Short Resumes: Do They Work?
Most of the resumes that I see are long. Average length: 3 to 5 pages. Sometimes, I get the feeling that the applicant wants me to know every detail of his or her life as an employee .
I applied for a job once with a one-page resume and the interviewer actually commented on it. He said that he had noticed it from the huge pile of applications because it was only one page. I didn’t get that job eventually, but somehow, the comment stuck. I began to think that if you do think about it, if all the applicants had lengthy resumes and you had a one-pager, I guess my resume would get noticed faster.
Fast forward to today. In the past few months, I have gotten the comment: “ang tipid” or “ang iksi” (how stingy with information or how short) twice. One headhunter I was talking to said that this type of format make work in the U.S. but not in the Philippines where they want every detail of your work experience. I was then asked to put in more information about what I thought were my major achievements for my past jobs and data about the work that I have done in a particular industry.
Now my resume has expanded to two pages. I don’t know if it will help me better with my job-hunting activities so we’ll see. As for your own resume, take a long hard look at it. If it’s too long (maybe beyond three pages), cut it a bit. If it’s a one-pager, expand it a bit. Resumes are not everything but they give the prospective employer his or her first impression about you. We all know how important impressions are.