When to Take Two Pages on Your Resume

While reading the Monster blog, I ran into this piece on bad job search advice. Point #2 stood out to me. It reads as follows:

Stick to a one-page resume. Another bit of advice after a somewhat helpful review of my resume was to shorten it to one page. This piece of input really had me flummoxed. Having had a logical and progressive 20-year work-life, suddenly squishing it all down to one page seemed to be a disservice to any firm considering employing me for my seasoned expertise. I promptly went out to 5 more (actively employed) friends and double-checked my resume style and approach by using two pages. I was reassured over and over that my experiences deserved two pages, and I had creatively already shortened it with special mentions. Additionally, I had received great guidance with rationale explained in writing up my resume by using Monster's Resume Writing Service.

Here's my take on the one-page versus two-page resume debate:

1. Include MEANINGFUL information in your resume -- the things that show you have proven (quantifiable) skills and accomplishments and thus help to convince potential employers that you're a great hire. Certainly all meaningful job experience and education should be included. That said, you should SUMMARIZE this information. Sure, you COULD write a two-page description of every job you've ever held, but instead you will be much better served by boiling your main accomplishments down to five bulletpoints per past job.

2. Do not include useless information that will not get you hired. This includes your hobbies, references, or anything else that simply adds "color" to your resume. Keep it bland (I know, people hate to do this), sticking only with your accomplishments. And certainly do not include your religious or political activities on a resume unless you know for certain that they will give you an advantage with an employer (in most cases, they can do nothing but hurt your chances.)

3. Given these suggestions, if you can fill up two pages, then do so. If you can't, then don't. This means that younger and less experienced candidates will generally have one-page resumes while more experienced workers (I'd say seven to ten years or more is the general rule) should go on to two pages. I've seen more pages than this in a resume, but only for the very highest levels (CEOs, Presidents) and these were usually written by executive search firms, not by the candidates themselves.

No matter what length, the key is to be sure the information is meaningful and helps convince the potential employer that you can deliver results (which is best demonstrated by showing you've done so in past positions.) This will give you the best shot at accomplishing what your resume is designed to do: get you the interview.

Comments

[texashaze]

I agree, two pages are much better than one but three pages are a no-no. My industry requires someone with detailed knowledge and experiences. A main part of the job is to communicate these details effectively. If they only have one page then I think they do not have the experience and skills. To be honest, I never consider one page resumes when looking for employees. It's pretty rare though. Maybe that's the nature of my business - environmental engineering and regulatory compliance.