what's the word on multiple page resumes?

[Vic Vega]

The importance of having a very brief (1-3) lines of "objective" on the actual resume is that often times it gets physically separated from the cover letter. If someone doing pre-screening separates the two, especially if printed, and the hiring manager only gets the resume it gives him/her some idea of your goals, which he is otherwise unaware of with the absence of the cover letter.

The idea that your objective is to "get the job" is obvious and not really the point, that's why you're sending the docs, right? Say you are applying to a large firm that is hiring 15 people. They have 15 similar jobs but you want a specific one. The objective is the place be specific.

Hope that helps.

 

[Vic Vega]

Since the cover letter is accepted/required, it's probably a better idea to include everything you wanted to add to page 2 of your resume to the cover letter. If there's more to communicate, do it in the letter.

Yup, I agree here, so long as it doesn't detract from the goal of the cover letter, which is essentially a sales pitch and an interview getter.

 

[DAGTA]

I've reviewed hundreds of resumes in the last three years, hired a few dozen people, and have done more interviews than I remember. After having done that, I've realized that I'd rather see a multi-page resume than a resume that doesn't have enough information. The arbitrary one or two page rule doesn't apply to me anymore. I see many recruiters in IT are of the same opinion now.

Don't add fluff just to make it longer, but if you have 10 years of experience to show over 3 pages, that's fine.

 

[IronWing]

I generally agree that one-two pages should cover it. One exception is if you apply for government jobs. For government, wax poetic. Before anyone who might want to hire you even sees your resume it has to pass through a filtering step where your resume is compared to the job requirements and to the application. Every experience you might list on the application has to have a matching experience on the resume. If it takes ten pages to back up your responses on the application questionaire then write ten pages. Academia is pretty much the same.

 

[Specop 007]

Make sure you put on what needs to be put on to paint the picture. As they said in Spaceballs "Take only what you NEED to survive". Its kind of like that.

 

[Baked]

1 cover page with 2 paragraphs max. 1 resume page with last 3 jobs related to the job you're applying for.

 

[PowerEngineer]

:thumbsup: for advice from Vic Vega and DAGTA.

 

[Strk]

I generally agree that one-two pages should cover it. One exception is if you apply for government jobs. For government, wax poetic. Before anyone who might want to hire you even sees your resume it has to pass through a filtering step where your resume is compared to the job requirements and to the application. Every experience you might list on the application has to have a matching experience on the resume. If it takes ten pages to back up your responses on the application questionaire then write ten pages. Academia is pretty much the same.

Exactly. The amount of pages doesn't matter, but what's on them does. Recruiters look at who knows how many resumes, so they're used to seeing fluff. If you're going for an engineering job, what does being captain of your school's lacrosse team have to do with anything? Or that worked at your local grocery store for five years.

 

[Doppel]

Don't worry about it, any professional with experience will have a hard time putting this on one page without it being cluttered and ugly. No HR department worth sh*t will throw out a resume simply because it's on two pages.

 

[alkemyst]

Agreed. 1 page unless your management or have decades of experience.

I'd say management would be one of the shorter resumes...techies have it the hardest to condense.

In general, it's best for those types to tailor their resume to fit the job they are applying too.

If you are going over two pages, chances are your's is getting put to the bottom of the pile even if legitimate.

No one needs to see in today's market:

PC Experience: Commodore Vic20/64, Apple ][ through GS, Macintosh (currently powerbook owner).

Windows Experience: Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.11 WFW, 95, 98, ME, XP, 2000, NT4.0, Windows7.

 

[dwell]

I hate fuckers who feel obliged to list every technology they ever read about on their resume:

Technologies: SQL, C, C++, Java, C#, .NET, Visual Basic, Foxpro, memcached, Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PHP, Ruby, Python, filesystem, F#, bash, csh, DOS, Windows 2.x, 3.x, 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Linux, Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Mac OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, Cassandra, MongoDB, Node.js, Java, JavaScript, J++, shell script, command prompt, PHP4, PHP5, Drupal, PayPal, IPC, DCOM, SOAP, CORBA, REST, HTTP, Mozilla, Apache, Apache Commons, zip file, HFS+, NTFS, ASM, COBOL, Batch File, Scala, CoffeeScript blah blah blah

Me: So, I see memcached in your resume. Can you tell how you have used it?
Dude: Uh, well, we were going to use it on a project but we didn't.
Me: So, you, uh, went to the web page...?
Dude: Uh, yeah.

Idiots!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Use as many pages as is necessary. Don't rehash the same experiences over and over or highlight skills that may not be useful to the job you are applying for. I've sent in plenty of resumes that were more than 1 page and had many interviews and landed multiple offers as a result. Never more than 2 pages though...3 if you include the cover letter.

I've spent quite a bit of time tailoring my resume to various jobs I've applied to. Just take the time to highlight experiences that might suit me to those jobs while eliminating experiences that add no value. I can always talk about or elaborate on my vast experience during the interview.

 

[Blueychan]

The 1 pager is of the past, most recruiters I spoke to recommend longer resumes (with relevance info).

