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About a year ago, I re-did my resume MT style. I have not used it until an possible contract opportunity came up. I asked somebody for feedback on my resume. He said the font size is too small. I told him if I make it 12 points (his suggestion), it would bleed to 2 pages and the second pages does not get read.

Then he said with the resume as it is written, "do you really NEED the second half." I (and he) likes the accomplishment section on each job.

Thanks.

SteveSherry's picture

Where are you based?

I am from the UK,
My resume is a full 2 pages.
I have not listened to the resume podcast yet (so am porobably totally un-MT here)

My resume (CV in the UK) deails my contact details, then in reverse chronological order my professional career and achievements.
moving eventually to my acedemic achievements.

I've never been toild that my resume is too long.
Maybe it's my industry, maybe it's the country.
I read a lot of resumes, all typically 2 pages, I generally see the first page as the "hook" and the rest as a reason to bring the applicant in for an onterview.

Hope this helps, I'd really like to know how you get on.

Steve...

edwin_park's picture

Listen to the podcast. I don't think I can do it justice.

bteachman's picture
Training Badge

edwin_park,

If you post a link to your resume in the thread i am sure some people on the forum would give you feed back also.

HMac's picture

Stevesherry -
Your description of your resume doesn't sound like it's that far off.

When you listen to the podcast the first time, you'll be struck - hard - by M/M's message that a resume is to be no longer than 1 page. I've read a lot of posts here, and the "one page rule" is the most frequent topic of comment and concern.

I strongly advise you listen to the podcast a second time; maybe listen a third time. When I did, I was able to hear two other equally important bits of advice from M/M:

* Other than idenifying information about you and the data about where/when/title for each job, the only information on your resume should be [i]what you did, and how well you did it[/i]

* The purpose of the resume is [b][i]to get you an interview[/i][/b]

On reflection, I think those two bits are HUGE - and if you keep them in mind, you can bring some perspective to the whole "one page or longer?" quandry. Here's what I mean:

Look, if you're really disciplined about eliminating the fluff, the self-agrandizing and the vague - and you've really squeezed the content down to [i]what you did and how well you did it[/i], then it's logical to conclude that there are instances where doing so will take you more than one page. Content is more important than length. Flabby content - of any length - is poor judgment. But so too is eliminating great and relevant content just to meet a rule about how long a resume "should" be.

And the great thing is that M/M give you the way to measure whether your resume is effective: is it getting you interviews? THAT'S the effectiveness measure - and it trumps everything else. It also gives you a way to not get to crazed about your resume, or too attached to it. It's either working, or it's not.

That's the genius in the resume podcast.

Good luck!

-Hugh