How Many Pages Should My Resume Be?

iStockphoto.com | Jirapong Manustrong

Many common questions about resumes revolve around “the rules.” Specifically, job seekers asking what “the rule” is for this or that, when the truth of the matter is that when you receive judgement, feedback, or criticism about your resume it’s more opinion than fact. You’re dealing with guidelines not rules. One point of contention that always ignites a fierce debate is how many pages a resume should be.

Instead of focusing on any such hard “rules” about resume length, instead think through a series of questions that will allow you to make an informed decision based on what norms are most likely to advance your resume in the application process, if followed.

Question #1 – How much experience do you have?

If you are a recent graduate, you should stick to one page. Your “professional story” should be easy to tell.  After two or more years of professional experience, it’s probably appropriate to have a multi-page resume. With notable exceptions (keep reading), multi-page means two pages.

Question #2 – Are you a college student or MBA student?

If you answer “yes” to this question, you may (should) work through your school’s career center. Career centers typically have uniform standards, regardless of graduate level, and they typically want a one-page resume that is traditional and effective when submitting you to employers. This business format has a name – The Wharton Format – named for the famed business school, so even if you’re an MBA student who has several years of real-world professional experience between degrees, plan on one page.

Question #3 – Are you a techie?

Are you in IT? Engineering? A technology-related field?

Due the complex and numerous skills technology professionals must possess and the nature of project-to-project tech work-flows, it is often expected that your resume will be two pages and it’s perfectly acceptable to include a third page that highlights knowledge, skills, and education that are unique to your technological specialty. However, brevity still wins the day, so if you can effectively keep it to two pages, do.

Question #4 – Are you a “C” Level Executive?

If you are the Chief of Something (CEO, CTO, CIO, etc.) you have license to go longer, two to three pages. that tells the story of your rise to the top – media appearances, publications, awards, etc. You’re going to be the leader who guides your next venture to previously unthinkable levels of success and fortune, so your resume should read like it. That may take an extra page.

Question #5 – Does the potential employer/partner/investor request a certain length?

This supercedes all previous answers. This is as close a guideline gets to being a rule. If a certain length is requested, adhere to it. There are reasons parameters have been created and 1) you risk automatic disqualification for not following them, and 2) you should consider it may be a test to see if you can follow simple instructions.

Question #6 - Are you an academic?

Let’s define our terms. “Academic” means professor or researcher in a college setting, tenured or not. If you fall into that category, you already know that 1-3 pages is just the introduction to the beginning of the start of what is known as a your curriculum vitae, or CV. Rather than a standard resume, academics use this extended format which details what you’ve done and all your amazing accomplishments are valued like anywhere else. But this is far from brief, it’s a catalog. Employers also want to know what you know, and this includes details of research, classes taught, papers submitted or published, forums at which you’ve presented, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It’s not unheard of for a CV to hit fifty (!) pages.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

10 Resume Errors To Avoid Like The Plague

iStockphoto.com | Bohdan Skrypnyk

When it comes to building an effective resume, the basics matter.

Two recent, very real, resumes reminded us that even great candidates with years of experience can have resumes that look like an afterthought. These resumes broke every rule and were replete with errors unacceptable for a professional resume - or any professional document, really. To be clear — there is no friendly audience for a resume with basic mistakes. Fair or not, in the mind of the recruiter or hiring manager, a sloppy resume can translate to the perception of a sloppy worker – and sloppy workers don’t get hired.

Here are some instant resume deal-breakers to avoid like the plague:

1. Punctuation errors. If you don’t end a sentence with a period, the perception is that you either do not know basic grammar or you did not bother to proofread your resume.

2. Misspelled words. You live in an era when a machine will check your spelling for you. The process is effortless. Combined with the aforementioned “proofreading,” there should never be a misspelled word in a resume.

3. Verb Tense Disagreement. If you are working, your current position’s description should be written in active present tense. Be consistent.

4. Using “I”. Your resume is not an auto-biography. It’s not even a work biography. It’s a marketing brochure with a singular goal — land the interview so you can tell your story in person and get hired. Your resume should not be personal and should be pronoun free, starting with “I”.

