Your resume should paint a picture of exactly why you’re right for the job, using a combination of experience, education, and skills. But what happens when there’s simply too much information? You want to be honest and accurate, but your resume should never exceed two pages. Cutting back your resume can be tricky, but following these tips can help you make the best decisions.
Decide What’s Relevant
Your resume doesn’t have to be a summation of every job you’ve ever held. There is no need to go back more than 10 years or so. Start by cutting positions from a long time ago, especially if your recent experience is relevant to the job you want.
Once you’ve been out of school for a few years, there’s no reason to include high school or college accomplishments. Focus on what you’ve been doing in the recent past.
If you have work experience in the past 10 years that isn’t relevant, you’ll want to include it to build a chronology, but you don’t need to waste a lot of space on it. Simply create a section called Other Employment and list your irrelevant jobs there.
Focus on Keywords
You don’t need to list every single skill you have (which would be impossible for most of us anyway). Many employers today use automated resume screeners that match up keywords before a human ever views the resume. So focus on the skills that are keyworded in the job description, make sure you use the exact same wording, and leave off the rest of your skills.
Get Some Help
It can be difficult to be objective about your own writing, including resume writing. Whether you pay a career coach or ask a friend for help, a second set of eyes can help you decide what’s really worth keeping. Or consider working with a staffing agency for your job search. You’ll have plenty of free assistance not only with your resume but also with interview preparation, interest inventories, and other job search tools.
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