A Longer Resume

I get the Ask the Headhunter newsletter as one way of keeping in touch with job and employment trends. Recently they had a post about resumes, and whether a 3 page resume is too long.

The post is really good, and covers some of the advice I’ve given in the past. Networking is your best resource for finding a job, and a resume doesn’t get you the interview.

Usually.

There are times that resumes do help. Some hiring people (HR, managers, recruiters) do struggle to get referrals, so they count on resumes. You shouldn’t, but be aware the resume does still matter.

What about Length?

The traditional advice in the US is one page. That has grown to two pages, but is three pages too long? As in the post, what I’d say is that the important thing is that you deliver some value to the reader. Let the hiring manager, or hiring filter person know right away that you are a good fit.

Don’t put keywords first. That’s a waste of the six, 30, or 60 seconds I might give you.

Keep your resume up to date. If I want to hire you, I want to know your current skills and status.

Keep formatting clean.

Tell me what you can do, what you want to do, and give me a touch of evidence to support this. You want to communicate that quickly and easily. Providing supporting information later in your resume, or in some digital profile, is good.

The one thing I’d note is that some individuals get annoyed by long documents. I’d stick with two, but you can do something else if you’d like. There are probably other people that don’t like to see something too short.

Make Me Want More

The idea of a resume is that when I look at yours, compared to others, I’m interested. I want to know more about you. I think you’re a good fit and worth examining closer. Your resume draws me in.

That’s your goal. Remember that plenty of people will submit resumes for the same opportunity. Yours should be relevant and to the point. I don’t have time to review them all, so I’m looking for something that catches my eye and gives me a reason to spend more than 10 seconds examining the page.

Give me that reason at the top.

Format Your Resume for the Manager

I once received a resume from an individual that looked like this.

It was even worse than this, with smaller type, designed to fit the most characters on a page possible and still have paragraphs. There were lines and boxes all over, ostensibly to separate sections.

Perhaps that doesn’t look to bad to some of you, but for me it’s too crowded. Especially as I age, I struggle to read small, crowded type.

The Reviewer

Who will glance at your resume, and give you the 30-60 seconds to decide if they should learn more. They may be young or old, but if they struggle with reading your resume, they may not decide to keep looking.

Even as a 30 year old, I disliked crowded resumes with small fonts. I look at enough computer screens. I’ve seen plenty of websites full of content with lots of ads and small boxes. I am less enamored with small type every day, as are others.

For the 25 year olds that might look, perhaps size isn’t an issue, but why take the chance. These days there’s a trend towards uncluttered, spread out displays, not the newspaper view of days past where white space was considered wasteful.

Use larger fonts, spread your information out, and most importantly, choose those items that make the most impactful statement about your career, or your goals. You pick one or the other.

You can always include links to other places, your website, LinkedIn or some other digital profile. These days, most people have access to learn more about you if they choose to.

Give them a reason to want more by limiting your resume to the best of you.

Titles or Skills

When you look for a job, are you most concerned about the title or the actual work? Do you limit your search to a particular job title, such as C# developer, or do you look widely for jobs that just require C# skills?

My advice here is that you look for both.

A skills fit is more important than a title fit. This will ultimately be a better match for you and hopefully be a better long term fit. There are certainly other considerations with finding a position, but I’d hope you want to do the work that interests you or that you do well. The last thing any of us wants is to work at a job that doesn’t use our skill set or asks us to do work we don’t want to do.

In many industries, a job title does imply certain duties and responsibilities. I would tend to apply for those jobs that match may last title, or maybe the one I think I am ready to grow into.

Keep in mind a job title can mean one thing to organization A and another to organization B. Ultimately, your decision to search out positions is a wide net that should help you find multiple options. As you learn more about each opening, you’ll get the chance to move forward with the process. Eliminate some, and keep others, according to your desires and needs.

Whether you are looking at a position based on the skills required or the title, I hope that you find the position that’s a great fit for you. Just don’t eliminate positions early because of a title.