Jeremy Johnson has a new guest blog post this week on how job seekers should break the one page resume rule.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
You can also follow him on Twitter at jsquaredkc
Break the One Page Resume Rule
I realize from the get-go here that not nearly everyone has a one-page resume; but, it’s still out there in substantial numbers, and I still get anecdotal evidence from candidates that they’ve gotten the “one-pager” advice from someone else. So, hopefully, I can dispel the notion that you have to keep your resume to one page.
The one-page resume rule is meant to make things easier on your audience because everything is nice and neat and tidy, and they don’t have to sift through several pages to figure out if you’re the right fit. This was especially true back in the snail mail days, when people were sending out hard copy resumes on nice stationery, where you didn’t want your audience to have to physically flip pages; just give them one page – no mess.
One of the biggest reasons I’m against the one-page resume is people start weighing the inclusion of important, relevant information versus not spilling that information over onto a second page. So, if they’re convinced that the one-page rule is most important, then they start cutting out good content that would be relevant to their audience just to save a little bit of space. Not a good idea.
There are two main reasons I firmly believe the one-page rule should be broken:
1) In the electronic age where everyone’s first peek at your resume is off of a computer screen, you’re not really saving your audience any inconvenience with the one page. They still have to scroll down the screen to get to the bottom of page one. Getting to page two then just means you scroll a bit more – the point being that you still can’t see an entire page on one screen anyway(unless the view size or resolution on your screen is so small you need a magnifying glass). The bottom line is, your audience is basically doing the same amount of work getting to the bottom of page one as they are getting to the top of page two.
2) The second reason to break the one-page rule instead of leaving off vital information is that if you set up your resume correctly from the beginning, to get your audience’s attention immediately with what’s important to them, they will then have a SELFISH motive to keep reading. They’re not going to stop at the bottom of page one and say, “Well, this candidate looks great so far, but it’s too bad I can only read one page. Wish I could find out more.” That’s ridiculous! Have you ever read a book over 300 or 400 pages? Sure you have! Why? Because the story was compelling to you – because it held your interest. You wouldn’t start a book and say, “Wow, this story is amazing……but too bad it’s 450 pages. That’s just too long.” Again, ridiculous. If you provide an attention-grabbing headline or summary statement on your resume, follow it up with summarized information on your skills, education, technologies used, etc. that line up with the audience’s need, they will want to find out more. It won’t matter at that point if the information spills onto the second page. If they’re interested in your background, they’ll read it.
The only time I usually argue against going over one page is if you’re an entry-level candidate just starting your career. If you don’t have any real-world experience, having a 2-3 page resume just looks like you’re trying to “pad your stats.” It’s best to not look like you’re embellishing. Other than that, I always advise candidates to use that second page – and even a third – if they need it. It’s much better to do that than sacrifice relevant information that may help tip things in your favor. Remember, you’re not saving your audience any inconvenience when they still have to scroll down the screen to get to the bottom of the first page, and if you create a targeted beginning that speaks to the audience’s need, they’ll want to read more.
If you can fit everything onto one page without sacrificing content, do it. If not, don’t hold yourself to the one-page rule.