Even If You Are the Queen of England, the Pope, or
Bill Gates, Try to Keep Your Resume to One Page!

A resume is a snapshot of your qualifications as they match the needs of a particular position.  And a snapshot is one thing, not two. Your resume's only goal is to prove that you're worth the time that an interview takes. It will have to communicate your value points and experience within 20 to 30 seconds. In fact, the very first human scan is often only 3-5 seconds!  So you have to lock them in right away. If it’s too long, too dense and asks the reader for more time, it may instead get time in the trash.

Your Resume is Usually Read by a Stranger About a Stranger.

The reader's interest level is often low as the page is unfolded; it is even lower as two pages are unfolded. In this day of junk mail and paper overload, the reading, not to mention the assimilation, of two pages of single-spaced text is a rare occurrence, even a phenomenon. Page two rarely gets read because readers know that the older, less-pertinent information resides there. Plus, scanning software often just scans page one. Also, many readers feel that if you can't say it on one page, you are not a concise communicator. Why run the risk of encountering one of these two-page resume haters when you won't alienate anyone with one page.

You may be thinking: "But I have twenty-five years of experience in the field. How could I possibly put all that on one page?  It's an injustice!"  Sorry.  On paper, you are more interesting to yourself than you ever will be to anyone else. Besides, the reader rarely cares about in-depth details of your early career years.  Your most recent years usually are most important, and need description.  For example, if you are now General Manager at Ace Gear Company, a detailed description of your prior years as Assistant Manager, Manager Trainee, and Clerk won't be of much interest to the reader. You need only show that you advanced through these levels and maybe a few key accomplishments. 

Build your resume the way a skilled writer would build a short story, with every word playing an essential role toward communicating the story's central message.  Any superfluous words will weaken the power of the message. If you force yourself to think about the value and connotation of each word you put down, you'll build a resume with integrity. You'll build a resume that makes a strong, cohesive, focused, one-page statement about why you're worth interviewing.  If something in your background is obvious, irrelevant, or pulls the reader the wrong way, leave it out! If you are in doubt, ask yourself the question: "Does putting this in strengthen my case in any way?  Can it hurt?"

At A-Script our resumes give the reader an appetite for meeting you. A good one-page resume will leave the reader with just enough of a taste to be hungry for more, rather than with a case of two-page indigestion.
 

Resume Dilemmas

          Your Employment Chronology Works Against You
 
          You Look Like a Job Hopper

          It Appears That You Stayed Too Long with One Company

          Your Current Job Title Looks Like a Step Backward

          Your Resume Sounds Stuck in the Past Tense

          Your Career Spans So Many Years You Feel You Have Too Much Past

          You Look Inexperienced or Under Qualified

          You Want to Change Careers but Don't Have The Right Professional Background

          Your Education is Your Weakness

          You Work or Worked for a Company with a Poor or Bad Reputation

          Your Title is More Impressive Than Your Company, or Vice Versa

          Company You Worked for or School Attended Won't  Be Recognized by Your Reader

          You Are Looking for an Out-of-State Job

          Your Job Title Is Not Representative of What You Are

          You Have Several Job Objectives but Want Only One Resume

          You've Been Self-Employed and Don't Want to Look That Way

          You Worked for the Same Company Two Different Times in Your Career

         You Are Working Two Jobs and Don't Know Whether to Show Them Both

          Your Resumes Looks Like Words, Words, Word

          You Don't Know What Personal Information to Include on Your Resume

          There's a Gap in Your Employment History

We are asking for the above information only to gain an understanding of what elements of your resume may need work and polishing up. We do not use this information to form a "cookie cutter" or one-size-fits-all resume. Our company fundamentals are built on a personalized, unique approach, rather than a "just fill in the form" business model.