One Or Two Page Resumes | ResumeGo

Now I am not a recruiter but I do help interview potential new engineers and interns at my plant. I will say this based on my own personal experience looking at engineering resumes... I have not dealt with interciewing for the business side of things so I cannot speak to that. This commentary deals with technical potions only. if you are young and recently out of school and your resume is more than 1 page we will laugh at you. You have not done anything in your technical life yet worthy of a 2 page resume. We sit in a room with about 5 engineers looking at the resumes and seeing who we want to interview. We are usually not very nice about it either. Generally we don’t care for amlist of all the classes you’ve taken. We know what kimds of classes are required for a certain degree so unless it is something special leave it off. Make sure there are no spelling and grammar mistakes. No one gives 2 shits about your objective statement. I figure if you have an engineering deree and have applied to an engineering job your objective is to be an engineer. That is fairly obvious and doesn’t need to be restated. We tend to look at your hobbies/extracurricular activities. Not really because we actually care about what you have done for volunteer work. More that it is that you did SOMETHING besides school. For engineers I like seeing activites that show some kind of work with heir hands. Being an engineer is a manufacturing environment is not for everyone. I spend a lot of my time out on the floor with my guys and with the metal. I try and avoid people I fear will never make it out of their offices. People like that will NOT be successful.

Another funny one is resumes over 2 pages long for more experienced engineers. No one reads that shit. I have worked at mutiple plants and r&d for my civilian employer. I have an advanced degree, technical certifications, us patents and have written papers for technical society presentations and I still keep my resume to 2 pages. As I do more stuff, I remove some of the bullet points from my earlier positions.

When we do interviews I tend to be one of the ones that gives the plant tour or takes the person to lunch instead of one of the formal interviewers. Note to job seekers: we are also interviewing you but in a much more informal way. Our input matters just as much as the more formal interviewers.

It’s funny, as I’ve heard both ways... Staffing agencies dwindle your 30 years to one page. Other agencies say put your experience down so we can read about it. A recent suggestion for me was to remove anything beyond the last 10 years. Well, for someone that’s been in the workforce long enough, that will drop your military credentials off the page entirely!
I’ve found it best to try and keep it to two pages or even one if dwindled down. Different formats permit. Even then, you look at an official US Government formatted resume, your looking at 4-6 pages worth of crap they want to know about you. Even some of the civilian entered info spot that out when you enter every detail they want to know. I’ve only worked for 5 employers in the last 30 years, so what gives with that one - LOL

Based on my recent experience, it doesn't matter. Really. Most employers within large organizations use electronic systems to first separate the Go/No Go electronically based on information entered on the company web site and then internal recruiters will look at the remaining resumes for valid experience or demonstrated ability so they believe the person can get the valid experience. It doesn't matter how you format the resume or what pretty details you put in, it comes out basic text so that it is keyword searchable. I have the recruiter look for certain criteria depending upon the job I'm filling. For me, give me something that relates to the job I posted but be succinct. The recruiters in the article may spend twice as much time on a resume but mine may not.