Ask HN: How long should an ideal resume be? I am building my resume these days and would like some feedback on ideal resume length (I personally would prefer single page resumes irrespective of experience). Any thoughts is much appreciated. I feel like I could super-squeeze everything in single page without any fluff (but I have ~14 years of exp), but am concerned if it will appear weak. |
One of the things I was taught about CVs is don't put down your job responsibilities, put down what you achieved. For example, in my last role, I was responsible for debt recovery in the company so instead of saying:
"Managed a team of 4 paralegals with responsibility for debt recovery across the group"; I said:
"Created a debt recovery team of 4 paralegals and put in place processes to standardise debt recovery across group achieving X days reduction in DSO and recovered over £XXXXXX in legal costs and interest"
I honestly want to circular file any CVs with more than three pages though. They'd have to be a special candidate for me to consider them after that.
An honest list of languages & tech and an honest appraisal of your skill level in each. (Don't include things like mongoDB because it's a hot-topic and you've read the wiki page.)
A list of your accomplishments.
A list of personal work that's relevant to your interests & chosen career path (always link to your work).
Lists are great, mainly because no-one see's the value in reading purple prose about how you are a dynamic and self-motivated individual.
* Last 2 jobs, listing company, dates of employment & Job Title.
* List of Education / Certification (only relevant to the job)
* List of notable skills (written in a very broad manner, i.e : Administration of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X servers and major application packages.
Add a references on request line and contact details and I was done.
May not suit everyone but worked well going into a small and casual environment.
Remember, if you have to ask if something is relevant in your resume, you should leave it off!
Have you thought about supplementing your paper resume with a video resume? I actually just posted a blog article on the topic here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3655510
I did this once, and the interviewer asked me about all the holes (by date) in my resume. So, never again.
One preferred. Two at most. Online version highly preferred in addition to print out.
Information overload is not necessary. Not all 14 years are necessary to be put on there even if all 14 years are relevant. Tackle exactly what the job is looking for.
Expand in cover letter if necessary.
Fresh Grads to 1-2 Years of Work - 1 Pager 2 - beyond Years of Work - 2 Pager
Anything beyond 2 Pager should only be for C-Level