 

[Train]

I hate fuckers who feel obliged to list every technology they ever read about on their resume:

I hate the uber-long list of acronyms, but with todays keyword-seach based recruiting, they are neccessary.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

The Ask A Manager blog has covered this topic several times (a great resource btw). Outside academic/government work a 1-2 page resume is standard. Anything over that is probably going to get tossed.

Whether your resume is one or two pages is determined by a number of factors. For example, I am in my late 20's with a masters degree. While I do not have that much "real world" experience compared to many others, I have a lot of very "interesting" and diverse experience. Putting all of that on a one page resume is not practical. OTOH, if I had a series of similar jobs I could have easily condensed mine to a single page. It all depends on your situation.

Oh, and FYI, it all depends on the hiring manager. When I have to look at resumes I want to learn enough about you from your resume that I can determine whether or not to bring you in. Candidates with one page resumes tend to get tossed because frankly, with a number of qualified candidates, I do not need them.

 

[gorcorps]

My question is, what's the professional way of having a 2 page resume? Double sided, stapled, bound, etc? Double sided to me would cut down on extra bulk but just seems wrong for some reason.

 

[DAGTA]

My question is, what's the professional way of having a 2 page resume? Double sided, stapled, bound, etc? Double sided to me would cut down on extra bulk but just seems wrong for some reason.

Most resumes I get now are in Word files or PDF files attached to emails. If you hand one out in person, stapled or paperclipped is fine.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Two pages is fine. I have a crap ton of projects and publications, which I could pare down to ~1.4 pages, but since you've already started on the second page...

 

[AreaCode707]

I've reviewed hundreds of resumes in the last three years, hired a few dozen people, and have done more interviews than I remember. After having done that, I've realized that I'd rather see a multi-page resume than a resume that doesn't have enough information. The arbitrary one or two page rule doesn't apply to me anymore. I see many recruiters in IT are of the same opinion now.

Don't add fluff just to make it longer, but if you have 10 years of experience to show over 3 pages, that's fine.

THIS.

Let me first specify here that I do this for a living. I've been in recruiting for about 8 years now. I currently implement applicant tracking systems for a living and spend about 50 hours a week having this and related conversations with recruiters and recruiting management.

While everyone has some personal preferences, one page resumes are no longer the standard. If you are fresh out of college, you do not have enough content for a two page resume and your career office is rightly going to tell you to keep it to one page, simply to prevent you from rambling on.

After you have more than 3-5 years of experience, especially if you've switched jobs in that time, you are most likely going to move to a two page resume to accurately explain your work history and experience. As DAGTA says, if you keep your resume to one page by cutting out relevant content that shows what a good fit you are for the job, it's useless.

There are a *few* industries out there where one page resumes are the standard, and there are always a couple of dumb hiring managers that have a personal bias against two page resumes, but those are the exception.

Now, cover letters. 85% of the time these are a WASTE OF TIME. The conversation I have with clients goes like this:
"Do you want a cover letter field?"
"No, we never read them, right guys? Does anyone read cover letters?"
*whole room says no*
"Ok, no cover letter field."
"Wait, if we don't put a field then people are just going to paste it into the front of their resume and that will be a pain."
"Oh yeah, you're right."
"Ok, put the field in just so people have a place to put it so they don't mess up their resumes."

Honestly, the conversation is almost word for word identical with every client I work with. Nobody cares about your cover letter; they want to see on your resume that you've done the work before, that you have the necessary experience, etc. If you can't condense your cover letter into a one-line objective, you're doing it wrong.

Oh, and most clients also ask me what the resume field size limit is on attachments. They are concerned that the default limit is likely too SMALL, and they want to make sure that we don't accidentally eliminate candidates with larger file sizes. They aren't worried about disqualifying based on overly-long resumes, they are worried about making sure we can accept the large resumes without issue.

 

[AreaCode707]

My question is, what's the professional way of having a 2 page resume? Double sided, stapled, bound, etc? Double sided to me would cut down on extra bulk but just seems wrong for some reason.

Stapled is most typical. Be sure to put your contact info as a footer on both pages in case they get separated from each other.

 

[Gibson486]

You can have a 2 page resume IF you have the experience to back it up AND the information is relevant to the job you are applying for.

It's great if you have 2 pages, but what do you think a recruiter will feel like when they have a page worth of relevant info and another page worth of info that is not applicable for the job? You just had them go through 2 pages when you could have done it with 1. If you are applying for a software engineering position at Microsoft, do you think they will care that you know how to design and fabricate a PCB? What this tells the recruiter is that 1. you are trying show off skills that do not matter and you do not know what you are applying for, and 2. you did not bother to tailor your resume to the position at hand.

You can't just list stuff for a recruiter and go, " Look at what I accomplished, i am smart and well rounded". You have to look at it as, "Look what i accomplished that relates to the job and makes me a good fit for the position". You have to make it easy for them.

Cover Letter Tips: They can help, but they can also hurt. If you do not know how to write a good one, then just leave it off or pay some English major to do it. Also, they need to be as long as you need them to be, but do not write a novel and realize that it also depends on the media method (email, website, snail mail) you use. Some people read them, some do not. So beware.

