[HN Gopher] Ask HN: At what point do you have 2 pages in your re...
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Ask HN: At what point do you have 2 pages in your resume?
Is it ever ok to have more than 1 page?
Author : lampshades
Score : 20 points
Date : 2022-03-31 19:31 UTC (3 hours ago)
| stuaxo wrote:
| Once I had been working about 6 or 7 years.
|
| I have more detail in the newer jobs. It's 3 or 4 now, it goes
| back to 1999 there isn't much space with alternating between perm
| and contract.
|
| Worked at places between 3 weeks and 3 years, but probably about
| 20 or so listed and other info.
| dyeje wrote:
| I like the 1 page per 10 years experience rule of thumb.
| joezydeco wrote:
| If you're a senior person with, say, 20+ years of experience and
| only the last 6-8 years fit on the first page then put a second
| on there.
| wbsss4412 wrote:
| As they say, resumes are marketing documents. Any "rules" are
| more like guidelines/conventions, they can all be broken given a
| good reason to do so, but if you don't have a good reason it's
| best not to.
|
| To more directly answer your question. Your resume can go to two
| pages if, after you've VIGOROUSLY edited your resume down for
| clarity and concision, it ends up over one. People will hold up
| some number of years of experience or another metric, but really
| you can have two if and when you can seriously justify every word
| on the page that takes it past one.
| hu3 wrote:
| I made extra effort to fit all in one page and I think it is
| worth it because it's a sign of respect for the reader's time.
|
| Had to trim some details of old roles and make font a bit
| smaller.
|
| During interviews I have the chance to expand on my experience.
| dolni wrote:
| You resume should tell a compelling story about who you are and
| what you bring to the table as a prospective employee.
|
| If you are using your space smartly and it takes two pages to
| tell that whole story, OK. If you can reasonably trim it to one
| page, you should.
| pygar wrote:
| I have never heard of this "one page" rule. Maybe it's meant for
| those people who cram every detail and buzzword in their resume
| mistakenly thinking that if they chance on the right combination
| of words it will help them.
|
| Mine is one and a half. I think it's more important that it's
| easy to read, if you're trying to fit everything into one page
| and it becomes dense or overly brief it defeats the purpose of
| the rule.
|
| These rules are made up employment coaches (or whatever they're
| called) who need content to write about and want you to hire them
| for their consulting services.
|
| A Resume is a crapshoot anyway, anyone can put anything they want
| in it - most of it is unverifiable until tested. As long as you
| have the required skillset, the important thing is that you don't
| act weird in the interview.
| JauntTrooper wrote:
| I'm still at a single page with ~20 years of experience. I've
| completely dropped the two less relevant jobs I had right after
| college.
|
| It probably depends on the industry. I think academics and jobs
| where publications are important tend to have more pages.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I'm not an HR person, but I have been involved in hiring people
| who work under me or alongside me. I've never penalized anyone
| for having 2 pages, or been penalized for it when I applied for
| jobs.
|
| However, I would excise older jobs if they are not relevant, or
| didn't make you look better. "Mail room intern (trial basis)" or
| "Junior fry cook, McDonalds (6 months)" are not going to help you
| get a senior dev role, so just leave them off and save the
| reviewer's time. Your resume doesn't have to be a complete,
| unbroken history of your employment to be useful in my opinion.
| ipaddr wrote:
| I have many pages. Helps you stand out if someone wants to dive
| deep and helps with keyword filtering.
| mguerville wrote:
| Given the formatting required for easy parsing (either by ATS or
| by humans) you can count on every employer and every role to
| require at least 3 or 4 lines at a minimum (company, timing | Job
| title | some descriptor or activities and/or successes | line
| break before next job), I'd say if you've had more than 3 or 4
| meaningfully relevant roles you could make the case for a second
| page. I don't think 3 or more is often warranted, at that point
| you need curation more than you need more "space"
| water8 wrote:
| I look at the first page to see skills they are most up to speed
| with. I look at the other pages as skills they could potentially
| provide if the need arises but I'm expecting them to have some
| degree of rust
| grn wrote:
| I've prepared a three-page version with the intent of reducing it
| down to a page or two per application. I ended up using the full
| version in all applications with project specific highlights in
| each.
|
| I've never had a one-page resume. It was two pages until
| recently. I've played a lot of roles (backend, front end, kernel,
| system level, infrastructure, product design, leadership,
| consulting) and a longer resume makes it easier to show that
| versatility -- its my major selling point.
|
| I think what to put there and how to phrase it is MUCH more
| important than length.
