Articles

Is My Resume Too Long?

By Michael Scriver on PeopleCorner – Powered by PeopleScout

I had a candidate ask me this questions the other day, when submitting a resume for a project consultant job. This resume and cover letter submission was eight pages long in total.  Most readers would probably agree with the response I gave this candidate – “yes, the resume is a bit too long”.  But, this candidate’s simple question started to make me think about how and why a resume could get this long, and furthermore, made me realize that many candidates continue to grapple with correct answer to this question.

Six Seconds of Review:

A 2012 Study revealed that recruiters spend, on average, six seconds reviewing a candidate’s resume.  For this reason alone, it is important to keep your resume at a format and length that will best suit that 6 second average review time.

The Two Page Rule:

Many resume blog readers would agree that the general concessive is two pages; they may also tend to agree with the rule: one page per ten years of experience. In the latter guideline, a new grad would be submitting a one page resume, where as a seasoned executive would be allowed to submit 3 pages.  In my experience, there is no “all-in” solution.  How long your resume will be should also depend on specific factors such as: the type of job for which you are applying, how technical the resume needs to be, how many applicants there are in the completion, what exactly it is that you need to highlight, and who exactly will be reading the resume/application on the other end. Ultimately, keeping your resume as short as possible, without sacrificing the content you need in order to get noticed, is an approach I would recommend…

 

Read Full Article

Join the CandE Newsletter

Stay up to date on the latest Candidate Experience Events, Insights, Information, CandE Deadlines, Research & So Much More