[Anonymous]

I’ve been in searching around the job market and some weird questions keep coming up about my resume. I was always taught to keep my resume to just a single page. So now that I have some experience with a few different companies throughout my years, my work experience from college to now has caused my resume to be a multi page document. So in keeping with what I thought was the established norm, I shortened it to one page and left off the positions that I had right after college. When I interview, it seems employers are always asking me about the gap in my employment history between college and my first listed job.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it ok to have a multi page resume?

[jm962011]

How many years are we talking about?

Were those jobs you left off actually related to your professional career or retail/odd jobs? If they were retail/odd jobs, I would leave them off.

I believe in a one page resume (if I update mine right now, I'm going to need to take my internships off) and I've seen some people group their skills/experience rather than 3-5 bullet points under each employer.

[Olintos Apprentice]

How many jobs/years are we talking about here? Sure, if your list of experience gets lengthy enough it is possible to spill onto a second page. However my understanding is that the second page better be pretty darn astounding to warrant the flipping of the page. Before you go there I would recommend reformatting the resume to fit it on one page. Margins, spacing, wording, font, etc etc etc. If the problem persists, shave down the description of each job/experience. Like I said, if your resume is 2 pages you must have a lengthy and quite amazing career thus far to justify the second page. But it is possible.

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[Missy]

The notion of keeping a resume to a single page is outdated. Its not a rule like it used to be.

But for jobs that are not relevant don't give duties, etc. Just one line 1/85-6/91 McDonalds, cashier is enough. No bullet points underneath necessary you've filled in the years so there are no questions taking up minimal space.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[jm962011]

I also wanted to add, combine multiple positions at the same company by listing the company only once (maybe unless you had a job at a different company in between the two different positions at the same company). This is great for Internships or you're listing roles you held in the company's foundation. I did the tax work and event planner for the company's foundation when I worked there. I thought the event planning part showed I wasn't just one of those boring accountants 😉

Example:

ABC, Inc.
Accounting Intern 04/04/04-05/05/05
bullet point #1
bullet point #2
bullet point #3
Staff Accountant 05/06/05-07/07/07
bullet point #1
bullet point #2
bullet point #3

[How many letters do you need]

I agree with mla. The one page resume is no longer the rule of thumb, especially once you get to the 10+ year or 3+ company mark. Try to give more detail to your most recent positions, especially if your career is on a growth trend. You want to highlight your highest level and most recent experience. So I might have 4-5 bullet points for my most recent/current position, 4 for the next two, then 3 bullet points on. Ill also say, as Im sure most do, put your valuable certifications after your name on the front page. A lot of views just never get to the second page……

MBA,CMA,CPA, CFF?, ABV?

[Anonymous]

Well….ive bounced around a bit. I've moved across the country so my husband could pursue his career, which caused me to have a position for less than a year and now I've taken a position with a company that just isn't a good fit at all and ive only been here for 6 months. So overall I believe I have 4.5 years of actual accounting experience. However, that's spread over 4 jobs. I didn't immediately start working after college in my current career path. So I'm thinking if I just consolidate down to the 4 relevant employers, I can easily explain the gap an internship and a graduate assistantship. Maybe I can format it so its just a single page still. I'm trying to find something that fits that I can do long term now and grow into other positions within the same company.

Thanks everyone for all your help!

[nadroj]

I think the one page resume is excellent advice for a university career center to give students. However, once you have a few (relevant) jobs, the one page limit has outlived its purpose. Now, if someone has to go through a lot of resumes, they probably won't read past the first page (or 1/3 page) for most. But if you get as far as an interview, someone will.

Best wishes in your search.

[Anonymous]

I think that since accounting is a fairly traditional field, a lot of people in hiring (not HR, but the accounting people who are hiring) are more likely to be the ones who still expect the 1-page rule to be followed unless you do have a substantial amount of experience (I'd be thinking in the 10+ years range). I've had some shorter jobs, too, though, so have thought about doing something like changing my heading to “Recent Professional Experience”, so they know it's not a complete listing, just recent. Or you could list details for the 3 most recent jobs, and just company name/position/dates for older ones, to make it still fit on a page.

Even if 1 page isn't a “rule” anymore, it's still the norm, and I'd be hesitant to break it unless I felt like I had a lot to show that needed a lot of space to be shown. Just listing the same duties 15 times wouldn't be sufficient reason in my mind; I'd need to have specific, varied accomplishments to be listing. (So, for example, “Staff Accountant” who did JL entries, month-end closing, and bank recs at 8 different companies doesn't need 3 bullet points for each listing those 3 duties at 8 different companies; that's a waste of space…but if there's 3 different specific accomplishments at 8 different companies, then maaaaybe each of the 8 companies deserves 3 bullet points.)

[Anonymous]

thanks everyone for the feedback!

[Anonymous]

I've never had an issue with reviewing resumes that are more than one page, especially if I am hiring for a position that requires years of experience. I agree to keep the bullets to a minimum (don't repeat the same 3 tasks for all companies) and I also agree that you could list the company, position and dates only for the internship, etc.

You may want to consider covering the fact that you moved around for your husbands job in your correspondence when submitting your resume. When I'm reviewing resumes, I look for people who stick around in positions, if I see they leave jobs after a year or less, its always a question I go to the recruiter about before I even read anymore.

On my last resume update, I included a professional skills section that covers the advanced/technical skills I have that were relevant and crucial, and relevant to each position I held. it helped in that I didn't have a lot of repetitive bullets under the two companies I had worked for. They were short “tag lines”.

Under the company and positions then I covered my accomplishments and major roles/tasks. I stole that idea from resumes we received for Director positions in our company, it looked really good.

[HelenGreene]

You can make your resume 2 pages but not more than that. If you face that kind of questions you should add your experience and make it in two pages. The gap in employment history is a problem in getting a job. They might reject you because of this gap. If you can't concise it in two pages approach best resume writing service, they will make an outstanding resume for you.

[Author]

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