First, keep your resumes short. A lot of people violate this rule, thinking their work experience has been so interesting or important that it merits 3, 4, or more pages. I’ve seen resumes as long as 12 pages, if you can believe it.
The reality is that no resume screener, whether it’s a headhunter, in-house recruiter, or hiring manager, will actually read that many pages. In fact, it’s been reported that most resume screeners spend no more than 15-30 seconds skimming a resume. This is because they often have to sift through dozens of resumes per day and can’t dwell on an individual resume’s details.
Hence my rule of thumb for resumes is as follows:
- New or recent grad: 1 page
- Experienced candidate: 2 pages
- Industry veteran (20+ years): 2 pages, possibly 3 pages at the executive level
Realistically, 2 or (rarely) 3 pages are the most that a reader will ever look at. Do what you must to trim your resume to this length. If necessary, you can combine your jobs from earlier in your career to a single entry. Fact is, the interviewer will most likely only want to talk about your 2-3 most recent positions anyway.
You should also emphasize the most important aspect of your resume by putting it up near the top. If you attended a prestigious school, you could put that information higher up; likewise, if you worked at a well-known and respected company, then that item should take precedence.
Finally, remove any non-technical personal information from your resume. At the risk of sounding callous, I don’t care that you were the swim team captain in high school, or that you were an Eagle Scout, or that you’ve run the Boston marathon each of the last ten years. This information has no place on a software developer’s resume.
5 comments:
As a graduating engineer I have my sports listed because they take up time. That missing time may help account for lower grades in some classes. I don't know, what do you think? What about jobs that aren't related to the field? I currently have zero work experience in my field.
Hmm, as a college student it may be tough to fill out a resume. But still, before listing sports you should list other things that are more relevant to a technical resume.
For instance, include your technical projects, either from school or personal projects you've done on the side. You could also list the key classes you've taken, such as data structures, algorithms, etc. Finally, list any technologies and languages you've learned, such as Java, C++, Linux, etc.
As a hiring manager I'd find this information to be more useful than what sports you've participated in.
Hi,
What about marital status? Hobbies, etc? I was always thinking that that information was important for the recruiter so he could get a better picture of the personality of a candidate...
I guess some like to think of you as a cog in the machine and nothing more :)
It's generally illegal to ask a candidate about their marital status. And hobbies really only matter if there's nothing else to talk to the candidate about.
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