What recruiters look for in your resume - heat map

[GotIssues]

And when they look at their pile of potential candidates and realize, "wow, I don't want to interview 50 different people," they're going to spend a little bit more time picking the best looking candidates on paper.

Recruiters have a ton of positions to fill, they aren't spending extra time reading resumes. If you are incapable of telling the difference between relevant work experience and non-relevant experience, that's more than enough reason for them to put you in the rejected bucket 9 times out of 10. Details are for the phone interview and in-person interview.

Unless you are applying at a company with very few openings, the recruiters don't have the time or desire to sift through the mountain of crap you provided to find the diamonds. If they do spend the time to do that, then they likely just aren't very good at their job.

 

[AreaCode707]

Time in field != being good at it.

You can distill it to one page. You start cutting out the details from the further out jobs. They don't need to know every minor thing you did in a job you had 10 years ago, only the things relevant to the job you are applying for.

Sorry, let me clarify. 12 years of performance reviews of 4 or 5 out of a 5 point scale, promotions every 1-3 years, currently own the product development for one of the most major applicant tracking systems on the market. So yeah, I suck at my job.

Stick with your one page resumes, feel free. You go with your bad self!

If you have a job like "project manager" or "technical architect" your job description can be WILDLY varied and you need an appropriate level of detail about your job responsibilities and accomplishments to make the resume section meaningful.

If your job history consists of roles where the title/company alone designates 90% of the work you do (mortgage broker, engineer at Bridge Builders Inc, tax financial analyst at big accounting firm), sure a one page resume fits fine. That isn't true in most current tech fields.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Disagree, you can always get it down to 1 page for entry/mid level - cut out the verbose excess. Senior level/exec is the only excuse for going over a page for a resume.

Incorrect. I'm guessing you don't list many project accomplishments or have had many jobs with multiple companies.

My resume is 3 pages and I assure you that if I condensed it to 1 page, it would demonstrate a lack of experience to qualify for the position.

And for the last three positions I've applied for, I was contacted the very next day for interviews.

 

[SP33Demon]

Sorry, let me clarify. 12 years of performance reviews of 4 or 5 out of a 5 point scale, promotions every 1-3 years, currently own the product development for one of the most major applicant tracking systems on the market. So yeah, I suck at my job.

Stick with your one page resumes, feel free. You go with your bad self!

If you have a job like "project manager" or "technical architect" your job description can be WILDLY varied and you need an appropriate level of detail about your job responsibilities and accomplishments to make the resume section meaningful.

If your job history consists of roles where the title/company alone designates 90% of the work you do (mortgage broker, engineer at Bridge Builders Inc, tax financial analyst at big accounting firm), sure a one page resume fits fine. That isn't true in most current tech fields.

I just had to comment on this. Most logical people will agree that someone with a boatload of experience (senior/exec level in their field like PM/architects) will warrant more than a one page resume. However they represent 5-10% of the workforce. Most mid career folks are not PM's or architects, yet you still recommended 2 pages for their resumes. Are you sure you're "in the recruiting field"?

 

[SP33Demon]

Incorrect. I'm guessing you don't list many project accomplishments or have had many jobs with multiple companies.

My resume is 3 pages and I assure you that if I condensed it to 1 page, it would demonstrate a lack of experience to qualify for the position.

And for the last three positions I've applied for, I was contacted the very next day for interviews.

Post your first page with relevant info blacked out, I bet we can trim it by at least 1/3 to 1/2.

Otherwise you're in a very niche field and/or you're not entry-mid level and just think you are.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Post your first page with relevant info blacked out, I bet we can trim it by at least 1/3 to 1/2.

Otherwise you're in a very niche field and/or you're not entry-mid level and just think you are.

When I get a job offer later today, I'll ask the recruiter if my resume was too long.

Also, when I get a chance, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to my friend who's a technical recruiter for the company and see what he thinks about resume length.

Note, I also hire folks and have to review resumes on occassion. Unless you make your font tiny, if someone has worked at several companies and wants to list projects/accomplishments/technical skills, all of these resumes are more than one page.

 

[GotIssues]

Sorry, let me clarify. 12 years of performance reviews of 4 or 5 out of a 5 point scale, promotions every 1-3 years, currently own the product development for one of the most major applicant tracking systems on the market. So yeah, I suck at my job.

Good for you. Except that getting a 4 or 5 on your performance review means that 1) you are probably liked by your immediate manager 2) you give them what they wanted. It does not mean you are using best practices. Big difference.

Stick with your one page resumes, feel free. You go with your bad self!

It'll give a person a better shot at a company with half-decent recruiting.

If you have a job like "project manager" or "technical architect" your job description can be WILDLY varied and you need an appropriate level of detail about your job responsibilities and accomplishments to make the resume section meaningful.

