Resume Length?

[smurfalicious]

So the pet store that I work for part time has an opening in the online division and the pay is better, I'd get real health insurance and a ton of creative freedom.

Now I just need to get my resume and cover letter spit polished, but I'm concerned about length. I'm 27 and I've been working since I was 16 so it's getting lengthy. Obviously I'm not putting my horrible experiences in retail that somehow required me to also wear a mascot costume that was hot and smelled funny, but at 17 I was already holding down a pretty impressive job in web design.

The more minor positions and short term "summer job" type stuff I did when I went back to school I have listed in "additional experience" at the bottom with just the company name, position, and dates. Some of it is cool stuff that I feel shows that I'm not afraid to work, that I have diverse skills and that I wasn't unemployed for great lengths. In that illustrious collection is freelance writing and photography for a local paper and working for my general contractor mom.

So it's already at 1 1/4 pages, but when I add my current position it's going to be 1 1/2. I could pull my photography business off, but I think there are a lot of "soft skills" I gained/developed running it that look really good. I could yank my summers managing/guiding at a guest ranch, but again it came with such awesome soft skills.

Am I a big enough girl now that I justify a long resume? There's so much info out there that I'm confused. I've seen some UGLY resumes come through the store and some of them we've hired. It just boggles me, here are people who went to college while I went to the school of hard knocks and they put together these scribbled out resumes. Probably explains how I got hired at the store with one interview, everyone else had two.

This is so scary, but crying in the bathroom should not be a part of anyone's job. I can write my way out of a reusable grocery bag (made of recycled materials!) and I want someone to appreciate that! And while we're at it, how did I ever become the kind of person who talks about "soft skills." *sniffle* I'm all grown up now!

[Aggie_Ama]

I try to keep mine at 1 page because that is what I was told to do in college to keep interest. Is 11 year old information completely relevant? Can it be discussed in the interview? Can it be put in a skills section and explanded upon? Can you cut down to the bare bones on description? Can you reformat to save space? If not then I guess you need a longer one.

I had to recently polish mine to get my new job and I was told after I was hired it was the best looking one although it was other factors that got the job. Mine has my time spent working through college (now 9 years old) because I was management and find it relevant plus when I was in college I was told working through college is very interesting. Although now I have been out 6 years not sure how interesting it is. It has my post college job. My most recent former job which entailed a promotion and two positions. It was a struggle of my editing training to fit a page. My former co-worker let me see hers and since she was finishing her MBA it was 2 pages because her education was a lot bigger. But she also went in depth with internships which I did not have the luxury of doing and has more positions to put on which are relevant.

[sundial]

I would keep it to 1 page and includes the most recent work experience as well as other job experiences that directly relate to the position you are seeking.

[Mr. Bloom]

I vote one page too. Perhaps you can list the positions, but just expand on the most relevant ones and/or you can use the cover letter in sync to provide insight in the skills gained.

[tctrek]

One page is best. Here's a great podcast on resumes: http://www.manager-tools.com/2005/10/your-resume-stinks

[NoNo]

My brother does interviews at his company and always said he doesn't bother looking at anything longer than a page. They have a lot of resumes to go through, you don't want yours to be the long one. Find a way to weed it down to the essentials, the ones most pertinent to the position you're applying for. Good luck!

[sfa]

I'm going to go against the grain here. I think the right length is as long as you need it to be--as long as you are careful not to include irrelevant or redundant information and as long as it is well written and clearly formatted. I've seen too many people try to cram too much information on one sheet just to hit that magical one page limit, but they use a font that is too small to read and a format that is wordy and hard to follow.

Since entering the professional world a million years ago, I haven't seen any good resumes that are just one page except for those of people who just graduated from college. If you've had decent work experience, you're going to go onto two pages. And in academia, two pages would be the work of a neophyte--once you add in all of your publications you're absolutely going to stray onto four pages or more. But that's something different.

You don't need to include every job, obviously, and you don't need to explain the job requirements of all of the jobs. The norm now is to tailor your resume to the job you're trying to get, so you'd want to include the jobs where you learned the skills you'd need in this new position, but leave out anything more than your most recent two or three jobs unless they are extremely relevant to the position you want. Save the explanation of soft skills for the cover letter and resume--the assumption from an employer is that everyone comes with certain soft skills that will be helpful, and everyone has a different cocktail of these skills. The interview is where those come out. Same thing with showing continuity of employment and that you're not afraid to work--they're going to assume that to be the case unless your resume shows big gaps of time not working (years, mostly, and only after age 21 or so). In fact, showing multiple short term jobs may work against you, no matter how interesting those jobs were--they might look at lots of short term jobs and think "geez, this woman can't keep a job. What's wrong with her?"

So I'd worry less about the length and more about the content and how it's presented. I'm more likely to toss a resume if I can't find what I'm looking for or if it is simply badly presented.

Good luck!

Sarah

[tctrek]

Also, if you are applying from a job board online, frequently the resume is first scanned and sorted by a program. The program is searching your document for key words that indicate that you are qualified for the job. For example if the job requires a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, the scanning program could be searching your resume for these words and if it isn't there, your resume will be rejected and never seen by human eyes.

[GLC1968]

Ditto sfa. One page is incredibly important for a first job out of college where you've potentially got a lot of 'fluff' as filler...but for an 11 year working career? I'd think more than one page was fine.

They may not look at the second page UNLESS they see something on page one that interests them. But, there is nothing wrong with that.

I struggled with this when I finished my second degree and was starting a new career (at 31). All my cronies had single page resumes, but I wasn't willing to cut out all my experience from my previous career even though some might call it irrelevant. I had 7 years in retail management which I felt spoke to my communication skills and my multi-taking ability - two things that a lot of engineers are devoid of... ;) I've gotten every job I've ever interviewed for and I've gotten lots of intereview requests, so I don't think it's hurt me at all.

Do what sets you appart. It's critical in today's job market.

[ginny]

I'm in science with 10 years experience, a number of peer reviewed pubs various meetings blah blah... I cannot believe how long my CV is, but it's still significantly shorter than my advisor's, so I'm good. Having said that... I now just have the science experience on my CV, everything else has fallen off the bottom.

You said the job is for a more 'career track' position where you already work? Okay... let's assume just because you work there already and they (presumably) like you... you already have a top spot in their pile. Okay, so now... let 'er shine! Remind them (briefly) of all the awesome stuff you do already... then, tell them stuff the don't know - photography for a web position? You bet! Be sure to toot your own horn - no one else will. If you (dear writer that you are), have had letters to the editor published, reference those. Your writing skills are important. Don't neglect the cover letter. This is where you can add info that may have been excluded from the resume. Tell them about your 'community service awards' or whatever. Address 'issues' - but ONLY in a very positive light. As women, we tend to use 'qualifier' words - don't! Go ahead and write with your 'qualifiers' there, then go and delete them all out. That's what I do every time. My best friend claims I can talk my way into any job. I currently am working as a chemist, but my graduate work was in biochemistry - i.e., a real chemist would roll their eyes at me :)

[Norse]

Unless you have an incredible, awesome, page-turning background, I have always been told to stick to one page. Most potential employers will not read more than that unless you have a page-turner background.

[ivorygorgon]

Absolutely keep it to one page. One way to think of it is that while some of your background experience is incredibly important to you, it might not be so important to a prospective employer. As someone who has to wade through 100 resumes at a time, I tend to find it arrogant that some applicants think I want to read everything about them. Keep it short!!!