The Myth of the One Page Resume

I worked at a job fair on Monday, doing free resume critiques for military veterans, and I learned that military career offices give REALLY bad resume advice!

In just 5 minutes per-person, my colleagues and I were able to help almost every person see their resume through new eyes. It was great to see the excitement in their faces as they grasped the concept of self-marketing and I know their new resumes will be much better than the ones they walked in with.

But I found the experience frustrating as well as gratifying, because I realized how many myths there are surrounding resumes - and how damaging so many of them are. And the #1 culprit as far as I'm concerned is the idea that everyone should have a one-page resume.

This is Just. Not. True!

I met with one veteran, a senior executive, who showed no accomplishments on his resume. I explained that it's crucial to write action-packed accomplishment bullet points to show employers that you can add real value - especially when you're applying for jobs that pay upwards of 150K. He nodded as I spoke, but when I was done, he explained that he didn't include that information because it wouldn't fit on one page.

Gah!

All the good stuff had been removed from his resume and all that was left was a series of brief descriptions of his jobs. If I were hiring a new Vice President of Operations, I would have no reason to interview this gentleman because he didn't give me one. Yet as we talked further it became clear that he had an impressive record of accomplishments - he had cut costs, streamlined operations and improved productivity in each of his positions.

Please do not believe anyone who tells you that your resume has to be one-page long. It is a myth. No one ever rejected a resume because it was two pages long - and if they did, you wouldn't want to work for them anyway, because it would make no sense (and presumably they would make no sense in other areas of life!)

I write one-page resumes when that's all the space I need to market someone, but if I need two pages, I use two pages. That is almost always the case for senior executives. Occasionally three pages are appropriate, although this is rare.

If you find yourself eliminating key information in order to squeeze your resume onto one page, then you need two pages.

Comments

[Tiffany]

You're so right. My general rule of thumb (and it's not hard-and-fast, just a guideline) is that people who are in the first five years of their careers should generally stick to one page, since a couple of entry-level jobs are unlikely to give them lots of really important accomplishments that they need to talk about. At 5 years, though, people tend to start to chafe at the one page rule, and that's roughly when you should add the second page.

[Sandi Hubert]

I could not agree with you more on this topic. Summarizing action packed key accomplishments need to be the first thing people see on a resume. The mistake that I see on many resumes is that people leave off the good stuff in order to make room for the customer service rep job or first Admin position at the beginning of their career (20 years earlier) that is no longer relavent to their Management position they are applying for. If you've been in your industry for 20 years - you can drop off some of the first jobs sequenced years 10-15 years prior that are not relevant. Love your blog - I'll be tuning in more.