Exceptions don't prove the rule. There are jobs where more detailed multi-page resumes are a good thing. However, for 99% of jobs out there, they aren't.

If your job history consists of roles where the title/company alone designates 90% of the work you do (mortgage broker, engineer at Bridge Builders Inc, tax financial analyst at big accounting firm), sure a one page resume fits fine. That isn't true in most current tech fields.

Duties from 3 roles previous have very, very little impact on a job you are currently applying for, which is why those get dropped pretty quick to keep resumes under a page. If someone is incapable of distinguishing between relevant and non-relevant information, they'll get dropped for that reason.

If you seriously have time to sift through that many extra pages of information, your company is pissing a lot of money away on extra FTE in a bad recruiting department.

 

[AreaCode707]

I just had to comment on this. Most logical people will agree that someone with a boatload of experience (senior/exec level in their field like PM/architects) will warrant more than a one page resume. However they represent 5-10% of the workforce. Most mid career folks are not PM's or architects, yet you still recommended 2 pages for their resumes. Are you sure you're "in the recruiting field"?

Given our population on these boards? Yeah, I recommend a two page resume for mid-career. We have a big group of "programmers" here, which is an absolutely useless job title for learning whether the candidate has the appropriate history.

Also, 10 years of working fast food does not make you "mid-career". That still makes you entry level and I recommended a one page resume for that.

 

[Capt Caveman]

A quick google search 'resume length', first two hits:

http://career-advice.monster.com/re...s/how-to-decide-on-resume-length/article.aspx

Consider a One-Page Resume If:

You have less than 10 years of experience.

You're pursuing a radical career change, and your experience isn't relevant to your new goal.

You've held one or two positions with one employer.

Consider a Two-Page Resume If:

You have 10 or more years of experience related to your goal.

Your field requires technical or engineering skills, and you need space to list and prove your technical knowledge.

http://www.winning-resumes.com/length.htm

Some of the WEAKEST resumes are often produced by people who have worked for many years but now try to get it all down on one page – to "please the reader". They cram their job descriptions into three to seven gray paragraphs with run-on sentences that are so boring. (These look like globs of mashed potatoes!) Valuable accomplishments lie hidden or buried in the text. Worst of all, in order to save lines they leave out the most important sections of a resume – the "sell" or "value" statements that MUST appear in the first 10-15 lines. And there are usually 20-30 black bullets that do nothing to help! (These are only dingbats.)

And the next four hits, pretty much agree with the above.

 

[AreaCode707]

Good for you. Except that getting a 4 or 5 on your performance review means that 1) you are probably liked by your immediate manager 2) you give them what they wanted. It does not mean you are using best practices. Big difference.



It'll give a person a better shot at a company with half-decent recruiting.



Exceptions don't prove the rule. There are jobs where more detailed multi-page resumes are a good thing. However, for 99% of jobs out there, they aren't.



Duties from 3 roles previous have very, very little impact on a job you are currently applying for, which is why those get dropped pretty quick to keep resumes under a page. If someone is incapable of distinguishing between relevant and non-relevant information, they'll get dropped for that reason.

If you seriously have time to sift through that many extra pages of information, your company is pissing a lot of money away on extra FTE in a bad recruiting department.

Done arguing with idiots for today. Good luck in your future career endeavors!

 

[SP33Demon]

When I get a job offer later today, I'll ask the recruiter if my resume was too long.

Also, when I get a chance, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to my friend who's a technical recruiter for the company and see what he thinks about resume length.

Note, I also hire folks and have to review resumes on occassion. Unless you make your font tiny, if someone has worked at several companies and wants to list projects/accomplishments/technical skills, all of these resumes are more than one page.

Cool, I'd be interested to hear their opinion. /thumbsup

 

[GotIssues]

When I get a job offer later today, I'll ask the recruiter if my resume was too long.

Also, when I get a chance, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to my friend who's a technical recruiter for the company and see what he thinks about resume length.

Note, I also hire folks and have to review resumes on occassion. Unless you make your font tiny, if someone has worked at several companies and wants to list projects/accomplishments/technical skills, all of these resumes are more than one page.

Connections > All Else.

Having your friend as a recruiter at the company could have gotten you the interview if your resume were 200 pages long and filled with musings from your last trip to the bathroom.

Also, for some jobs, it is desirable to have multiple pages. The fact that your resume is longer than a page and you get job offers means diddly until you tell us what the job is. My guess is that it is not like 95% of the jobs out there.

 

[Slew Foot]

No one reads a resume when hiring physicians. You basically ask people you know if the person is any good. Who you know is everything.

 

[SP33Demon]

Given our population on these boards? Yeah, I recommend a two page resume for mid-career. We have a big group of "programmers" here, which is an absolutely useless job title for learning whether the candidate has the appropriate history.

Also, 10 years of working fast food does not make you "mid-career". That still makes you entry level and I recommended a one page resume for that.

