Friday, February 1, 2008

Ideal Length Of Professional Resume


The most discussed hot professional issue- What is the ideal length of a Professional Resume?

I hate rules. Can a one page rule fit everyone? Or even a two page rule?
I've looked at a number of resumes over 4 pages (up to 11 pages!) and the length is not at all what I care about... I always look for someone who has the experience I am after. I would personally like to see more detail rather than less detail

Consider these objectives of your resume which are much more important than the length of your resume:

- Clearly defined objective
- standard font and size (no colored text, no italics and do not bold key words (headings are fine)
- Make sure there is enough blank space on the resume so the text is readable
- Have 2-3 professionals glance at your resume (checking for typos, formatting and professional style)
- Make sure your dates are accurate

In this era of key word search, you really need to get all of the technology, industry and job specific terms in the resume that you can. So many recruiters rely on key word search and if you don't have those key words in your resume, you may never be considered for that position. This also needs to be balanced with not claiming to have knowledge of skills you really don't have...

One way I've tackled the key word thing on my own resume is that I put at the very bottom of the resume paragraph like this:

code words: Brand Manager, Product Manager, Sr. Brand Manager, Sr. Product Manager

With such a paragraph, I'm not claiming to have any experience with the above, and if I get asked in an interview about it, I just let the interviewer know I have those terms there specifically for key word search. Your code terms would differ and be related to your industry, target company, target job, etc. For instance, if you have been a software engineer for 5 years and want to get into a new field, as a product manager for instance, you might put these codes to get the attention of a recruiter hiring product manager:

Product management, product manager, mba, prd, mrd, product schedule, financial modeling, powerpoint, feature requirements, marketing, mobile, wireless, san jose, san francisco, silicon valley.

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