OK. There's no right answer for this one. It'll depend on the industry you are in. I'm curious how long your resume is. Or more accurately how long a resume each respective industry wants. I'm working on breaking into management, and the general concensus is that for someone with my experience, I can't have more than a page for a resume. At the other end of the spectrum, I have a friend who hires people in IT/engineering. He says there he's skeptical of anyone who has a resume that is less than five pages long. I'll need to put out feelers in the project management community. That is an area that I'm also interested in, and I'm guessing a 2-3 page resume isn't at all unusual there. This stuff's challenging--you've got to get the right resume to get your foot in the door. And you've got to have your salary requirements priced right--not too high or too low. And you've got to be at least marginally charming to get your foot in the door with the phone interview. Then on top of all that, there's the job market and dumb, dumb luck. But I digress. What do you do and how long is your resume?
Heh. Apparently Boeing gets both types. They have an online resume tool that you have to use and there are some very definite limits on the size of your resume. Resumes for Boeing can be no less than 750 characters and no more than 15,000 characters long.
Journalist. One page of A4. But then, it's nearly 20 years since I've had to show it to anyone... Seriously, as a hirer, I wouldn't even look at a CV more than two pages long. If you can't fit the important stuff into that space, you're in the wrong business. A cuttings file, OTOH...
The rule I've always heard is one page if at all possible, two if absolutely necessary or appropriate for the position, no more than two ever.
Depends on the industry I guess. If you've worked as a programmer more details are required than, say, telling them that I have 6 years of experience of a salesgirl at H&M I agree with Paladin tho: 2 pages maximum for the important stuff. And either attach any details or tell 'em you'll give them once they invite you to an interview. That's a trick that has worked for me btw.
I think it really depends on what you've got to say about yourself. My entry-level resumes were a page long. For more experienced positions I went to two pages, but only if I could fill the space with valid, useful information. My rough design went along the lines of: Name & Contact Details Opening statement Education Work History Publications / Reports / Theses * Additional Skills* References *These two are particularly closely trimmed according to the position applied for. What I've found is that this approach is fine for bringing me into positions where I am a well qualified candidate (my background is research). However, it doesn't seem to be so great for trying to waffle into a new field. Perhaps more BS is called for. Personally, I would never hire someone (not that I do any hiring) who sent me a five-page resume. I would take it to mean that they had no idea how to communicate in a concise and appropriate manner. I have better things to do than wade through five pages about a single candidate. That level of detail can be fleshed out in a phone interview.
After nearly 19 years, mine still fits on one page (barely, thanks to the "awards" section ). The bottom reads "References available upon request", but I will occasionally add a second, references-only page. Similarly, I have to submit a resume tape as well as a paper resume if I want to get a call-back. The tapes can run from 6-15 minutes long (a couple, for long-format oriented work, ran close to 30 minutes).
Actually, I've been working on tightening up my resume so it all fits on one page. Looks good. I've always gone by the "one page rule" too (not counting references). Anything more than that can be revealed in the interview.
The resume is the teaser. When it gets down to it, it is like them movie trailers, where they take all the interesting stuff from a crappy movie and make you want to go see it.
For me, it's 2, because I've got a crazy-long skills list (I really do, it's 6" at 10 point type using ~2/3 the width of the page, and that's after removing everything that's not strictly unique or is a dependency of another thing or is obsolete), and almost all my previous employment is relevant, as I've got tech, team, management, and OSHA experience (so they know I can dispose of chemicals and mark hazmat, which these days includes printed circuit boards with solder), all from different jobs. Whaddayagonnado?
I like that analogy. Maybe we should all make movie-trailer resumes instead! [voiceover guy] In a world where computers run everything...one man stands alone, controlling these silicon monsters.... [/voiceover guy]
programmer, and my CV's 3 pages - as a contractor i can quite easily work in several places in the space of one year, which bulks it up somewhat. with that in mind my first page provides my name, a profile, my skills and two highlighted roles, page 2 handles my employment history - place, dates, number of renewals and one line describing the work. page 3 is my portfolio and personal details.
heres an example of my CV, personal info stripped out. i could do with refresh of it this year, make it stand out a bit more.