Yes, whatever senior level of a career may be would definitely warrant more than one page.

One question though: As a recruiter, doesn't a longer resume benefit you so you have more for your search engine to find? One thing we need to keep in mind is that there's a difference between what a recruiter would find acceptable (of course they want more info to get more leads) vice the actual manager looking through resumes for applicants.

 

[TheNinja]

Connections > All Else.

Having your friend as a recruiter at the company could have gotten you the interview if your resume were 200 pages long and filled with musings from your last trip to the bathroom.

Also, for some jobs, it is desirable to have multiple pages. The fact that your resume is longer than a page and you get job offers means diddly until you tell us what the job is. My guess is that it is not like 95% of the jobs out there.

This is the real truth. That is why you always act friendly to people in the company and always leave on good terms. Sure you have to have the skills to back up your resume but if you have a personal connection with someone....anyone...at the company and they like you, you are already miles ahead of the competition.

Also, I have always used 2 pages. I have 15 years experience. Yes, some was some part time work in college. But many times the people like to see that you've working in your field basically all your life without gaps. If I try to keep it to one page I have to leave off important details like software packages or history of things I've worked on. By leaving them off they recruiter or manager might think I don't have experience with it and they'll toss out the resume before I even get the call. I'd rather put a little too much on it to make sure they find the key words they are looking for.

 

[AreaCode707]

Yes, whatever senior level of a career may be would definitely warrant more than one page.

One question though: As a recruiter, doesn't a longer resume benefit you so you have more for your search engine to find? One thing we need to keep in mind is that there's a difference between what a recruiter would find acceptable (of course they want more info to get more leads) vice the actual manager looking through resumes for applicants.

Length rarely corresponds to searchability. Put relevant keywords in your resume and you will pull up in the appropriate search results. From there it is up to a recruiter's quick scan of your resume with highlighted search terms to determine whether you are decent. And it's easy to tell someone who loaded their resume with buzzwords versus someone who has actual hands on experience with the search term.

 

[GotIssues]

Done arguing with idiots for today. Good luck in your future career endeavors!

Well, that confirms that you definitely don't use best practices. "That guy disagrees with me, so I'm going to throw a fit and leave!" Your basis, and only set of proof, for your argument is "This is the way I've always done it, therefore it's right."

You aren't the only one with experience, and your opinion isn't gospel. The fact that you can't handle someone questioning your techniques means that you aren't open to acknowledging that there could be a better way.

Good luck if you ever decide to leave your current company, because that won't fly in bigger companies that actually know best practices and won't stand for that much wasted time and money.

 

[zinfamous]

That is great when you have had less than 3-4 positions.

After that, multiple pages is a given.

If you try to tailor to one-two pages; you leave gaps in the timeline

multiple pages is for a CV, where all pages past 1 should be reserved for publications and such.

 

[BoberFett]

One page only. Ever.

Stupidity.

 

[silverpig]

When I get a job offer later today, I'll ask the recruiter if my resume was too long.

Also, when I get a chance, I'm going to go downstairs and talk to my friend who's a technical recruiter for the company and see what he thinks about resume length.

Note, I also hire folks and have to review resumes on occassion. Unless you make your font tiny, if someone has worked at several companies and wants to list projects/accomplishments/technical skills, all of these resumes are more than one page.

Just talked to our recruiting department. The lead has 10+ years of experience at a number of different professional firms. I do quite a bit of it myself, even though it isn't the focus of my role, and I also do a lot of coaching/resume advice for my alma mater.

Most of the people here have business backgrounds, although there are a lot of scientists and engineers as well. We are a very diverse group in terms of experiences.

The consensus is clearly for a 1-pager, and this transcends just our office and company and reflects the recruiter's experience too. Most people who have 2+ page resumes have them in too big a font, with too much spacing, and include irrelevant information.

The people we hire range from fresh out of undergrad at 22 to experienced hires at 40. The overwhelming majority have 1-page resumes and all of the candidates have undergone a lot of interview and resume prep before applying.

Now, there are specific fields where longer resumes may be warranted, but the number is likely quite a bit lower than what most think.

An academic CV for a professor might be 4 pages long with listed publications for example.

The main mistake people make is thinking that a resume is to list your roles and responsibilities for the past x years - it isn't.

The purpose of the resume is to get you an interview. The main way to do that is to list your most impressive accomplishments that are relevant to the job you are applying for. For 99% of people and positions, that fits on one page.

 

[BoberFett]

Are you including multiple pages for their ref's? I can deal with that, but usually just put Available upon request.

In 8 font, if one page isn't enough then you're doing something wrong. I'm mid level and only list job experience that's relevant to the job I'm applying to; for example, I don't put that I was a cashier at xyz grocery market in college. Most pre-formatted online resume systems only ask for your last 3 jobs anyway.

