I realized I was making my resume way too long after a quick talk with a recruiter

For years, I thought a good resume needed to list every single job and duty I ever had. My resume was three pages long. Last Tuesday, I had a quick chat with a recruiter from a tech company in Austin. She looked at my resume and said, 'I have about 30 seconds to get the point. What's yours?' That question stopped me cold. I realized my key skills were buried under old details. I spent the next two hours cutting it down to one page, focusing only on my last two roles and major wins. Now I lead with a short summary of what I actually do well. Has anyone else had to completely rethink how they present their work history?

3 comments

3 Comments

eric_morgan592mo ago

What did you decide to cut first, the older jobs or the long list of duties from your current ones? I always struggle with that part because it feels like I'm leaving out important proof of what I can do.

betty_fisher52mo ago

Do you keep a master list of everything you've done... then just pull from that for each job?

josephs264d ago

Yeah, that feeling of leaving out "important proof" is exactly what trips me up too. Here's a different way to look at it though: instead of cutting stuff right away, try grouping your accomplishments by skill set rather than by job. You might have a "project management" section that pulls from three different roles. That way you're not losing any proof, you're just reorganizing it. Your mileage may vary, but I've found that hiring managers actually pay more attention to consistent skills across jobs than a long list of current duties. Take that with a grain of salt though, because I've been wrong before.