Any resume experts in the house?

TL;DR - I suck at self promotion (like most programmers) and need help.

I'm currently cleaning up my resume to cut it down from 3-4 pages to about 1 1/2 pages. Part of the problem is that I've been doing this software thing for close to 25 years by now so there is a lot of "stuff" on the resume.

So, a couple of questions:

• Do we have anybody here who offers resume review/writing services? Long shot, but hey, we have people doing almost everything else on here. I've got the review side covered but I could do with some pro help on the writing and Linkedin side
• Is it OK to just include the "highlights" for recent positions? That's the only way I can cut my resume in half - anything but the last three jobs has already been cut down to one or two lines - but I don't want to open myself to people questioning what I did for three years at place X if all that's on the resume is two lines of highlights

In reply to BoxheadTim:

First off, 1 page only.

I only include relevant professional experience with 2 lines for every job

condense, I used a table in a word doc to control the spacing and location of everything without pulling out my hair.

Use a narrower font and by that I mean slightly narrower letters and less space between them.

Small margins

PM me your email and I can send you mine to use as a template, I just landed my 3rd engineering job so it's working for me.

Tim, I'm no resume expert, but I've reviewed plenty of them for potential hires, so here's my $0.02:

I don't want to see a paragraph for each previous position, I want title/employer, timeframe, and a brief description/highlights of your duties.

Give me two paragraphs in your email/cover-letter/whatever: 1.) Your relevant skills & experience. And 2.) Why you would be a valuable asset to my company.

I know that's not the professional opinion you're looking for, but I hope that's a start until someone else can reply. And good luck!

Go ahead and make it two full pages. When you have a lot of work experience, you need to go a little longer than one page. References on another page, to be handed out at your discretion.

Thanks for the comments.

I'm already down to a fairly small and narrow font. Any smaller and I'm in the realm of financial contract mice print , so I have to whittle it down to the highlights and run with that.

According to the reviewer I'm working with, 1 1/2 pages should be OK for someone with my experience (I basically can't even fit all my past employers and the education on a single page these days) but that still leaves me with having to cut everything down to the highlights.

Part of the problem is that I have conflicting suggestions, namely "you need to cut it down" and "expand on certain points on your resume so we can figure out what the achievements are". The "must include quantifiable achievements" - which requires expansion on some of the highlights - is something that I have received as feedback from multiple people working in larger tech companies so I think this is mainly where my resume fails. And fail it does, hard.

I guess I should really use Linkedin et al to expand on stuff and keep the resume to highlights only. Back to the drawing board, I think.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Go ahead and make it two full pages. When you have a lot of work experience, you need to go a little longer than one page. References on another page, to be handed out at your discretion.

I don't hand out references with the resume anyway, they're all "references available on request". But yeah, it's beginning to look like even cutting it down to two pages is a major achievement.

At the moment, the resume is:

• Contact details
• Very brief list of the various technologies I have experience with (I'm thinking of cutting that part)
• List of past positions, the newer ones have more highlights on them, all the older ones are down to a single bullet point. There is some scope for cutting here, which is what I'm currently doing
• Minimal list of my education

I would be more inclined to keep the technological summary and cut/condense the older jobs that have only one bullet point.

Contact details can be in the header, in a smaller font than your name, so as not to take up room in the body of the resume.

Even though you are trying to cram a lot of info on there, it needs to be easy to read or it won't get read at all. Keep the spacing open and don't kern your characters too close.

Man, it's really crazy how resumes differ from place to place. In the US, I was writing them with minimal details; 1.5 pages at the most. Here in Germany, however, my resume is over 3 pages long, with a photo, and I still get feedback that it needs to be more detailed.

I've always said to only keep the last ten years worth of employment unless it specifically plays into the position you are applying for. I read ten or twelve resumes a week and I have to tell you that the better the résumé the more serious the employer is going to take you.

Btw: two pages is fine for someone in your line of work.

What about if you have lots of degrees and technical certs that seem to just take up a lot of space on your resume? What do you guys recommend?

I just can't stand having to tailor my resume for every submission just so tedious. I need a external hard drive just for all of the resumes i have haha.

chandlerGTi wrote: I've always said to only keep the last ten years worth of employment unless it specifically plays into the position you are applying for. I read ten or twelve resumes a week and I have to tell you that the better the résumé the more serious the employer is going to take you.

My "problem" is that I've done a lot of work in certain areas of financial software that was done 3-5 years before that stuff became mainstream so I better show that I did that sort of work before a lot of other people did.

chandlerGTi wrote: Btw: two pages is fine for someone in your line of work.

Thanks. I managed to get it down to a little less than two pages, any more cutting and I have to replace relevant information with "did stuff". I'm probably going to clean up the LinkedIn profile and add more details over there.

sobe_death wrote: Man, it's really crazy how resumes differ from place to place. In the US, I was writing them with minimal details; 1.5 pages at the most. Here in Germany, however, my resume is over 3 pages long, with a photo, and I still get feedback that it needs to be more detailed.

Tell me about it - my UK resume (derived from my German one) was about 4 pages when I left the UK without photos and all that jazz. I'm looking at my US now and wonder if people will think I was looking at the GRM forum all day long.

I'm no pro, but I have reviewed hundreds of them. I can tell you what I look for.