| dolni wrote:
| This is a great reply. My resume is similar. Mine's only two
| pages, however.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I was in one interview where I had an 8 page resume and was told
| by one of the interviewers that it was OK because I had a PhD.
| (It wasn't a job that required a PhD!)
|
| If you have more than 1 page the first page should summarize it
| in a way that gets the attention of whoever is reading it.
| eatonphil wrote:
| I used to have 2-3 pages but nobody read anything so I narrowed
| it down to just one sentence per job with a paragraph intro. 1
| page. Worked about as well.
|
| I think it's fine either way.
| psyc wrote:
| Having a one page resume would satisfy my own fondness for
| brevity, but it isn't happening. I've trimmed it aggressively
| over the years, and it's a bit over two. I think I could get it
| down to 2 full pages, but it will spill over again. My hyper-
| terse C.V. alone is one full page. I have more than 20 years of
| experience. I have no evidence that it's hurting me.
| ericbarrett wrote:
| I'm also in the multi-decade range. I've begun dropping my
| oldest jobs to keep it to 2 pages. This has had three benefits:
| more space for the relevant positions; I don't get asked about
| skills I haven't practiced in 20 years; and it makes pre-
| interview age discrimination a _lot_ harder.
| psyc wrote:
| The age discrimination part is starting to feel like a
| relevant motivator. I'm increasingly unsure I actually want
| anybody to know I was a working programmer in the nineteen
| hundreds. I haven't actually experienced age discrimination
| yet (I think), but dropping the old jobs feels like good
| strategic sense.
| ceekay wrote:
| Add a "summary" section at the top summarizing 3-5 key
| accomplishments in your career quantifying them as much as
| possible. If you don't capture the readers attention with that,
| doesn't matter how many pages you have. That's your superbowl ad.
| romanhn wrote:
| Added a second page after about 10 years of experience. Not
| planning to ever add a third. Nobody cares about what you did
| three jobs ago, so I'm content with having my early gigs
| summarized to literally a single line each. There's also the
| option of dropping them entirely if ageism becomes an issue.
|
| As an ex-hiring manager, resumes over 3 pages were almost
| guaranteed to have a ton of useless (to the reader) detail that
| obscured the signal and any kind of messaging the candidate
| wanted to convey with this document. This is such a critical
| thing that many people miss - the product you are selling is your
| experience, and the resume is the sleek marketing document, not
| the dry technical specification (I don't mean this literally, but
| 5-15 page resumes, I'm looking at you).
| samstave wrote:
| I also have several levels of "relevance"
|
| First, if I listed everything in my ~28 year career in the same
| industry but with a huge spectrum of companies and skills
| used... my full resume would be a lot of pages.
|
| I tried a one page with super dense, small font...
|
| I tried a one page with larger font, recent 2 job details and
| bullet summaries for the other companies.
|
| I have yet to find the right balance.
|
| As at some point certain positions dont matter, even if in the
| same field (for example I dont necessarily put my IT management
| of token ring networks from the 90s down...)
|
| ---
|
| HOWEVER: My BIGGEST piece of 'resume' advice -- is keep a
| job/project portfolio book.
|
| i.e. -- I worked on some of the biggest tech physical builds in
| SV over the last 25 years. Huge construction, datacenter,
| hospital builds, FAANG HQ builds.. etc.
|
| My biggest regret; not keeping a detailed portfolio book of
| said work with pics and details and schedules I built.
|
| (obv non NDA stuff, so save your comments)
|
| But keep records! Think of an interview of a audit of sorts..
| :-)
| lastdong wrote:
| This. Experience that was 5 years ago can be summarised to the
| relevant essential - one or two liners, and further even
| removed in some occasions (e.g. doesn't bring nothing new to
| the table). As new technology comes into place, the
| role/product/experience takes more importance and those
| subjects can be expanded in the interview.
|
| To the point and for the job you're applying for. 1 or 2 best
| pages, yes imho. But I know ppl that can fill 3 or 4, with
| publications alone, it all depends on market and goals
| warrenm wrote:
| My resume's got 4 pages, going back ~25y (though you can get a
| pretty good picture of my recent experience on the front page)
|
| Don't get hung up on the length - resumes are 100% digital
| nowadays
|
| _Do_ get "hung up" on precision, action, and measurable
| achievements (whenever possible) in your resume's bullet points
|
| _Do_ be careful about spelling, listing _relevant_ "non-work"
| experience, where you went to school, etc
|
| _Do_ be as brief as possible - but no briefer
| eddof13 wrote:
| Most people will look at just the first page, but as far as I'm
| concerned I don't care how long it is, particularly in this job
| market, I think mine is 3-4
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(page generated 2022-03-31 23:02 UTC)