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.