An impressive resume often draws the employer’s attention. A resumes’ length always matters because employers are not used of reading the same lines repeatedly.
The length of a resume depends on your experience, skills and qualifications. If you are an entry level applicant then your resume shouldn’t be too long.
But if you are an experienced candidate it becomes lengthy due to the list of experiences and qualifications.
It‘s good to have a longer resume but make sure it is not uninteresting. Still this question remains unsolved about what should be the proper size of a resume.
Ideal Length of a Resume:
1. Some employers prefer short resumes:
According to Jobology, a career building network, candidates should try to maintain all possible things in a single page resume.
The reason is managers won’t spare much time on a long resume instead they prefer over viewing the whole thing in just 2 minutes.
The Founder of CareerManagementCoaching.com, Kim Batson states that employers just read the top third of a candidate’s resume seeing if they’re worth the job.
And since nowadays, most of the employers prefer seeing the resume on their mobiles or tablet devices, they don’t stroll around for 4-5 pages.
2. Some employers prefer longer resumes:
Research also says that some employers seek for longer resumes because that contains a detailed profile about the candidate. Longer resumes also create an impression on the employer.
They believe that a candidate with one page resume don’t have enough experience but the one who carries a two to three page resume is quite qualified and skilled.
3. Some employers prefer meaningful resumes:
Meanwhile, a study by the 2012 Global Hiring Trends Survey found that 54% of the employers seek for a well-crafted and quality resume instead of focusing on its length.
Career coach, Paul Anderson said that he is completely against the one page resumes unless you are a college graduate or newcomer in the industry.
Resume should be determined by its quality rather giving any heed to its length.
The major career builders believe in focusing over the resume quality rather than on quantity. It’s ok to have a single page resume if you are an entry level applicant.
But if you have more than 5-6 years experience then better write about your experiences and accomplishments and try to keep you resume in a proper format.
MS Word has a number of formatting options to cut down the page size and make your resume fit in 2-3 pages.
Keep all your work experiences at one place and education on one. Job title, job profile, company name and job description, these all should be placed at one space. Keep proper spacing between the lines and insert bullets in the lists, if you include any.
Write down an impressive summary because most employers select a candidate just by reading the summary.
How to Determine the Length of a Resume?
1. Judge by your own:
The first thing you should do is carry out your own resume and edit it. Edit it with all the useful points and erase the unwanted ones. Keep it clean.
Review the entire resume to understand if the points are worth and what else should be modified.
Learn how strong your presentation is and ask yourself why you are the right candidate for this job. Take aid from you acquaintances to determine its quality.
2. Erase out irrelevant data:
Most resumes contain data that is uninteresting and employers have nothing to do with it. Such as your hobbies, personal information, references etc.
I have seen many applicants write about hobbies that include listening to music, watching TV, playing cricket and blah blah.
Why on earth would any employer be interested in knowing that if it’s not related to the job?
Personal information and references should be given upon request and you don’t need to remind the employer about it.
3. Avoid writing lengthy descriptions of past job:
It’s just about writing your job description and not an essay. It’s good if you keep the description clean and easy to be understood. Keep it within 2-3 lines and rather write more on your achievements and results.
Lengthy description often bores the reader and they’ll keep aside your resume without thoroughly reading it.
4. Keep summary strong:
Managers won’t take much time to read your resume so better keep your summary strong. Keep your qualifications and achievements within it but make sure you don’t make it too lengthy. Use telegraphically written statements.
Telegraphic writing eradicates the use of pronouns like ‘I’, ‘me’ and articles such as ‘a’ and ‘the’.
5. Make your achievements support your goal:
You’ve made impressive results from your sales and marketing job, however, they’re not of any use if you are applying in an Information Technology company.
Don’t keep your achievements so much irrelevant with the post you’re applying for because it’s not at all helpful for the employer.
6. But still the debate continues… :
Over years the debate with a resumes’ proper size has been argued by recruiters and professionals.
Still today no one is able to clear the question and this debate goes on. Some people feel the one page resume is perfect because it’s not making the profile too lengthy and everything can be over viewed at one place.
On the other hand, some managers prefer a lengthy resume so that they can read about candidates’ accomplishments, internships and leadership roles in detail.
Whereas, some believe in the resume’s quality rather paying any heed to its length.
Conclusion:
After a detailed study, I realized that quality is more important than the size. Whether you are a newcomer or an experienced professional, it’s smarter to keep your resume filled with all the necessary details.
Avoid writing the unrelated qualities like hobbies, references, etc. and keep it clean. Maintain the line spaces and do proper formatting with MS Word.
Your career will be decided upon your resume so keep your summary strong so that employers don’t need to go through the whole of it.
