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Hi Guys,

I'm trying to whittle down my MT resume.   I've got over 10 entries(that sound worse than it is). Let me describe them.

3 different positions/titles & responsibilities at the same company over 2 years.

3 positions as Consultant for 3 different companies over 2 years.  Same type of consulting work

1 position as another firm for 5 years.

2 positions at essentially the same company(my firm was bought out by another firm) for 2 years

1 position for 2 years.

Right now, with responsibilities and 3 accomplishments bullets for each position, I'm at a page and a half.   I've even reduce the wording down for each positions responsibilities block to as little and direct as possible.

How do I combine some of these things?

Also, i can't find it anywhere but can I make the orientation landscape or is that an MT no-no?

ashdenver's picture

I wouldn't dare put my resume in landscape format. 

For my own resume - and trust me, plenty will disagree with this approach - I've combined positions/titles under the same employer, listing only the current / most recent as the bolded item and referencing within the summary and/or bullet items that I also held the other positions.

For consultancy projects, I simply listed the consulting firm, dates and then summarized the types of assignments/projects within the entry.

For buy-outs, I list one entry with the final name of the company after the buy-out, possibly including a parenthetical reference: Acme Corp (formerly Widgets Inc)

I've also got a section of "Early Career" with my first 5 jobs (1988-1998) - dates, title, company, city and nothing else - no summary, no bullets of accomplishments, nothing. 

I've got 0.5" margins all the way around and a 10 pt font (Times New Roman) and I've used the Header for my contact information.  I've got 722 words in there and it doesn't look terrible, I promise.  (It looks a LOT like the MT sample resume.) 

DISCLAIMERI will reiterate that a LOT of the things I've listed here are NOT the recommended methods of MT so feel free to completely disregard all that I've shared and please note that I have not advised on any specific actions to take.  I've simply shared what I have done and what works for me.

clembm's picture

I was able to whittle it down to 1 page by setting my margins at 0.5 and I also trimmed down wording/words and kept my summary paragrahs to no more than 3 sentances. I also combined 2 roles into one since my HR title did not change but my responsibilities changed.

 

I think I'm good to go and I've started sending out resumes. We'll see if I get any hits.

 

-B

md_ruiz's picture

Working on the same task...  My current challenge is to create a set of resumes tailored to the positions sought, as I am contemplating remaining in the non-profit (pun unfortunately intended) sector or making an industry jump.  While my format is not exactly MT, I did manage to get it down to a page. For me the key was to stick to information that is of true direct relevance for somebody loooking for an experienced Non-Profit Executive (the version that I am currently finalizing).  While I have a full set of great, action-oriented, ONE LINE quantifiable bullets, I had to steel myself and cut away ones that I am proud of but are not truly engaging for the work sought.  After all, once the resume does its job of geting me an interview, I can then incorporate other accomplishments into the discourse.  Good luck, and if you wish an example fire me a note at [email protected] & I would be happy to share.

-Michael

wendii's picture
Admin Role Badge

If I'm trying to get a resume down to one page, I start with all the information on the pages. Then

1. Make sure the line spacing is on single, and make the text 10 pt Times New Roman (it has a smaller footprint than other fonts) and correct the margins.

2. Look for two line accomplishments and make them one line.

3. Look for lines with only a couple of words on (widows) and reword the paragraphs to make each line a full line.

4. Starting at the oldest job, take out responsibilities and accomplishments where a more recent responsibility/accomplishment reflects the same skill. Oldest jobs can have only 1 line of responsibilities and 1 accomplishment. Most recent roles must have more.

Hope that helps,

Wendii

acubas's picture

Wow, I wanted to give you some tips, but I just read the example resume and found out that it is completely different from how we do it here.

In the Netherlands any resume that is longer than 2 pages will not be read! And we also state our education on it.

 

What we do is we only mention the most important things. Off course we mention every job (company name, function name, dates) but we only give more information if we think this is something important for our next career. I will mention that i was working on a certain project if that is something that reflects the activities I will do in  my future work. But I would not say that I was fantastic at writing 50 page reports if I will not be writing any reports in my new job.

 

My advice is: list all your functions in one job in one sentence, and after that only mention the fantastic things you did that you are ALSO going to do for your new boss.

 

DISCLAIMER: this is the way to do it in the Netherlands, results may vary in different countries ;-) But maybe you can incororate these tips and still have a good resume for in the US.