Short or long? Deciding the Ideal Resume Length
This article gives the Rule of Thumb regarding the resume length.
Many a times, when constructing a resume, questions that might pop are:
- How long should my resume be?
- Is there any basic guideline to follow regarding the number of pages for a resume?
- If you have lots of information to communicate, should you extend the resume to more than one page?
The great debate – should it be a one-page resume or a two-page resume?
According to Jennifer Brooks, a senior associate director of the MBA Career Management Center – one page it is.
Why? Because managers and recruiters are busy people and don’t have time to read about every single skill you have, all your hobbies, and everywhere you’ve worked.
They want to know at a glance whether you have what it takes to get the job done.
So how long is too long when it comes to resumes?
Read on.
What Employers Expect
There is no set standard for how many pages your resume should be exactly. No attentive, discerning employer judges you by a specific, set number of resume pages.
Instead, the employer expects to see verifiable, well-organized, honest information, impressive achievements, and positive character traits reflected in the content as well as the clarity and professionalism of the writing.
The Debate Continues: One Page vs Two Page Resume
What is the balancing act of page count and information?
Advantages of a One Page Resume
Think of your resume as an advertisement. It doesn’t need to be comprehensive, not a novel.
Think of an ad you recently seen for a restaurant. Did it list everything on the menu or did it just give you some highlights and then sell it. Tell you why they are the best and why you should come to their restaurant. That’s what your resume needs to be done.
Why Two Page Resume and When it’s Appropriate?
Can a resume be more than one page? The answer is – Yes.
The general consensus among recruiters and hiring managers is that a one-page resume is optimal, but they also recognize that there are times when a longer resume will be necessary.
A resume can be two pages in certain career/experience cases. If you have been in the job market for many years and have had a long career, or if you have a variety of experience, it might be impossible to fit on a one-page resume.
Balancing Information and Page Count –
How to Keep Your Resume Concise and Relevant
1.) Design is Important
The design of your resume is actually more important than the length of your resume.
When you create a one-page resume, but all the information is crammed onto the page it will present to bad it will never get looked at.
That same information put to two pages allows for white space and makes it easy to read so it has the potential to be short-listed.
2.) Summary Statement
Rather than using a career objective think about using a summary statement.
Recruiters and hiring managers want to know your skills and focus on a nutshell and a summary does just that.
3.) Focus on Recent Job History
The longer you’ve been working the more likely you have a significant job history.
Your recruiter or hiring manager doesn’t need to know what you did 10 years ago. Instead focus more on your current accomplishments and job history. If your job skills are repetitive from one job to another you don’t need a list of skills repeated.
4.) Compromise the Resume Length
There is always a middle ground that can be found.
One option is to create a one-page resume for the recruiter and then a two-page detailed resume for the hiring manager who is looking to see more information.
5.) Focus on the Relevant Experience and Skills
The two-page resume format is okay, but anything longer is not acceptable.
With a longer resume the optimal way to present your resume is with a chronological resume format. If your experiences are long, you need to focus and add only that which is relevant to the position you are applying for.
Leave out information that won’t help you get an interview.
6.) The Content, Not Number of Pages
Both writing experts and employers themselves agree that the resume length itself does not matter.
What matters is that your content is relevant, honest, neatly expressed without typos, and is impressive or at least indicative of potential.
7.) Catch Attention of Employers
Employers never immediately read the entire resume. They look it over for interesting details. If they find it, they go on reading.
So, the important thing is not whether your resume is one page or two three pages. The important mission is to catch the attention of the employer on the first page, then present just enough relevant information.
How Far Back Should Resumes Go
1.) A Good Rule of Thumb
Experts agree they aren’t too concerned about your employment that’s from 15 years ago or longer, and the majority are now setting the cutoff at 10 years.
However, in recent years are few have raised the bar to 5 years unless if there is nothing relevant prior to that date. You can quickly see there’s no standardization here but a good rule of thumb when it comes to how far back to go on your resume is 10 years.
2.) Be Your Own Judge
Let’s look how far back to go on resume dates in specific circumstances.
Great now you’ve got the rule of thumb that 10 years is the maximum but the most relevant experience you have to offer occurred 12 years ago so what do you do?
In a nutshell, be your own judge. Here’s another good rule of thumb – go back as far as you must to include relevant experience. Don’t be afraid to shorten up the details and include just relevant points.
3.) It’s a Bit of a Gamble
Creating your resume is a bit of gambling, after all nothing is cut in stone.
Nothing is as simple as you might think and there is never one right answer here. Those experts that tell you your resume must be one page, or it must not include more than 10 years of work history are doing you a disservice. Putting your experience to paper may not always be the best thing for you.
Maybe you spent five years jumping around trying to figure out what you did, then you took two years off for parental leave, and then you finally landed that job that you loved. You may not want to include all the irrelevant experiences.
After all, jumping around might scare off a hiring manager. Then again there may be some experience back there that could benefit you. So, you see it’s a bit of a calculated risk and while there are guidelines there is no one right answer.
Determining the Right Length
So how much is too much? That depends.
- If you have tons of it, select only the best and most relevant information.
- If you have little to no experience, try to stretch it so it still appears decent and honest, not padded out.
The # of pages is not as important as the relevancy of information and how well it is organized.
Remember that – The amount of information depends on the position you are seeking, your work history and any application guidelines the company itself might have given you in the job description.
In the end, whatever goes in must be well-organized, verifiable and relevant.
Think of its relevancy: Again, for many professionals one page resume length is too short – The blanket is too short for them.
Therefore, if you have many years of professional experience, plus you are a good fit for the position, you’re not expected to write it all in one page.
If you have less professional experience under your belt, give related information. Information that does not immediately appear to be relevant to the job can often be formulated so that it does.
However, do not pad out your resume with irrelevant information just because you think it is too short – irrelevant information is easily noticed by experienced employers, and they are not impressed by it.
In conclusion,
Recruiters and hiring managers alike agree on one thing – the key to writing any resume is to choose the elements you include with care.
Based on your background and skills, you can refer to a one-page resume template or a two-page resume template to help you create the best possible resume.
Your resume has only one goal – that’s to impress the reader, whether that’s a recruiter or a hiring manager, with your experiences and qualifications that are relevant to the position you are applying for.
The focus is on your most recent activities and the most recent years.
Stick to the experience that counts and give the hiring manager or recruiter a snapshot of who you are, and make sure you land on the short list.