Help! My Resume is Too Long!

When you sit down to create your resume in hopes of grabbing the hiring manager's attention, proving yourself worthy of an interview is at the forefront of your mind. However, if your resume reads like a novel, the hiring official is likely to pass it up without seeing your potential. To stand out amongst the competition, keep your resume short and to the point while highlighting important information.

The first thing to consider when shortening your resume or creating a resume for the first time is the “objective” section. Leave this section out. Your objective is to land the job, and the hiring manager already knows that. Your curriculum vitae already contains this information.

A winning resume shines when you leave some information about your past work experiences off the page. Information such as positions held more than a decade ago, every item on your job duty list and part-time jobs should not find their way to the page. Instead use recent positions, high-level duties and full-time employment to create your resume.

If your past job experiences are mostly part-time work, then lump them together by type instead of listing each one. This can help the hiring manager see that you have the required experience, without having to read pages of previous jobs.

List only the jobs that relate to the position you are trying to obtain when you create your resume. The hiring manager of a law firm isn’t going to care if you worked at a theme park while working your way through college.

Your skills and education sections are just as important as your past work experience section. Tailor these sections to the job you are seeking, just as you do the employment section. When you create your resume with a focus on highlighting your job-specific skills, the hiring manager may look at your resume instead of others because these skills and educational experiences stick out to him.

Another section that you can leave off when you create your resume is the “references” section. This is not needed when applying for a job or trying to get an interview. A hiring manager isn’t going to call anyone that you list in this section until after the interview, and he will ask you at that time if they want references.

Decide what you are going to include on your winning resume before you begin to write it. You can save time, make your resume worth reading and get the attention of any hiring manager you’re seeking when you create your resume with brevity in mind. Use your resume to inform the hiring manager of who you are in hopes of landing an interview, and use the interview to show off what you offer the company.

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