Amy Lindgren
Not long ago, I presented an argument for long(er) résumés. “Long” being a relative term, I was advocating for résumés that take the space needed to present the candidate’s relevant skills effectively, whether that means a two-page document or something even longer.
My advice comes from both my experience and from common sense: When candidates try to meet arbitrary criteria, they make unfortunate choices. Consider the one-page résumés you’ve seen with tiny type and 0.4 margins. The same content stretched out onto two pages with ample white space is exponentially easier to read. But technically, it’s also twice as long — should recruiters throw that out in favor of the one-pager written for Lilliputians?
If we can agree that the more readable document is the better choice, then we can advance the conversation to the real meat of the issue: How can you best make use of additional space in a résumé?
To answer, it helps to consider who probably won’t benefit from a longer document — that would include workers with a short work history and no special achievements, as well as any worker seeking entry-level or lower-skilled positions. In those situations, the relevant information can be provided well in a short format.
Candidates who do benefit from longer résumés are those with relevant but perhaps diverse skills that need extra context, as well as those with managerial stories to tell, and anyone whose background includes relevant achievements or complex projects.
Have you noticed my repeated use of the word “relevant”? I usually try to find different words to create a smoother reading experience but nothing else fits quite as well. One of the few absolutes that I can accept when it comes to résumés is that the information they contain should be relevant to the reader, as best as the candidate can discern. Using relevance as a guideline ensures the résumé is appropriately long and not just a collection of unedited vignettes.
With the foundation laid for the value and use of longer résumés, here are some thoughts on how to use the extra space to tell your story.
Expand the Experience section: In the effort to trim pages — or to omit all but 10 years of experience while trying to look younger — candidates leave a lot of valuable information on the cutting room floor. If you were to write for meaning and impact rather than length, your job description might include these elements:
Job title, employer, city and dates; one to three sentences of narrative context describing the scope of the job or else the position and scale of the company within its industry; three to five short bulleted sentences describing specific responsibilities, including metrics; a short subsection of two to three bulleted sentences under the subheading, “Achievements.”
How far to go back is a matter of judgment (relevance), but candidates wishing to include earlier work experiences can condense them into a new section called “Additional Experience” where each entry is only one line long. These entries can omit the dates if there’s a concern about ageism, but they can include a brief line of context to show the value of the experience: Managed $100M in assets in a two-person brokerage.
Add a Projects section: Instead of burying important projects in a job description, you can write a brief paragraph about each one and include three or four in a new section where each project is given a short name. For example, “Nonprofit program launch. Researched community need, then identified $800k in donor funding to initiate a program serving … ”
Build out your training information: If you took courses or a degree in an area relevant to your work, that’s reason enough to include a topic list along with the program name. For example: “Associate of Arts in Business, Jackson County College, 2014. Classes included bookkeeping, principles of accounting, business management, and writing for business.”
Add a headline and Summary: Introducing yourself to readers instead of abruptly launching into details about your last job is a use of space that will pay off in multiple ways. For one thing, it lets you control the story by including details in your summary that most flatter you as a candidate. It also allows you to “warm up” the résumé with sentiments such as, “Committed to providing excellent client service while contributing to organizational growth.”
So what do you think: Should your résumé be longer? If you have a short version now, consider experimenting with additional content. You may be surprised by how much impact a longer version can have.
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