Resume question

[Sigarms]

After 15 years, I turned in my resignation giving my company two weeks notice, and they gave me notice two days ago that I am now unemployed.

Kicker is, currently I have nothing lined up (yes, I know, but I feel like I'm doing the right thing).

Now, do you keep your resume down to 2 pages? Honestly, I could do three pages no problem, but I'm thinking that's too much to read.

Secondly, my supervisor (who lives in another state) is going to give me a letter of recomendation. The question is, do I list "references available upon request" (on the resume) or should I just include my supervisor's recomendation, which will be "glowing" and just add "more available" to the resume (per references)?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[mjarrels]

Keep it to ONE page... less is more on a resume... Never two pages!

mark

 

[Sigarms]

Keep it to ONE page... less is more on a resume... Never two pages!

mark

Seriously, ONE page?

Keep in mind, I'm not trying to tell people that I'm a petroleum distribution technician when I'm really a gas station attendant by "dressing it up" (and I did pump gas in college)

Just hard to try and get everything in on ONE page.

 

[jdbower]

It is pretty industry and position specific. Most of the resumes I see are two pages, anything more and they tend to be too wordy, anything less and they don't have the experience (I'm in the telecom field and usually see technical resumes for mid-level positions). The exception is that occasionally I'll see a page as an addendum with a list of publications and patents or (for more hands on positions) a list of test equipment they're familiar with. Remember that some things are redundant after a while, if I'm looking for someone who has detailed knowledge of optical networking and packet switching it's a given that they can muddle their way through Office basics and can use Windows.

 

[Bird]

It's very difficult to get everything most of us want to include in one page, and I'm admittedly a bit out of date, but in my past experience, Mark is right; one page is best. To have a full length, detailed resume available, if requested, is a good idea, but initially, the shorter the better.

 

[rox]

Sigarms,
I suppose a one page resume works okay of say law enforcement for example. Everyone in a hiring position would know and understand differences in rank and general responsibilities, possibly the same thing for teaching. However in the business world I think one page is to short and 2 pages is better. Your resume needs to show key data points to potential emplyers such as the $ volume that is generated by your "unit" who your key customers were , product lines, how many number of accounts etc. In short I think it is better to have a two page resume if you have accomplished great things isn a career.

I have written many many resumes for friends so you might say I have a knack for it. Especially for young people starting out their resumes tend to be very thin so I go to two pages to give the hiring manager more information to make them look not so in experienced. For people in the building or technical trades I do a completely different type of resume there I do a functional resume. Gee I wish I had one of those to show you but I had a hard drive crash and I no longer have one.

Let me explaint he resume I did for a friend who had 25 years with the same employer, a couple differents employers and then back to his 25 year employer. That is like a half a page resume if you just follow the standard format, start and finish dates & address etc. For this fellow I broke it down into areas of expertice and experience.

The left hand colum showed for example Design and Blueprint Reading - then the middle column described his experience and abilities (accepting Cad files with the names of different cad programs,) and then the right hand column showed who he worked for when he did that. So for design and blueprint reading he did that with 3 different companies and those 3 were shown in the right hand column.

The next entry would be for example, quotations. He read blueprints and provided quotes on construction jobs. He did that for just one of the companies he worked for. But I build out a little bit int he middle section what that entailed it turns out to be more than what you might think.

Ordering,Inventory Contorl, and logistics would be another area of responsibility and expertice. The middle section would describe that. I thought it was facinating that he would order materials to come in by train sometimes and he had experience with that. Getting materials to the jobsite at the right time showed his ability to juggle balls.

Another sections was managing emplyees. He did that in a couple different companies so each one of those was a seperate middle and right hand section. The middle sections always described the activity.

My cousin was an aircraft mechanice and certified to work ont he power plant for Northwest airlines and in his background he worked in the iron mines in Minnesota and i did his resume as a functional resume as described above and it turned out great. His functional sections included tool and die and the name brands of tool and die equipment he used, he was a supervisor so he set up a routine where they tested all their equipment on a set schedule to make sure all the equipment was working within certain tolerances etc.

In all cases at the top of the resume I like to put your goal and objecteve and a very short summary of your experience. I'll attach the working copy of my son's resume for you to look over. The way I do it is I interview you and make notes. Then I start with a rough draft wiht a lot of XXX and ???? in them for further refinement and send it to you and then just keep refining the rough draft over and over until it is done.

I have my own sad story right now, the guy we sold our restaurant to quit paying so we have the restaurant back. 99% of all restaurants sold the previous owner provides the financing for obvious reasons. So instead of returning to France at the end of my Sept vacation I am stuck here dealing with this. If you PM me with your resume I will be happy to look it over for you and provide you a fresh perspective. It is relaly odd most people detest really detest creating a resume, and I love it I really enjoy it. I ahve a very good track record also all resumes I creat every single person has gone on to get a good job off of them. Of course the resume is only the first way to get an interview but my resumes have a record of generating interview requests.

I'll attach my son's resume to give you an idea of the format I use.

 

[Sigarms]

Rox

Thank you.

Apologies, but France's loss is America's gain

 

[Bird]

I suppose a one page resume works okay of say law enforcement for example. Everyone in a hiring position would know and understand differences in rank and general responsibilities, possibly the same thing for teaching.

A very common misconception, Rox. The ranks and general responsibilities vary tremendously, depending in part on the size and organizational structure of the different departments.

Actually, it depends on just what you are going to use a resume for. I still have mine on the computer; four pages of education, law enforcement training, dates of promotions, different divisions of the department in which I worked, major accomplishments in each of those assignments, and work experience other than law enforcement. But if I were applying for a job, depending upon the position applied for, I might condense it to one page. And yes, when I was doing the hiring, I'd carefully review a one or two page resume. Usually if they were any longer than that, someone was trying to exaggerate.

And Rox, I'm sorry to hear about the restaurant deal; hope it all works out well for you.

 

[rtimgray]

Please don't take any of this personally, I'm just gonna write in generalities:

I'm with the "less is more" camp. When we review resumes here we very rarely read the ones that are single spaced typing for two or three pages. It's just too much stuff that is usually put there to make it appear as though the writer knows something about everything, whether they do or not. When we see somebody has written that much, it looks like they are just trying to build it up.

Now obviously, resumes and interviews are all about selling yourself, but you really just need a foot in the door. A one or two page resume with sensibly spaced highlights of your carreer will pique the interest of more people than trying to hack through 10,000 words on 3 or 4 pages.

Everyboy who has worked for 4 or 5 years could fill up 3 or 4 pages with impressive sounding accomplishments, accolades, seminars, etc. etc. All you really need to do is get their attention, get in the door, and work from there.

I've always kept mine to a trim page and half, references available upon request.

Good luck and take care.

 

[mjarrels]

Tip... Buy a box of Crain (sp) paper to print on... About $20.00 a box for 20 sheets... Crain makes the paper that our money is printed on, top quality cotton! Don't print on 500 sheets per pack paper from the local store. Crain paper WILL make you stand out... Don't mail out 100, 200, 300 resumes in bulk... Target the jobs that you really want (less than 2). Thats when you can talk up the other pages that arn't on the resume and close the deal!

mark