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When it comes to resume writing, one common question often arises: How long should my resume be? While opinions on the ideal resume length vary, it’s crucial to strike a balance that effectively showcases your qualifications without overwhelming the reader. In this article, we will explore the significance of resume length and provide practical tips to help you create a compelling resume tailored to your career goals.
The One-Page Resume: Concise and Impactful
For most job seekers, especially those entering the workforce or applying for entry-level positions, a one-page resume is highly recommended. A concise and well-structured single-page resume captures the attention of hiring managers who typically spend a mere eight seconds scanning each application. To ensure you make the most of this limited timeframe, focus on highlighting your most relevant skills, experiences, and achievements that align with the desired role. Utilize bullet points, action verbs, and a clean layout to enhance readability and impact.
Enhancing Your One-Page Resume
Crafting a one-page resume can be challenging if you have limited work experience. However, there are several strategies to maximize your content without compromising quality. Begin with a clear heading that includes your contact information and a brief summary of your qualifications. Emphasize your hard and soft skills, showcasing your technical competencies and personal attributes that make you an ideal fit for the job. Include your education and any relevant internships or volunteering experience. Additionally, consider adding projects, such as coding projects or system administration endeavors, that demonstrate your practical abilities and dedication.
The Two-Page Resume: Adept Leadership and Extensive Experience
While a one-page resume suffices for most candidates, senior-level professionals, individuals seeking positions of authority, or those with considerable experience may opt for a two-page resume. This format allows for a more comprehensive representation of your skills, accomplishments, and career progression. However, even with a two-page resume, brevity and relevance are key. Focus on relevant experiences and achievements from the past 10-15 years, tailoring the content to align with the job requirements. Maintaining conciseness throughout is vital to keep the reader engaged and ensure that your most important qualifications shine through.
Key Considerations for All Resumes
Regardless of the resume length you choose, there are a few essential considerations to keep in mind. Be concise, using bullet points and short phrases to convey information effectively. Employ action verbs to create a dynamic and engaging narrative. Pay attention to the layout, ensuring appropriate margins, font size (10-12 points), and overall readability. Tailor your resume to the specific job requirements, focusing on the most relevant skills and experiences. Remember that resume length ultimately depends on your unique circumstances, the position you are applying for, and the level of experience you possess.
In the competitive job market, an effective resume is your ticket to securing an interview. Striking the right balance in resume length is crucial to capture the attention of hiring managers and recruiters. While a one-page resume is generally recommended for most candidates, a two-page resume may be appropriate for those with extensive experience or aiming for leadership roles. By applying the tips provided in this article, you can craft a compelling resume that showcases your qualifications and increases your chances of landing the job you desire.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to The Lost to Boss Podcast, your go-to source for it, career advice and guidance. Whether you’re just entering the workforce, seeking to make a career pivot, or you have recently experienced job loss. This podcast is here to support you. Now here is your host, Frank DeMaio.
Hey everyone, and welcome to this episode of Lost to Boss. Our topic today is resume length. How long should my resume be? A lot of folks ask themselves this question because there’s all different kinds of information and all different kinds of schools of thought out there, and I’m gonna give you my opinion on things today.
So a resume shouldn’t be, in my opinion, any longer than two pages. Two pages is really the maximum amount, and for most folks applying for a position, your resume should really be one page, two pages is really reserved for folks who are. Would be in higher levels of management or authority positions.
Someone could also have a lot of experience that may need to flow onto two pages, but you always wanna keep in mind that your resume should be concise and clear. Another thing to keep in mind is your resume shouldn’t be too short either. You don’t want your resume to be less than a page. So the sweet spot is really one page for most folks and no more than two pages.
Hey everyone, and welcome to this episode of Lost to Boss. Our topic for today is why, what? Hey everyone, and welcome to this episode of Lost to Boss. Our topic for today is resume length. How long or short should my resume be? And there are many schools of thought on this, and if you ask 10 people, you may get 10 different answers.
So we’re here to go over my thoughts on resume length and in my experience, what works out the best. You definitely don’t wanna have a resume. Less than one page, less than one page can lead the hiring manager to assume that you don’t have the skills or the experience necessary to undertake the role of the position.
So you definitely wanna have at least one page for a resume, and that’s really the sweet spot is one page for most folks, especially for entry level, you definitely only want one page resume. Two pages are really reserved for folks who are going for positions of authority or those who have many years of experience.
