Longtime HR executive and Simon Taylor has seen all kinds of resumes throughout his career. But none compare to one he received for a tech role at Disney during his more than two years as a recruiter there.
"It was, like, five to seven pages long," he says.
Recruiters are typically going to spend "about three to five seconds on a resume before they decide they want to keep going," he says. "So you've got to capture their attention in three to five seconds." If your resume overwhelms them with information, they may pass up on your candidacy pretty fast. Conventional wisdom advises resumes span no more than two pages altogether.
Here's why the resume dragged and how you can avoid their mistakes.
'I don't have time to go through 10 bullets'
One of the major problems with this particular resume was that there were way too many details about each position. "It was about 10 plus bullets per experience," says Taylor.
From the recruiter's perspective, "I don't have time to go through 10 bullets," he says. Recruiters have to go through dozens of resumes and interview dozens of candidates for positions all over the company. If Taylor tried to read more than ten bullets for everyone's experience, "I would fail at my job," he says.
Plus, with that many bullets, a candidate is "probably including information that's less relevant," he says, and that reflects poorly on their ability to research the role and understand its requirements.
"Update your bullets based on the job description," says Taylor, and include the work that most speaks to the role you're applying for. Include no more than five bullets per experience, with the most recent experiences getting the most.
'You can't have inconsistency in formatting'
The resume also included "horrible formatting," says Taylor, which probably contributed to its length.
"You can't have inconsistency in formatting in your resume like margins being off and bullets not being aligned," he says. It reflects poorly on your attention to detail.
Recruiters have few data points to go off of to decide if you're moving forward in the interview process. Even something as seemingly minimal as consistent formatting "does have an outsized influence on the perception that the recruiter or the hiring manager has," he says.
When you're writing your resume, make sure your titles, bullets, fonts and sections all match up and everything looks clean. One tip Taylor recommends if you have a lot of experience to include: widen the margins. If you're using Microsoft Word, the layout tab will have a margins option that can do that in a uniform way so your resume remains clean and consistent.
"That way you can get more on one page," he says.
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