Ask the Resume Expert: What's the best way to shorten my resume?

 

Laura,

I'm in the midst of a job hunt for a senior-level role in program management, and I'm having a difficult time presenting my skills.

I've been told by several recruiters that my resume is too long, yet I'm not sure how to cut it down without wasting valuable information. What suggestions do you have for making it more concise?

I always advocate setting a strategy for your resume BEFORE writing it--no matter what challenge you're facing in conveying your brand message. Since hiring managers quickly skim most resumes, they'll move on if you don't convey your value in the prime resume real estate area of the document.

You'll also find that most employers are interested primarily in your experience over the past 10-15 years--meaning that there's no need to go into excruciating detail for every job.

Even though you're being considered for an executive role based on ALL of your job history , older positions can be greatly summarized in order to free up room for what's most important.

Start by extracting your contributions and achievements from each job, focusing mostly on the results in terms of project budgets, revenue gained by the implementation of the new programs, size of the teams you've managed, and the scope of each initiative.

For the older roles that exceed the 10-15 year period, list JUST the accomplishments as high points for each job. Most of the other information from these jobs, such as your job description, will be irrelevant and can be left off the resume to make more room for your more current roles.

Now, for your most recent experience, you'll still want to conserve resume space as much as possible. Most hiring authorities look to see if you were recruited to your job, whether you've been promoted, and if the scope of your management duties tends to exceed that of your peers--so include this information on your resume.

If you've held a particularly wide scope of authority and filled numerous roles that required diverse skills, you can add what I call a keyword list to your resume. This strategy, where you simply show areas of core competency, works well to convey the breadth of your expertise without taking up too much space.

Whatever strategy you employ, DON'T resort to changing the margins on your resume or shrinking the font past 10-11 point size. Doing so will frustrate those who can't read it, and recruiters will find it too crammed to merit a second look.
 

Frustrated with the slow response to your resume? Want to gain the attention of employers--plus win more interviews for your dream job?

National Resumes Examiner and executive resume writer Laura Smith-Proulx, CCMC, CPRW, CIC answers your most pressing questions on resume effectiveness. Send your query to question@anexpertresume.com for an answer in this column.