5. Non-uniformity. No matter what formatting style you choose, it should be used throughout the document. For example, if you choose to describe your work history with one or two lines followed by three bullet points, make sure ALL the positions have bullet points. You shouldn't have half with bullet points and half with small paragraphs.

6. Difficult to read. Even if your resume is the greatest resume ever written, it may be the 25th resume a recruiter has looked at in a given day and if it looks insurmountable – dense paragraphs, overly complicated verbiage – they won’t want to bother.

7. Insufficent White Space. White space is the space that contains no text, and it should be used generously. A resume should not look like a series of big, gray, long paragraphs. The intelligent use of separating important details about your achievements, work history, and skill sets more effectively communicates your professional brand. Scannability by the reader is the name of the game.

8. Repeating information. Every line of a resume is prime beachfront real estate that must be developed with the utmost care. Don’t waste precious space with the exact same thing instead of highlighting your many successes. Show something new throughout the text.

9. Being insufficiently specific. For example, “prepared reports for managers”, is generic, uninteresting, and does not help you. What type of reports? How often? Why? Now you have, “Prepared critical monthly investment reports for C-level executives who relied on data to make high-level long term strategic decisions for global operations.” Much better. I think I know more about who you are now.

10. Including too much personal information. Age and marital status come to mind. And for security reasons, do not put your full home address on your resume – your city, state, and zip code (optional) will suffice.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Should I List That Short-Term Job On My Resume?

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Remember that short-term gig you had last year with the company down the street? It wasn’t a great job, and it didn’t last too long. Should you even bother including on your resume?

At the end of the day, decisions like these aren’t easy. They’re judgement calls, which by nature can be difficult to navigate.

In situations like this, I tend to encourage including the job on the resume. In general, honesty is a good policy. You might think that it’s a no-brainer to leave a stinky, short-term job off your resume. Who cares? But here’s the thing - there will always be people who know about that job, and it could raise questions about personal integrity. Keep in mind, your resume is a marketing brochure – and the product is you. At the same time, that job application you have to fill out is a legal document subject to background checks; even if you do not include a job on your resume, you should include it on a job application. Wherever you list it, be prepared to talk about it.

And consider your reader. Recruiters and hiring managers have read so many resumes that informed professional formulations are made at a glance. If you leave a job off your resume and it’s on your application (which it is!), there will be questions and perhaps the perception may be that you are hiding something. If you include a short-term job, it’s just as true that it should mean something, otherwise the perception may be that you’re padding your resume.

Also, keep in mind, very few situations are black and white. Let’s say you worked for four months at a prestigious financial services company on a high visibility project that was successfully completed and you were singled out as being instrumental to its completion. Maybe the company name has marquee value, and in the brief time you worked there you made the kind of impact that is fantastic when you’re telling your professional story through your resume.

Other factors to consider:

• Although the average worker’s tenure in a role is steadily decreasing, it’s usually in your favor not to appear like a job hopper. Unless you’re in a career that is expected to have many short-term positions for different companies (such as an IT consultant), or have a highly specialized skill, a resume that is a laundry list of jobs packed into a brief time-frame, employers can get nervous that the investment they will make to recruit and hire you will quickly become the most recent line item on your resume. Also, if inclusion of a job seems incongruent with the rest of your professional experience, it may send up red flags.

• Closing a gap can help. For example, perhaps you were terminated from Impressive Job #1 for reasons beyond your control but before you were hired for Impressive Job #2 you did a four month stretch at a job for which you were overqualified. If it’s temporary, label it such. If it was a permanent role you left quickly, try to have the resume set up the story accordingly and be prepared to talk about it in the interview.

• It can help to consolidate individual freelance roles during a period of time under a single job heading, such as “Freelance Consultant,” followed by bullets describing the roles and/or company names.

• Your career universe needs to be consistent. People can find out about you via your resume, LinkedIn profile, online portfolio, and job application. It seems exhausting because it is, and this judgement call is no different. An inconsistency will raise questions.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.