Is A Five-Page Resume Too Long?

Question:

My resume is currently five pages long. I’ve been advised that I need to cut it down to two pages, but that will leave out a lot of important information! I want employers to know about all of my experience. Do I really need to shorten my resume?

Answer:

In short, yes.

Keep in mind that the purpose of a resume is to make the employer sufficiently excited about you to invite you to an interview. It’s not an autobiography or a confessional.

Assuming your resume makes it through the Applicant Tracking System, the person at the bottom of the mountain of resumes will probably give it about six seconds of attention. Yes, as little as six seconds. There are lots more resumes where yours came from, and only the most relevant ones will get any more time than that. You have to make those six seconds count.

You do that by picking out the information that’s most relevant to the job of the moment. (Yes, you’ll have to do it all over for the next job.) That’s all that needs to go in this version of your resume. Don’t think of it as cutting out important experience; think of it as editing it to highlight what this particular employer most needs to know about you. That will probably be your recent experience; in most fields, anything you did more than 10 years ago is probably irrelevant. It will include your most relevant accomplishments, and go lightly on daily duties. The employer already knows what you do all day from your job title. What they really want to know is what makes you the best candidate for the job they are trying to fill. Your accomplishments answer that question.

What about earlier accomplishments? First, ask yourself if they pass the relevancy test. Assuming they do, you can have a section in your resume called “Other Relevant Information” or “Early Career Summary” or “Previous Accomplishments.” Choose only a few of the closest matches, and quantify them, using hard numbers, percentages, dollars, or a timeline.

If your resume is still more than two pages after you’ve cut out all the irrelevant stuff, look at your word processing. Can you shrink the margins? Are there large spaces between sections? Does each part of your contact information really need its own line? You may be able to shrink the font, but don’t go smaller than 11 points for the body.

“The employer already knows what you do all day from your job title. What they really want to know is what makes you the best candidate for the job they are trying to fill. Your accomplishments answer that question.”

There are two pieces of good news, however. First, your five-page resume is probably a good reference document, collecting up the best parts of your entire career. Use it to help you remember your accomplishments and the details; just don’t send it out. Second, the rise of online applications makes the no-more-than-two page rule a little more flexible, since Applicant Tracking Systems don’t count pages as people do.

Still, nobody wants to read a five-page resume, least of all someone who has to read a hundred more today. So take another look at that job lead, carefully, and note what they’re really looking for. Help them to understand that it’s YOU!