Don't go past two pages. NO WAY, NO HOW, EVAR. The only thing 3 pages tells me is that you couldn't focus your thoughts well enough to edit it to 2 pages.

I despise small fonts and narrow margins. I'm not stupid. I know what it means. It means you couldn't focus your thoughts well enough to edit it to 2 pages. Plus, busy pages are hard to read. The page needs to have some blank space. Clean is good. Avoid clutter.

I don't really need a detailed technical document. I need it to be a framework for our interview, so I can have a good discussion with you, and have some interesting things to ask. Just hit the highlights- give me some teasers, and let me figure out the questions so we can talk about it.

I am a total Nazi on spelling and grammar. Please triple check, and have it proof read by several people. I won't hire you to represent my company if you can't present yourself well on a piece of paper that you had every opportunity to get right. I had a guy once apply for a supervisor position, who misspelled supervisor. Sorry. Straight to the circular file.

I already know you meet the basic job requirements, or you wouldn't be in an interview. I'm not looking for a perfect job history, I'm looking for a good fit with the company. It's not something you have a lot of control over, so be real. If you fit, great. If you don't, that's OK too. It's better we both know it now.

I know it's a pain to customize every resume to the job. It's worth the effort. Spend some time doing your homework about me and my company before you give me a resume, then state a good specific goal or objective that fits with my company's needs. Also, include good relevant keywords for the auto scanners. We are gonna do our homework on you, you should do it on us.

Include something meaningful and interesting. Say you like racing cars, organic gardening, or raising gerbils. It doesn't matter what, as long as it is real and honest, and gives me something to ask you about.

Think about the company. Try to show what you are offering that will help the company.

Use action verbs, and show results. For example: "Implemented accountability system resulting in 15% net cost reduction ".

You don't need ALL your past employers or education. Stick to the last 10 years.

^nailed it. I'd even caution that in certain instances 2 pages is too much. We are hiring right now for a some what entry level position, if its more than one page my boss won't read it. Obviously if you have years of experience you probably aren't applying for something entry level so 2 will still be acceptable.

If you are 25 years in and still relying on a resume, you might have an issue. Perhaps it is different in the IT biz, but my resume was online only on sites like Monster where size is irrelevant, and I never provided a printed copy for my last 3 jobs. No way I am limiting my vast experience to one page! I cover the basics on paper so they know I have the right foundation, and then nail it in the interview.

Best of luck in whatever you do!

Also hate spelling and Grammar errors. I look through quite a few resumes and am frustrated by the sloppiness in many of them. And I am frustrated because I suspect there are some good candidates who are screwing themselves. I cannot get by glaringly bad English that I know would have been picked up by spellcheck if the candidate had bothered to spend another 5 minutes. The last help ad I ran I wrote in the body of the ad that poorly edited resumes would not be considered. That got me poorly edited resumes AND hate mail from two job seekers who thought I was unreasonable.

In reply to JThw8:

You are right. Sometimes 2 pages is waay too much.

I was responding to the OP with 25 years experience.

If you have 5 years working history, you have no business going past 1 page.

bearmtnmartin wrote: Also hate spelling and Grammar errors.

Like out-of-place capitalization??

pinchvalve wrote: If you are 25 years in and still relying on a resume, you might have an issue. Perhaps it is different in the IT biz, but my resume was online only on sites like Monster where size is irrelevant, and I never provided a printed copy for my last 3 jobs. No way I am limiting my vast experience to one page! I cover the basics on paper so they know I have the right foundation, and then nail it in the interview. Best of luck in whatever you do!

You may be correct, but the world is a changing place.

I had no need for a resume at all for over 35 years. The last few it has become very important.

A lot of industries are going through changes that necessitate resumes where they never used to be needed.

Again, your vast experience may warrant 2 pages. Don't go past that, or you won't be in an interview. I know a lot of hiring agents that will first weed out the chaff by throwing away any resume over 2 pages.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

One more thing...

Try to think of it from the perspective of the hiring agent. Imagine stacks of several hundred resumes, knowing that attached to each one is a real human person with a real need. It is a burden to have to pass judgement on someone based on a page or 2 of writing, but it is a much bigger burden to have to do it a few hundred times every week. It is absolute drudgery when the resumes are so terrible that editing them is easy.

I once took a pile of 250 resumes and narrowed them down to 4 in less then 30 minutes. NOT because I am a hatchet man, but because the vast majority were so horrible that it only took a moment to glance at them and realize we had no interest in interviewing. It was heart breaking.

Try to make it enjoyable for the hiring agent. Job hunting and hiring don't have to be miserable.

Too often I see resumes that look like someone trying to prove themselves, then interviews with someone trying to beg, or avoid offending.

The resume should be a chance to get noticed, and the interview should be a chance to connect. Impress. Show some initiative and creativity. Take a risk. I like to see words like "passionate about", "inspired by", and excited for". I don't see them very often (but I notice when I do).

Make the resume intriguing. A little mystery can be fun. Then make the interview casual, enjoyable, memorable, and real.

Have fun! Make it enjoyable for both you AND the hiring agent.

SVreX wrote:

bearmtnmartin wrote: Also hate spelling and Grammar errors.

Like out-of-place capitalization??

Can anyone spot my deliberate errors?

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

I spotted 7, but it's pretty hard to tell which ones are deliberate.

Reminds me I have to update my resume.