Ask HN: How long should an ideal resume be? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How long should an ideal resume be?

9 pointsmomop13 comments

I am building my resume these days and would like some feedback on ideal resume length (I personally would prefer single page resumes irrespective of experience). Any thoughts is much appreciated. I feel like I could super-squeeze everything in single page without any fluff (but I have ~14 years of exp), but am concerned if it will appear weak.

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2 pages maximum. I'll forgive you if a recruiter has bastardised your CV when they send it on to me.

One of the things I was taught about CVs is don't put down your job responsibilities, put down what you achieved. For example, in my last role, I was responsible for debt recovery in the company so instead of saying:

"Managed a team of 4 paralegals with responsibility for debt recovery across the group"; I said:

"Created a debt recovery team of 4 paralegals and put in place processes to standardise debt recovery across group achieving X days reduction in DSO and recovered over £XXXXXX in legal costs and interest"

reviewing CVs in the UK, I've been pretty happy at two pages. Three is pushing it, but okay for someone very experienced (although I find the more experienced, the more likely they're able to keep it to two pages)

I honestly want to circular file any CVs with more than three pages though. They'd have to be a special candidate for me to consider them after that.

I'm a two-page guy myself but a recruiter recently told me that nowadays with job searching being done by recruiters who 'grep' your resume for keywords, that longer and more detailed is fine. And, hiring managers want to see more, if you have it and it's informative. But that could also be done by having a 'misc. skills' section I imagine.

Good advice. 2 pages is ideal but in some cases there is enough relevant info to warrant more than that, particularly if you've led a reasonably accomplished career.

An honest list of languages & tech and an honest appraisal of your skill level in each. (Don't include things like mongoDB because it's a hot-topic and you've read the wiki page.)

A list of your accomplishments.

A list of personal work that's relevant to your interests & chosen career path (always link to your work).

Lists are great, mainly because no-one see's the value in reading purple prose about how you are a dynamic and self-motivated individual.

Depends on the company I got my last job with 1 page (company is a 15-20 head in the agency / digital marketing area). I listed :

* Last 2 jobs, listing company, dates of employment & Job Title.

* List of Education / Certification (only relevant to the job)

* List of notable skills (written in a very broad manner, i.e : Administration of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X servers and major application packages.

Add a references on request line and contact details and I was done.

May not suit everyone but worked well going into a small and casual environment.

Having hired many people over the years, I prefer reading a short, highly targeted resume. One page is ideal, however if your experience requires more room, add up to a total of two pages.

Remember, if you have to ask if something is relevant in your resume, you should leave it off!

Have you thought about supplementing your paper resume with a video resume? I actually just posted a blog article on the topic here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3655510

Video resume sounds like a great idea! Thanks for the response.

> Remember, if you have to ask if something is relevant in your resume, you should leave it off!

I did this once, and the interviewer asked me about all the holes (by date) in my resume. So, never again.

Personal opinion on what I look for...

One preferred. Two at most. Online version highly preferred in addition to print out.

Information overload is not necessary. Not all 14 years are necessary to be put on there even if all 14 years are relevant. Tackle exactly what the job is looking for.

Expand in cover letter if necessary.

Genrally this depends on how long you have worked

Fresh Grads to 1-2 Years of Work - 1 Pager 2 - beyond Years of Work - 2 Pager

Anything beyond 2 Pager should only be for C-Level

2 pages work the best my experience both as a submitter and a hiring manager. One's too short, 3 is too long.

OK. Thanks. I am beginning to lean towards 2.

Thank you all for the valuable suggestions. I will be building 2 pages..

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