Job seekers are constantly asking this crucial question — ‘How long should a resume be?’ While there isn’t necessarily a singular answer and various employers may recommend different lengths, keep reading to learn about how long you should make your resume depending on several factors.
How Long Should A Resume Be?
One Page
A one-page resume is popular among recent college grads, as well as those who wish to include education. It’s also common for those who don’t have an abundance of relevant workplace experience outside of internships or collegiate-level roles. Preparing to enter the job market or the “real world” for the first time? If so, a one-page resume is perfectly acceptable and considered the norm. You can include the institution from which you earned your degree, your GPA, your work and internship experience, and any skills you may have. Relevant skills may include Microsoft Office proficiency or foreign language fluency.
Those in favor of one-page resumes argue that you often send in resumes accompanied by a CV. You may also hear, “Walk me through your resume” in an interview. This means you can save the lengthy explanations for the cover letters and interviews. Overall, make sure your actual resume is short and sweet.
Two Pages
Sometimes, hiring managers looking for more tenured employees expect to see two pages. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to list every job you’ve ever had. The majority of employers only take interest in the last 10 years of your job history. Focus on positions relevant to the job at hand. While many agree that shorter is better, it’s a fact that some applicants simply need longer resumes. If you have a lot of varied experience dealing with changing fields or pursuing new degrees or licensing, you’ll use more space.
What to Include
Regardless of how long you decide to make your resume, there are some things your resume absolutely cannot go without. You should include all relevant work experience in a chronological timeline. Make sure your timeline is accurate in terms of all the jobs you’ve held, the most recent ones being at the top, and your bullet points quickly and clearly convey the duties for which you were responsible at each job.
You should also include a clear “skills” section. It should include skills beyond those previously discussed like Microsoft Office proficiency and foreign language fluency. What do you know how to do well, and which of these are particularly relevant to the position for which you are applying? Make sure you regularly update and polish your resume, as both your experience and skills change. Furthermore, make sure it is properly formatted and squeaky clean, free of grammatical, spelling, or formatting errors.
Take care in creating, building and editing your resume. As long as you identify what’s important to you in terms of your resume and then format accordingly, you’ll be landing interviews in no time. Remember — it’s mainly a matter of personal preference and will inevitably vary among people. When crafting your resume, you should pay more attention to content rather than length.
So, in your opinion, how long should a resume be? Let us know! Contact TruPath today for any hiring or career help you might be seeking.
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