Wait, you're going to nitpick about uneccessary information being on a resume, but you specify "References available on request"? Duh, of course they're available on request. Do you think anybody hiring you is going to think that if they're not included with the resume, that they can't ask for them?

 

[GotIssues]

This is the real truth. That is why you always act friendly to people in the company and always leave on good terms. Sure you have to have the skills to back up your resume but if you have a personal connection with someone....anyone...at the company and they like you, you are already miles ahead of the competition.

You still need to be competent, but the connection gets you in and an edge (known quantity > unknown quantity).

Also, I have always used 2 pages. I have 15 years experience. Yes, some was some part time work in college. But many times the people like to see that you've working in your field basically all your life without gaps. If I try to keep it to one page I have to leave off important details like software packages or history of things I've worked on. By leaving them off they recruiter or manager might think I don't have experience with it and they'll toss out the resume before I even get the call. I'd rather put a little too much on it to make sure they find the key words they are looking for.

If you are still listing your college internship, you've either not had many positons since then and need it to take up space (unlikely), it's particularly "special" in your field (working for a particular person/company), or you accomplished something super extraordinary ("developed Google's search algo," "Discovered cure for cancer").

Think of your career as a skillset that builds off itself (You need A1 to go to A2, A2 to go to A3, etc). If you are applying for a job that requires A2, they'll ask all about A1, because it's relevant to show you can do A2. Same thing when going to A3, they'll ask about A2, and a little about A1. By the time you are on A4, it can be very reasonably assumed that you exhibited A1 to a satisfactory degree, since you've already been asked about it and used it/built off it for A1 through A3, so they shouldn't need to ask for it. They'll always ask for An-1, and be interested in An-2, but anything beyond that is a waste of everyone's time.

The only time a recruiter should ever ask about a job over 2 positions prior would be if you were doing some serious job hopping with short stints at different companies along the way (which would probably get you eliminated from the pool anyways - don't need to be filling the same position again in 6 months). What you did 10 years ago or a couple positions ago very rarely has anything to do with a job you are currently applying for, unless your career is in neutral/reverse or it requires specific hardware/software experience.

This is why resumes, in most cases, should be 1 page. The older the position gets, the less relevant it is, and it's just a waste of time for a recruiter to have to go through it. You can still list it if you want, but it's pointless to have anything more than just dates of employment.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Just got back from talking to my friend. He says the more detail the better. The automated recruiting/resume systems are searching for buzzwords. The hit % will determine if he will even look at a resume, so for him to even view it, it doesn't matter what the length is but obviously a longer resume will more than likely provide a higher hit %.

When he looks at the resume, the majority of folks will include a technical summary which tells him you have experience in Java but he wants to know what you've done with Java and how well you know it. He says a one page resume, especially ones that include a technical summary will not provide him enough detail of your experience, especially when it comes to technologies.

For people he hires, everyone's resumes are 2-3 pages. He ended the talk saying again, the more detail the better.

 

[AreaCode707]

Well, that confirms that you definitely don't use best practices. "That guy disagrees with me, so I'm going to throw a fit and leave!" Your basis, and only set of proof, for your argument is "This is the way I've always done it, therefore it's right."

You aren't the only one with experience, and your opinion isn't gospel. The fact that you can't handle someone questioning your techniques means that you aren't open to acknowledging that there could be a better way.

Good luck if you ever decide to leave your current company, because that won't fly in bigger companies that actually know best practices and won't stand for that much wasted time and money.

I'll give you one more response.

My word isn't gospel but this thread started with another user saying only one page EVER. I countered with my experience to provide justification for my opinion that sometimes more than one page is reasonable. You joined the conversation with:

Time in field != being good at it.

I responded with You are the one that took the conversation from opinion to a personal slam, and when I responded with some fact-based info about my background you preferred to denigrate my abilities. At this point we are in a personal mud-throwing contest, which is dumb and I do not wish to engage in that. It isn't about the difference of opinion, it's about the approach you've taken to your argument. Not worth my time because it's not a dialogue either of us will gain from.

 

[silverpig]

Just got back from talking to my friend. He says the more detail the better. The automated recruiting/resume systems are searching for buzzwords. The hit % will determine if he will even look at a resume, so for him to even view it, it doesn't matter what the length is but obviously a longer resume will more than likely provide a higher hit %.

When he looks at the resume, the majority of folks will include a technical summary which tells him you have experience in Java but he wants to know what you've done with Java and how well you know it. He says a one page resume, especially ones that include a technical summary will not provide him enough detail of your experience, especially when it comes to technologies.

For people he hires, everyone's resumes are 2-3 pages. He ended the talk saying again, the more detail the better.

I wonder if you can do the 1998 SEO optimization technique of putting 100 buzzwords in white text at 0.5 pt font at the bottom of your resume to increase your hit rate.