think about what kind of information you could better showcase elsewhere, like on LinkedIn.Many companies use keyword searches to find and sort resumes, so you should balance your soft skills with industry-specific keywords to align yourself with the positions requirements. The key takeaway here is to avoid writing a general resume that details every skill, responsibility, and trai ning course, youve ever had or engaged in.Increasing your marketability includes writing a high-impact professional resume deeply rooted in compelling content that succinctly conveys your qualifications for a given, targeted role.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.