Importance of keeping resume to 1 page...your thoughts?

Depends on how long you've been working, what level you're applying at, your industry, etc.

You're right though -- the standard is to stick to one page, especially when you're applying for the more junior level positions. Once you've had a decent career and several years of work experience, then you should be able to go over a page. As to when? You'll know when you need to.

FWIW, my colleagues who were recruited from their MBA programs still stuck to one page.

Just out of school - one page. We don't care that you worked for Mickey D's in high school.

Senior level positions - sometimes it takes 3/4 page to list all the buzzwords and acronyms that search engines want. But that's for public consumption. For bonus points, tailor your resume and cover letter (you do send a cover letter, don't you?) to the current job description.

Playing with font sizes and margins is obvious. If they care,depends on the industry and how much they rely on keyword matching vs. human review. In my tech experience, as long as it's readable and the buzzwords are hit, then the interview gets into the depth of it.

My engineering professors said the one page limit was hogwash so I am sure the rule is job specific.

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If you have real job experience .. 2-3 pages.

I got significantly more interviews when I expanded my resume, to include detailed explanations of my work experience.

1 page cover letter, 1 page of "highlights" and "achievements" .. lots of buzzwords here. Then pages of one or two paragraph descriptions of my jobs, interests, etc.

This varies heavily between industries and specialties. In general I believe 1 page is best, even for more experienced people. If you're relatively inexperienced the person reviewing your resume will probably be sorting through piles of them - don't make yours a particular burden to review. If you are more experienced then the person reviewing your resume probably knows something about you already (e.g. they got it through a referral or a headhunter) and is likely going to interview you at least once regardless of resume content, so it's best to think of your resume as a teaser and starting point for conversation.

But sometimes longer is appropriate. Here are some of my general thoughts to guide you. YMMV:

• The more technical your field or specialized your experience, the more appropriate a multi-page resume becomes. It often takes a lot of space to just describe at a high level what a particular project or area of research was about, and the meat of these projects are what will drive the in-person interview(s).
• The longer your career, the more appropriate a multi-pager is. Older jobs should still get short space, unless there is something extremely exceptional or relevant about that old experience, but sometimes it just takes space to list it all out.
• The more standardized and high-turnover your profession is, the less appropriate a multi-pager is. If you're e.g. an experienced tech analyst at a global investment bank, you don't need to say you covered Apple AND Microsoft AND Google, and then go into tons of bullets about how you used comps AND cash flows AND wild guesses - the people seeing your resume will know already know what your job entailed, and they will understand your experience level based on more subtle cues.
• If you have a lot of experience but are changing careers a longer resume becomes more appropriate. Those subtle cues I mentioned above would be lost on someone outside your prior field and you may need to hold their hands.

...

Most hiring managers (not HR, but the person you will actually work for) want to know you are an interesting person, and a good person to work with. Most of my interviews have spent as much time talking about my interests as my qualifications.

Volunteer work, sports, activities, etc. A few lines, nothing more .. just enough to spark some conversation during an interview.

I'd imagine hobbies are worth listing if you have some impressive accomplishments - like triatholon, marathons, etc.

Hobbies are worth mentioning as a one liner. Most of my professional interviews have always rotated back to my hobbies as an ice breaker, particularly haberdashery and cooking.

Multi-page resumes would be appropriate if you work in an academic setting--e.g. multiple publications
Edited by norcaltransplant - 1/26/13 at 6:48pm

good thread.