“They want a résumé and I haven’t written one in years. How long does it have to be?” “Does it REALLY have to be one page? I have done so much over my career!” - As career practitioners, these are questions that we get asked all the time.
Our clients are bombarded with conflicting opinions about how long a résumé needs to be and what should be included in one. When they have to submit one with short advance notice, they often first look for examples on the internet and social media and find that some have photos, others don’t, some have lengthy career histories, others have brief career histories, some have responsibilities and tasks, and others have achievements. They end up asking themselves if they should use a template, colors, black and white, graphics, and anything else they can imagine. They quickly realize that writing a résumé is not as straightforward as they thought it would be.
We will let you in on an industry secret: not all résumés are created equal and each one has a particular purpose. Therefore, very likely, you will have different résumés depending on whether you are applying for jobs, seeking a position on a board of directors, or sharing career information for networking. Résumés vary in number of pages, level of detail, and use of colors, and each choice depends on the trends and preferences of your industry.
Let’s look at the different résumés, their purpose, and the suggested page length.
● Résumés to apply for jobs should not exceed two pages; these are the ones you will send to recruiters and hiring managers. You will highlight your achievements in your most recent
positions in the last 10 to 15 years and summarize your earlier career history because you want to show what you have done that is relevant to what you want to do.
● Board résumés should also not exceed two pages, however, these include your entire career history at a very high level, present photos, and may have addenda with lists of publications and speaking engagements. Your purpose is to demonstrate that you have the experience, expertise, and credentials required to oversee the overall direction of an organization.
● Networking résumés are typically one-page documents that summarize the last 10–15 years of your career history to generate interest in you as a candidate perhaps with someone you met at an event or during a research interview. These can include photos and other graphic elements to make them stand out.
Your goal is to have a modern and effective résumé that will get you the interviews you want. Very likely, if you limit yourself to a single-page document, you will exclude important details or cram the page with a very small font size and reduce the white space which is so important for readability.
Executives need more than one page to list all their relevant experience, achievements, and the context of their work to show their value in each role to prospective employers. They also need to include the scope of their leadership responsibilities and quantifiable results when possible. Thus, the challenge, more often than not, is to synthesize information and convey a story in two pages; a longer document risks losing the reader’s attention with unnecessary details. Content still rules.
What about those templates that are available online? Although they stand out visually, they often lack enough space and sections to include the meaningful information we mentioned above and can be difficult to modify to meet your needs. Furthermore, those templates are generally not read well, or even at all, by keyword scanners and applicant tracking systems (ATS), which are always part of the application process even at the executive level.
In conclusion, unless you are a recent college graduate or have less than 5 or 10 years of professional experience, you will need a two-page résumé for most purposes. Focus on quality over quantity and create a document that serves your purpose by telling your story accurately and with enough level of detail that a recruiter or hiring manager will want to learn more about you during an interview.
If you want the latest information on résumé and job search best practices, reach out to us at D&S Executive Career Management. We are committed to staying on top of the rapidly changing job market and can help you compete for top jobs in your field.
Schedule a call today and take the first step toward achieving your professional goals.
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