By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman , The Big Game Hunter explains how to edit an overly long résumé.
Why Workshops, Courses and Bootcamps Don’t Work
And let’s talk today about pruning that resume that’s ridiculously long. Now, I know in some fields, in some academic settings, it’s essential to have a 10 page resume.
In industry, that isn’t the case. You want to get your resume to two, two and a half pages in length. Why? No one really cares about the stuff that you did back in the stone ages, except to make sure that you had a career progression.
So, here’s what you need to do. Number one, look at the most recent 10 years. That’s the area to emphasize.
And anything before that, you can summarize with the statement, prior experience was as a fill in the blank with and you can list two or three different firms from and you list the dates. Let’s say from . . . I’m just going to pick dates at random. So, this is 2014 when I’m recording this, from 1996 to 2004.
So, what you’re doing is is indicating what you did prior to 2004 with a quick summary. Now, let’s say your resume is three, four or more pages and it’s just the past 10 years. Well, number one, I have to ask you a blunt question.
Will anyone care what you did nine years ago? Yeah, you did it. But does anyone care? Does this relate to the kind of position you’re going for now? Is there any experience or any skill needed from 10 years ago that’s pivotal to what you’re going for today? Probably not. Now, if there is, you have to include it and just risk going to a long resume.
10 Fatal Resume Mistakes That Will Kill Your Job Search
But I must and will candor tell you, in many fields, it’s completely irrelevant that it’s your ego getting in the way. So, you have to go in with a critical eye. You have to basically ask yourself, okay, this is the kind of job I’m going for.
What’s the background of people that they’re looking for? Are the keywords going to pop up from what I did 10 years ago and cause people to not call me anyway? Or is this relevant to what I’m doing now? If it’s irrelevant, get rid of it. Minimize it. Just as I mentioned before, you can do much shorter descriptions of your work from anything in your extreme past than what you demonstrate today.
Most firms, when they’re looking at evaluating someone and determining whether or not they’re going to interview them, are looking at just the past few years. The filler is the old stuff. And if you look at their behavior, remember, they’re not reading a resume.
They’re looking at screenshots on their computer screen. They’re not printing it out to read it 95 times out of 100. What they’re doing is reading it on a screen.
How many page downs do you think they’re doing? Not a lot. So, the most important work is the past few years. As you get progressively past that, it becomes less relevant.
Take a hatchet to it. Cut it down. You’ve got to do it because it can only hurt you in the end.
So, that’s today’s show. I hope you found it helpful. And if you did, again, please give the show five stars in iTunes or Stitcher.
It helps other people discover the show. It helps with rankings. And I also want to remind you, come join me at JobSearchCoachingHQ.com. That’s my site with the best of my information curated, plus the ability to ask me questions so that you don’t make dumb mistakes in your job search that prove so costly.
Now, I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Hope you have a great day. Take care! .
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS job search coaching and career advice globally because he makes job search and succeeding in your career easier.
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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
Schedule a discovery call to speak with me about one-on-one or group coaching during your job search at www.TheBigGameHunter.us.
Preparing Your References to Be Checked
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2900 episodes over 13+ years.
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