I recently read chapter 7 of Kilian's Writing for the Web and he gives all sorts of handy tips for online resumes. However, he forgot to say that even though it's online, it should still be concise. He mentions putting work that doesn't apply to your objective (like your job at the pretzel stand at the mall) on a separate page, or bury it on your resume.
My question: Why include it at all? If you have other work experience, who needs the pretzel booth? Shouldn't your resume be tailored to the job you seek?
Anyway, I've done outside research that suggests that you shouldn't have multiple pages on your resume, simply because recruiters go through stacks of them, and have little motivation to click further into your document. Also, if an employer wants you, s/he will print off your resume, so having it broken up on separate pages may be to your detriment.
Why am I so hepped up about this topic? Well, yet again my trusty internship has come in handy. A few weeks ago, I wrote an informative article on e-resumes: as an attachment, in ASCII format and on a web page.
Posted by Julie Young at October 17, 2003 07:45 PMYou are right on the money, Julie. Good point. Brevity is KEY. Just give the pertinent data. It's funny, but even things that a person might be really proud of, like high GPA or thesis title, might be irrelevant, depending on the job. Pretzel experience is probably only relevant for, say, working at a pretzel factory. Here's yet another instance where a book is just dead wrong. Good call. And your article on making a resume e-savvy is SUPERB!!! Bravo.
Posted by: Mike Arnzen at October 17, 2003 10:18 PMGreat advice, Julie. I think it probably makes sense to have a one-page, one-file resume that meets the needs of somebody who just wants one page -- but if you have a lot of online experience, a separate page of links might be useful. I've seen plenty of resumes from people who claim they have HTML experience, but they don't include the URLs of web pages they have worked on.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at October 18, 2003 12:24 AMYou say that it's unnecessary to put experience on your resume unrelated to your objective... and I couldn't agree with you more. You don't see Old Navy or Idlewild Park on my resume, now do ya?
However, one thing I thought I would share is that no matter what the resume books say, and no matter what the Office of Career Development may advise students, HR departments at most companies do NOT want to see an objective anywhere on your resume. Hearst, Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins, and AOL Time Warner all said the same thing (and I'm loosely quoting here, but they all had the same basic message):
"If you're applying for a job, your objective is obviously to get that job. If you can't find something better to put in that extra inch of space on your resume, then you probably don't have enough skills or experience for us to hire you."
Posted by: Donna R. Hibbs at October 18, 2003 12:33 AMDonna, I liked your comment so much I added it (with appropriate credit) to a handout I use when I teach writing resumes. I hope you don't mind.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical/resume/content.htm
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at October 20, 2003 05:57 PMYay, I'm famous! No, I don't mind at all. Glad to have passed along a message someone other than myself could actually use :-)
Posted by: Donna R. Hibbs at October 20, 2003 06:55 PM