And in my opinion, you don’t ever wanna go over two pages. Now, why is that important? It’s because hiring managers and recruiters are looking at resumes very quickly. They’re scanning through so many different resumes, they don’t have time to read a very large. Resume and in fact, you’d be surprised at how quickly hiring managers and recruiters are looking at resumes.
I was shocked to hear that on average. It’s actually eight seconds. So you have eight seconds for a hiring manager or a recruiter to look at your resume and decide if you’re the right candidate to go to the next phase, which hopefully is an interview. So let’s double click into. Less than a one page resume.
As a recent graduate or somebody just entering the workforce, you may feel like you don’t have enough material to put on your resume to fill out an entire page. So this is where you really have to get creative while a recent graduate. Or someone just entering the workforce may have a tough time rounding out their resume and fill that entire page.
It’s really important to go the extra length to do that. Now, you can do that in multiple ways. One is you’re always gonna have a heading at the top of your resume, right? Who you are, where you’re located, your contact information. And then underneath that, it’s best to maybe write down a few sentences summarizing what it is that that hiring manager recruiter are gonna look at in that resume.
Because it kind of gives them a quick way to say, oh, okay, this person’s skills are this, this person’s experience is this. So that will definitely take up some of your real estate. Then you wanna have your hard skills and your soft skills. So what are those technical skills that you have in an IT resume?
Those are very important. What are you familiar with? What systems? What applications, what technologies? Those are all things that can also go on your resume to help with that real estate. Of course, you wanna have your education in there as well, and then, Definitely it’s important to put in any work experience that you have, and this can include specific work experience.
It could be work experience that you got even from volunteering, and it’s also very important to put in your internships that you’ve had. Of course, that is very important as well. Now, one of the things that you can also add to a resume to help increase that length to a page. Are things along the lines of projects, what I like to call projects.
Now for someone who is a software developer, someone who’s trying to get into the software development field, right? Projects are very simple to come up with. You have some coding projects that you’ve done, hopefully. Maybe they’re out there in the git. So this way you can put some links to some of those things that you’ve done, um, some of those applications you’ve built or some of those things that you have coded, and that is a very nice way to add on to that as well.
But you can also add projects for other areas. Two. So say you’re going for a system administration position, you can add a project in there that maybe talks about how you built a server to do X, Y, and Z, or how you built a server with active directory or all of those different things. Those can be listed under projects and they can be personal projects and they can be work related projects.
But that’s another way while. So when you really don’t have a lot of work experience, those are different ways that you can round that out. So those two page resumes are submitted for any position that has a high level of authority or responsibility, right? Someone who has many years of experience, someone who is applying for a senior level position, that kind of thing.
Now, it’s also important to keep in mind these five tips, even if you are at two pages, remember, and you think, oh, I need to have two pages because I have 30 years of experience. It’s always important to be concise on your resume. Use bullet points. Use short phrases, right? Action verbs. Think about that, right?
Because hiring management recruiters, like we said, eight seconds, so they need to be able to review this quickly and see that your skills match. To what they’re looking for. You also wanna make sure you pay attention to the layout, right? You wanna have the appropriate margins, the right text size, you know, 10 to 12 points.
Don’t make them too small, right? Don’t make it too big. Um, make it easy to read and keep it. To that right font size. You also wanna focus on what’s important, right? Tailor your resume to only include relevant skills and experience that apply to the job. You may have 30 years of experience and you’ve touched every technology going back to like Windows NT 4.0, but is that really relevant today?
Probably not, unless in that job description it says, We want people with Windows N T 4.0 experience. Yes, absolutely put that in there. But if that’s not in the job description, do not put that in your resume, right? Be concise, look at what’s gonna be relevant to the position you’re applying for, and target what that job is asking for specifically.
And another thing to keep in mind is the reason why you asked 10 people how long a resume should be, and you get 10 different answers, is because a resume should really be as long as you need it to be. Even with one page to two pages, right? And those. General rules of thumb, make it so it’s the resume length that you need it to be, for the position you’re applying for, for the experience that you have, and that’s the important piece of it.
So that’s gonna wrap it up for today. Thank you for listening. I hope that answered your question about how long your resume should be. If you like this episode, be sure to check out the next one. Thank you.
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