Today’s post is the second guest article written by Rob Sullivan, a very savvy resume doctor based here in Chicago. What I do for people before they step into an interview, Rob does for them when they put together their resume. Below is how Rob summarizes how long/bullet pointy a resume should be. I agree with everything he says with one caveat: if you’re not an executive, you’re not highly technically trained, and you’re not 30 years old, I really can’t imagine what that 2nd page of your resume would say that I would care about. But that’s me. Rob, you get the last word on the subject. Take it away!—Jason
I’ve been following the discussion on résumés with interest because this is a topic close to my heart. When you explore the issues of content and length more deeply, it becomes apparent that many of the misunderstandings can be traced to fact that the dictionary definition for the word résumé is incorrect. Dictionaries typically define résumé as follows:
“A chronological summary of one’s professional and educational experiences.”
That is NOT what a résumé is.
Even the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary, famous for having page after page dedicated to defining words like “so”, fails to offer any more insight than the lame definition above. This is problematic because if a chronological summary of your progression is the best you can offer, you have some serious personal marketing issues to address.
Instead, I propose a different definition for “résumé”:
“The accomplishments of your life, outlined briefly on a few pages, as they relate to what you want to do (i.e., the Next Logical Step in your professional development).”
Think about that for a moment.
Your goal, as an applicant, is to convince a potential employer that what you want to do makes perfect sense and is the Next Logical Step in your professional development. The only way to communicate this on a résumé is to match your skills and accomplishments to the needs of the company. For example, I have seven completely different résumés I use. If you took my name off the top and put the résumés side by side, you might not even think they belonged to the same person. It isn’t because I have a multiple-personality disorder. It’s because completely different aspects of my background are relevant to different audiences. That’s not about chronology or length; it’s about CONTENT. That is the real issue. What are you putting out there and how does it relate to the needs of the company?
I agree completely with what Jason had to say about the way résumés often become a rehash of some long-forgotten job description. Sadly, it happens all the time. A laundry list of your responsibilities isn’t going to make me want to interview you. There are all kinds of people who are responsible for things they don’t actually do. Responsibilities are meaningless. The only exception would be a responsibility that people would be genuinely, and pleasantly, surprised to learn about you. But even then, the scope of your effort and accomplishment is far more compelling than the responsibility itself. In other words, you have to quantify the results.
Some people do a decent job quantifying their accomplishments but bury the gold behind a completely ineffective presentation. More often than not, this takes the form of a bullet point. If you like to use bullets points on your résumé, I am about to share a radical idea that will almost certainly sound like bad news:
Résumé bullets don’t work!
The reason is simple. Bullet points almost never answer the question, “So what?” In other words, they don’t tell the story. While I agree in principle with Jason’s recommendation to be “crisp and concise”, that doesn’t mean you should reduce an amazing experience to a single bullet point. Too many important facts will get lost. Including those facts will necessarily take more space. Your résumé may even be more than one page. That’s fine—if the content is compelling and relevant. If it isn’t, don’t waste your time or anyone else’s.
If you are interested in learning more about the strategies you can use to make your résumé more compelling, download my eBook, Résumé Bullets Don’t Work! (and other surprising issues that may keep your résumé from getting the attention it deserves). Or, if you need more personal attention and would like to set up a coaching session, send me an email. I am happy to help. rob@careercraftsman.com
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I’ve had a recruiter at a university, and also a former resume writer look at my resume (which contains bullets), and say they REALLY liked it, especially the bullet points. The recruiter at the university I want to get hired at, said the bullets made my resume clean and easy to read. I think you obviously have to make the ideas/message on each bullet worthwhile, but it’s not the bullets, nor the list, that’s necessarily evil, imo. I’ve gotten worthwhile interviews with my bulleted resume, so I’m guessing it’s not a deal breaker. And I’ve seen some serious bullshit numbers/claims on a resume that seemed way more suspect than my “action words” bulleted list of experience. I’ve also seen what a mess a page full of text looks like – it’s not always easy reading, and when 500 resumes come in for 1 position, I’m pretty sure they don’t want to have to hunt for the meat on your resume. (shrug)
I agree that a laundry list of action items that you wrote 5 years ago isn’t worthwhile. But I disagree that it’s the bullets, or the list itself that turns hiring managers off.
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Karen
I appreciate your definition of what a resume should be, but I think bullet points can be phrased to answer that question of “so what?” At least I know I’m not giving my students bad advice!
I read resumes, and help people BUILD resumes, everyday. I couldn’t disagree more with the assertion that bullets don’t work. HR professionals and hiring managers don’t have the time to wade through paragraphs of text looking for “the meat” of a resume. I tell my clients that most people spend less than 2 minutes looking at a resume, usually less than one. So it must first be visually appealing if you want me to go further. THEN, it must tell me what I want to know about whether or not you can do the job. However, I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that a resume, bullets or not, should not be a rehash of a job description, but a summary of accomplishments above and beyond what you were hired to do.
Just my 2 cents.
Hey, I justed wanted to give you a compliment on your blog, keep up the great work. I will be back to check it out in the near future.
MOST average people think 2 pages and bullets are fine.
MOST hiring managers are average people.
The expert might well be right… but the ruling class is small, and us dopes down here have better odds!
Sarah, you’re clearly no dope.
And for the record, that could be the first time I’ve ever been associated with a “ruling class…” and also for the record, I hope it’s the last!
I do understand the real world… and I have even been known to use a bullet point or two. There is a gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. I accept that, and ultimately I encourage people to live in the real world… and never stop reaching for a better one.