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Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

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Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#3
This reminded me of a debate I've had with some friends for a while.

My current resume (LaTeX 4 life) is 2 pages. It's fairly detailed, and I feel like it gives a good overview of who I am. It has lists of my work experiences (with key achievements and technologies used), education (with specializations and details about my undergrad/graduate thesises), talks, open source projects, volunteering activities - the whole deal.

Then one day a friend of mine joked that in the tech industry, where everything must use emojis and communicate in But some friends have said that a one page concise resume came across as ballsy and too confident.

Any HNers have insights on this? Or is it one of those things into which one should put the least amount of thought possible?

Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#4
post #3

This reminded me of a debate I've had with some friends for a while. My current resume (LaTeX 4 life) is 2 pages. It's fairly detailed, and I feel like it gives a good overview of who I am. It has lists of my work experiences (with key achievements and technologies used), education (with specializations and details about my undergrad/graduate thesises), talks, open source projects, volunteering activities - the whole…

Just a note, this article isn't about the length of a paper resume, it's about students using online portfolios to store information on projects, verified transcripts, etc. Basically, a more thorough replacement for a resume.

But regarding your question, I think two pages is perfectly fine in the tech world, if you have enough to say. By the time you're ten years into a career I'd be surprised if you don't want more than a page to talk about what you know and what you've done. I think the aesthetic gains from a one page resume aren't worth the risk of omitting something that's important to a potential employer. It's the four page resumes that annoy me.

Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#5
post #3

This reminded me of a debate I've had with some friends for a while. My current resume (LaTeX 4 life) is 2 pages. It's fairly detailed, and I feel like it gives a good overview of who I am. It has lists of my work experiences (with key achievements and technologies used), education (with specializations and details about my undergrad/graduate thesises), talks, open source projects, volunteering activities - the whole…

> But some friends have said that a one page concise resume came across as ballsy and too confident.

I strongly doubt that any serious employer is going to decide to interview or not based on subjective things such as ballsiness. It seems likely to me that they read your number of years of experience and maybe projects, and it's in the interview that they might listen to "gut feelings" such as that.

Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#7
When I hire people, I get like 60+ resumes for 1 position. So I create a bozo pile, good pile and awesome pile.

Usually we have a couple of people involved. We look for consensus and let people veto folks they feel strongly about. The goal is to talk to about 10 people. Interview 3-5.

Long resume doesn't really factor in. The really long ones are usually bozo-ed, because they are insane. The fact that you were a summer lifeguard in 1992 is fascinating, but really weird to be telling people in 2014.

You should be telling a story with a resume. A 2-3 page resume can tell a good one.

Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#8
post #3

This reminded me of a debate I've had with some friends for a while. My current resume (LaTeX 4 life) is 2 pages. It's fairly detailed, and I feel like it gives a good overview of who I am. It has lists of my work experiences (with key achievements and technologies used), education (with specializations and details about my undergrad/graduate thesises), talks, open source projects, volunteering activities - the whole…

Even in non-tech industries, a 1-page resume is strongly, strongly recommended over a 2-page resume if possible.

Re: Giant Résumés Fail to Impress Employers

#10
Why is this news? This has been common wisdom for ages. The only difference is that, before, there was no web.

Keep it 2-3 pages tops and just in PDF, unless you're a designer or site dev. And provide your github if you're a dev doing JS or Ruby.

Did I miss anything? I have no idea what Java, etc. devs and IT geeks need to have anymore.

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