Let's Talk About the 4-page Resume

So you've got a 4-page resume. Really?

No recruiter wants to read 4 pages of your life, no matter how fascinating you think you are.

Picture a recruiter posting a job online: the volume of responses is overwhelming. Hundreds of candidates to sift through. At least 75% of them are completely, totally, and utterly unqualified. 20% are vaguely qualified. 4% are generally qualified. And, if the recruiter is incredibly lucky, 1% is fairly qualified.

Reading 4 pages of your life in this scenario is just not possible. You need to sell it in the first page. More likely in the first half of the first page. After page 1, recruiter attention span diminishes greatly.

Some tips:
Resist the urge to describe your previous jobs like a job description. If I am hiring a project manager, I already know WHAT a project manager does. I do not need your resume to fill me in on the daily duties. SUMMARIZE the key things you did. You should be able to describe your previous jobs in about 3 sentences. Do not list 10-12 bullet points.

I do not need to know your GPA. Ever.

If you have had more than 7 jobs in your lifetime, please do not list them all. For instance, if you are over 45, you can summarize your first 10 years in business with a few sentences then show me what you've done recently that is relevant to the job that is open.

Unless you are still in college, I don't need to know anything about you from high school.

If you have had jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with the job I am hiring, think twice about listing them. I don't need to know you delivered pizza, worked as a bartender or taught preschool. Again, unless you are still in college.

Aim for 2 max pages. Edit, re-word, remove, whatever. Recruiters across the world will thank you.

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