4 Quick Tips to Make Your Resume Shorter

Cutting the length of a long resume is not an easy task, especially for senior professionals.

With long and diverse careers, they could write for miles. Unfortunately, hiring managers have so little time and so many resume submissions to review. It becomes a challenge to decide what is worth putting into a resume and what is best left off.

So how can you take steps to shorten your resume? Here’s how Ivy Exec’s resume specialists take on the challenge.

• Leave Off the Full Details of Older Positions.

If your work experience spans a couple decades, remove excess information about older positions.  You don’t need to remove the position from your resume. Instead, list the company name, position, and years of employment on one line. “Employers care more about your most recent decade of experience than the formative years of your career” says Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill, Ivy Exec’s Manager of Coaching and Resume Services. Your most recent decade of work experience captures the best representation of your value. So instead of flooding your resume with entry-level roles, stick to what will impress.

• Remove Non-Relevant Information

You hear it all the time: “customize your resume for each job.” If you have a long resume, this becomes even more relevant. Most professional’s work experience is not a 1:1 match of the requirements for a job. Scan your resume and remove the bullet points that do not relate to the position you are applying to. Try this out and see how many lines you can remove from your resume.  Three or four lines can make a big difference in the length. If they won’t aid the hiring manager’s decision to interview you, why include it on your resume?

• Don’t Use Up Valuable Real Estate With Software Proficiencies

In a recent online class, an attendee asked about applicant tracking systems. He didn’t want the ATS to pass him by. So he littered his resume with every coding language, application, and program he knew. While this may help an ATS find you, it creates a terrible reading experience. Resume Writer, Renita Kalhorn, suggested an addendum page. This is a page you can use to list your skills and expertise, without lengthening your actual resume.

• Use a One-Pager

This is more of a hack than a way to shorten your resume, but it is still effective. Resume writer, Staci Collins, advises the use of a one-pager. This is a to-the-point resume (read: not a functional resume) that you use to get your foot in the door.

As mentioned above, it will only include your most recent experience and education. You will use this version to introduce yourself. After you have your first interview, you can offer an extended version of your resume. This version can be more robust since you are now a contender for the role. A hiring manager that is considering you will take the time to read through the full document.

Want to connect with one of our specialists to get help with your resume? Set up a 15 minute consultation with Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill by clicking here. Please note – you may need to select a future week in the calendar.