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Filed in archive Business-General by Rob May on June 6, 2007 | 6 Comments

Resumes – 1 page or 2?

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According to this graphic from the Journal of Accountancy, resumes with 2 or 3 pages are fine for executive level candidates. I always heard you should keep it to one page no matter what. Apparently that was bad advice.

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Comments

1. Comment by COD on June 6th, 2007 at 8:45 am

   In the age of online resumes what exactly constitutes a page?

2. Comment by Mike on June 6th, 2007 at 8:47 am

   Rob,

   I have seen 4 page technical resumes, which drives me nuts! I think for executives, one page would require some REALLY TINY TYPE to get in the relevant information. Then again, if people went the copywriter approach to their CVs, maybe one page would work.

   Mike

3. Comment by Rowan Manahan on June 6th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

   The CV will be as long as the CV needs to be in order to (a) get you on the shortlist and (b) set the agenda for the interview.

   If you are a well-known, hotly sought-after exec, then one page outlining your triumphs is plenty. If you are the same person, but not well-known, going for the same job, you may need 3 pages to achieve the same result.

   And that’s before we even get into a discussion of Medical and Scientific candidates with 40 pages of publications, presentations, research, posters, keynotes, etc …

4. Comment by Tim Berry on June 6th, 2007 at 8:20 pm

   Nice post. Just FYI I tracked back on my blog but it went to the wrong subfolder, so I did it again manually. Feel free to delete this basically logistical comment. And stick to the 1 page resume, Rob, you were right all along. Tim

5. Comment by Matthew on June 6th, 2007 at 10:56 pm

   Unfortunately, keeping it to one page is a pretty bad idea. Two to three is fine. I wrote about this here: http://www.matthewkimberley.com/2007/05/nobody-reads-your-cv.html

6. Comment by Karsten on June 7th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

   If you are consulting and contract employee roles, a bio is often 4-5 pages (or more). Clients/employers want to see not only what you have done specific to the role they are looking for, but want to see the range of other activities that give you a broad value proposition.
   For a C-level job I can see a one page working (do you even submit resumes at that level or wouldn’t your exec search firm write a bio for you?)

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