When was the last time you spent more than a minute reviewing a resume? When was the last time you printed your resume out to read? When people are in a rush (people are ALWAYS in a rush) the bottom line is we SKIM (at least for the first read), and WE MOSTLY READ ONLINE.
Ironically, what often happens when trying to create a DIY resume is we tend to throw in every achievement, every stat and every ounce of history. The result? A resume that says too much and is virtually impossible to skim quickly.
Use these numbers to guide you in writing your story, so it easily tells the reader how your experience makes you an ideal fit for the role.
1 to 2: Page Length
A one-pager is great if you can do it, and it’s more easily manageable if you have less than 5 years of experience or have held the same role with one or many companies.
If your career spans companies, functions and roles, and you have 10+ years of experience under your belt, 2 pages can usually convey your achievements.
2-3: Paragraph Lines
When it comes to reading on screens, especially small ones, it’s tough to digest dense blocks of text. Dense reading applies to 4 single-lined bullets or a 5-line paragraph.
I recommend keeping paragraphs at 2 to 3 lines, followed by at least a half-inch of white space (accomplished by hitting the ENTER button on your keyboard).
4-5: List of Bullets
A long list of bullets, even if they are just 1 line each, is tough for that skim-reader to digest. If you have more than 5 bullets, consider organizing them into categories or sub-headers.
21: Focus on Your Experience from the 21st, not the 20th, Century
Ask yourself if your pre-2000 experience adds value. Sometimes it does! Perhaps you worked with a pharma giant like J&J, or you are a CFO but need to show that you learned the ropes as an accountant early on.
This can be synopsized and included under a previous experience headline. Otherwise, remove it to save space and increase skim readability.
Shhh . . . Don’t Tell Your English Professor!
Although your English teacher might frown, your resume doesn’t need to adhere to those old term paper rules.
Look for words you can easily remove while still making the sentence skim-readable. You can shorten and clean up your sentences by eliminating words like THAT, AN, THE, and BY and by removing extraneous words that don’t add any additional meaning to the sentence.
Here’s an example that reduced word count by 55 characters, and saved ½ a line of coveted space! More importantly, it’s an easier sentence to digest quickly.
Expanded XYZ’s national sales force by 2X and established online, field, and continuous sales training programs. This strategy proved key to U.S. sales success and was emulated across the company’s E.U. sales force.
Versus
Expanded national sales force 2X and established online, field, and continuous training programs key to US sales success and emulated across EU sales force.
Simplification is Key to Clean and Easy Resume Reading
You don’t need more words to make your resume impactful. Choose wisely, avoid long lists, long paragraphs, and irrelevant history Share on X and your resume will be well on its way to a clean and easy read.
Previously appeared on MedReps.com
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