How long do you think resumes should be?

katzeyez

Hi there. This is a common debate between myself and upper management....how long should a resume be? Do you feel it's best to keep it to one page or is two pages ok? I honestly like 2 page resumes better if the applicant has several jobs listed as references. I would rather have it on two pages than crammed on 1 page.

What do you think?

Don D

Two pages. Unless you're looking for an entry level worker, a one page resume is not nearly enough. Sadly, college professors tell our children that they must be limited to one page, no more than 5 bullets, run on expensive tan paper with your name italicized. Hooey!

katzeyez

That's nuts! I received one resume and the guy had the font so tiny I could hardly read it! I'm sure he was told to only use one page. If you figure an applicant has, let's say, 3 jobs he is listing, plus his education and continuing education, plus his objective and skills highlighted, it is virtually impossible to put it on 1 page!

RLnewbie

Here is something I found interesting when researching this same question a while back:

My daughter's (high school)teacher told her that more than one page was too much because no one really reads past the first page. (evidently managers have the attention span of two year olds)

My son had one college professor tell him that two pages is appropriate if your job history warrants it and a cover letter is a must, and one that told him to keep it to one page and forget the cover letter.

I agree about the font size. the only thing more annoying than a font too small to condense a resume to one page is an entry-level resumes done in a larger font to stretch it onto two pages. I felt like I was in the "large print" section of the library.

Gillian3

It makes no difference. The majority of resume's that I see have two pages. Having just reviewed a bunch of resume's for an HR position - here are the results. Twenty were two pages, four were four, one was five, and one went on forever and I quit before counting the pages.

System

I don't care if it's one or two - either is fine as long as it's not a rambling rendition of every little requisite and responsibility. I look first at what the person is currently doing, then glance down at education, then back again to bullets.

Seems the trendy terms is CV as opposed to Resume'. I still like 'resume.'

Pork

KATZEYES: What is important to me is a job history that aligns with the potential position in which we are searching. Length does not matter to me. I learned many days ago to "read in" those persons with whom I feel there is a potential match for the position. Screening and resume/application review should never be done to "read out/weed out candidates".

Some that are to long for some of our managers and bosses that want a "one pager or a two pager", I telephone interview, those that I then bring to the party for telephone or face to face interviews with another person in the company, I will assist them in cutting their resumes to fit the management's needs. I have even taken the opportunity in a hurry to produce a memo which high-lites the key parts of the long resume and provided it to the manager who is in need of preparation prior to the contact.

PORK

mwild31

1-2 pages are perfectly acceptable to me as long as the font is legible, the jobs listed show progression from one title/position to the next and the accompanied descriptions follow suit. If, however, the candidate has moved around to several jobs, all are different or it's extremely hard to follow the logic of the choices, then I prefer a 1 page functional resume with skills/abilities/accomplishments listed first and then at the bottom a simple summary of positions held & length of service at each position. At this point, and this is only my opinion, resumes 3 pages or beyond show to me that the applicant has missed the point of the resume - they're there only to open a door, not get you a job - that's where the interview(s) comes into play.

Whatever

I prefer two pages tops. That gives me the summary to determine who I want to interview. Over two pages is usually full of inflated garbage such as information about how as a cashier at the local newstand they managed to increase sales to $10 million and cut costs by 75%.

Don D

Ha! I like that one! Reminds me of all those Sales Executives' resumes I've seen. At one point in my life, I started asking the question in every one of those interviews, "Tell me about that. How was it that you were able to turn sales around and increase market penetration by 65% in ten months?" I never did get an answer that had anything to do with the question.

Pricehcs

The most classic line I remember on a resume was "I single-handedly revolutionized the real-estate industry!" The guy was a programmer that worked on one of the first websites that brought the MLS information online. Not his idea, not his project, he was just a grunt techie. Gave him high marks for salesmenship, but unfortunately for him, his technical prowess did not meet this same level of achievement...

#1 thing a consultant shouldn't say: "I could tell you the answer right now, but we're committed to a three month project..." #-o

HRGuyMS

Two pages. Three if they include references. I recently received a nine page resume. I stopped reading after the third page.