Objective Tips: It's one of those things that different people will give you different answers. Some people acknowledge them, some do not. So beware.

 

[BoberFett]

I've reviewed hundreds of resumes in the last three years, hired a few dozen people, and have done more interviews than I remember. After having done that, I've realized that I'd rather see a multi-page resume than a resume that doesn't have enough information. The arbitrary one or two page rule doesn't apply to me anymore. I see many recruiters in IT are of the same opinion now.

Don't add fluff just to make it longer, but if you have 10 years of experience to show over 3 pages, that's fine.

This. Don't listen to the Single Page Nazis. My resume has flowed to three, but I may try to trim some fat the next time I update it to get back to two as it is starting to feel like some of the tasks at older jobs are getting a bit stale.

And my resume isn't just a list of bullet points listing my skills. I use it to list projects I've worked on, a broad overview of the responsibilities on said project, and the results.

"Proposed and implemented Project X coordinating internal and outsourced software devleopment resources, resulting in increased productivity for Department Y, allowing them to serve twice as many customers without an increase in headcount."

Nobody hires a person just to fill a seat. They hire people who bring value to the organization. Show how you can bring value, don't just say "I know how to program in C++."

 

[BoberFett]

Make sure you put on what needs to be put on to paint the picture. As they said in Spaceballs "Take only what you NEED to survive". Its kind of like that.

Does that mean I should include my years as a hairdresser for princesses?

 

[BoberFett]

My question is, what's the professional way of having a 2 page resume? Double sided, stapled, bound, etc? Double sided to me would cut down on extra bulk but just seems wrong for some reason.

I haven't handed a paper resume to anyone in years. They get the .doc and print it however they want.

 

[DAGTA]

In case it helps anyone, I'll share a few more opinions I have gained in the last three years. I'm not a professional like AreaCode707, but I've built 4 IT teams in the past three years and have worked with over a dozen recruiters.

These are in no particular order:

- I do a 20 to 30 minute phone screen with candidates before bringing them in for a face-to-face interview. This saves everyone time.

- If you forget about the scheduled interview time (phone or in person), I'm not going to reschedule it. It obviously wasn't a priority for you.

- If you are working with a recruiter, make sure the recruiter is presenting you at the same salary range that you are telling him/her. I often ask candidates what they are seeking. Sometimes they tell me a different range than the recruiter has told me. Also, have this conversation honestly with your recruiter. A good recruiter knows the market and can help you understand the current value of your skills and experience. You might be setting your salary range too low.

- When a recruiter asks, "Has anyone else presented you to X company recently?", answer truthfully! If I receive the same resume from two different recruiters for the same job posting, I simply dismiss that candidate. It's usually not worth the effort / risk of explaining to the recruiters that I received it from one before the other. I will do this for a great-looking resume, but not often.

- When you show up for the interview, it is ALWAYS better to be over-dressed than under-dressed. I don't care if you are older than me and have more experience than me: when you show up in sandals and shorts, you are instantly rejected in my mind.

- Turn your cell phone off during the interview or leave it in the car. If you must answer the phone or a text during the interview, please be prepared to explain what is so important.

- I give pen and paper written exams to my developer candidates during the interview. That still weeds out those that know how to talk the talk but can't actually write the code.

- I appreciate honesty in an interview, but keep it professional and don't feel the need go into massive personal details.

- If you don't know the answer to a question, say, "I don't know" and show that you are willing to learn. My BS detector has improved and people guessing at answers get rejected way more than someone that says, "I don't know".

- The time to negotiate is before the interview and at the end of the interview. If I extend an offer to you, and offer you what you asked for, I will withdraw that offer if you then try to negotiate higher.

- Many short duration jobs on your resume looks bad. If it was contract work, state that on the resume. I know that it's normal for people to hop every 2 or 3 years in IT. Hopping every 4 to 8 months tells me that something is wrong with how you work with others.

- If you are asked a puzzle / thinking question, try to answer it even if it takes you a few minutes to think it through, and even if you don't have the perfect answer. When I ask those questions, I'm looking at how a person thinks through a problem more than I care about you nailing the perfect answer. Also, I like it when people ask to use the whiteboard to draw out the problem.

- The interview is to find out if your skills are good enough AND to see if you will fit in with my team. If you're an ace but you have a massive ego or an annoying personality trait, I'm going to pass on you. I've hired people that had red-flags regarding their personalities during the interview and I've regretted it later.

- I don't expect people to follow up with a 'thank you' email, phone call, etc after the interview but I am pleasantly surprised when it happens.

- There are some words and phrases that I consider red-flags. If you summarize yourself on your resume as, "a problem solver" or say things like, "We'll carve out time" or "I'll craft an email", then I'm likely to pass on you as a BSer.

If I think of more, I'll add another reply to this thread. Hope this helps someone. Remember that the people interviewing you know that you wouldn't really be wanting to work this full time job if you were independently wealthy. We aren't expecting you to think this job is the greatest thing ever, but we would like to see that you are interested in the position.