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Modern Analyst Forums Careers Career Advice &... 6+ Page Resumes?

9/7/2007 7:52 AM

	Chris Adams
323 posts

6+ Page Resumes?

What's up with the 6, 8, and 10 page resumes? Has anyone else experienced this?

I have been interviewing Business Systems Analyst for our analysis team for the past 2 years. It's been difficult to find GOOD analysts. But what has been most frustrating is the gluttony of excessively long resumes, 6 pages or more, from candidates with only 5 or 6 years of experience.

If someone here thinks this is an effective way of landing a job or interview, please provide your thoughts. I disagree.

Resumes don't get you a job, they are meant to land you an interview. That's it. I recommend that people use the following guideline.

< 3 years of experience ....absolutely no more than 1 page
3-10 years of experience...no more than 2 pages
> 10 years of experience...no more than 3 pages

I know plenty of colleagues with 15-20 years that still keep it to 2 pages...so yes it's possible.

Remember, it's just to get you the interview. Peak the interviewer's interest; don't give them your life story in prose.

Thoughts?

-Chris

Chris Adams
Core Member – ModernAnalyst.com
LinkedIn Profile

10/10/2007 1:03 PM

	Perry McLeod
70 posts

Re: 6+ Page Resumes?

I have struggled with that myself. As a consultant I have worked on dozens of projects that range in the thousands to millions of dollars. Each of them have offered their own unique challengs. My resume is 6-7 pages long ... BUT I have designed it in such a way that only the firt 2 pages are of any importance. The rest is a laundry list of projects. Here is my structure...

PAGE ONE

Value Proposition
This is my mission statement, if you will.

Profile
2 column tabular that outlines who I am at a glance
PMP, Consultant and the like

Languages Methodologies and Tools
RUP, OOD, UML2.0 stuff like that

Project Areas
2 column tabular that outlines the project areas I tend to focus on. I do a lot of multi-year business transformation projects that touch all sorts of areas. I have only listed things at the highest level.

Core Competencies
What are my core competencies? You contract me and you get ...

Areas of Expertise
Deeper detail I have listed a dozen more specific 'this is what you get'

Preferred Project Environment
At the end oif the day I'll go where the adventure is .. but I do have a preference for things like iterative SDLC, use case based planning, strong traceability model. stuff like that.

PAGE TWO

Professional Approach
2 columns with a dozen bullet points. What is my process? If you contract me I will attack your problem like this. All the time every time. it's a paradigm. Does not matter what industry ... get me and you get my process and my technique.

Associations and Certifications
all listed there.

Certificates Training and Education
This grows every few months. I reinvest back into myself. so I want employers to see that I am current.

Volunteer Work
I work closely with MA.com and the IIBA so I want employers to know that this my profession and that I extend what I learn back in to community.

THAT's it Pages 3 to ... list out my Professional Accomplishments in the old style chronological order.

If someone wants to read past that, they are welcome to ... but the first 2 pages tell you if I am the professional for you.

thoughts?

10/11/2007 6:26 AM

	Craig Brown
560 posts
www.betterprojects.net

Re: 6+ Page Resumes?

Yeah mine is 6 pages also.

After talking to recruiters I have kept it simple. A list of projects in reverse chronological order with the following format.

Role, business
Project(s)
Complexity/budget
Project Objectives
My contribution (using keywords and industry jargon, which I never use in the real job)

Then education & training.

11/1/2007 6:46 AM

	aoporto
1 posts
infogenium.com

Re: 6+ Page Resumes?

The problem with such long resumes is that it makes it difficult to determine their strengths when they are overwhelming you with so much detail. If the resume is overly wordy instead of using bullet points and filtering unnecessary information, it may be indicative of their writing skills. I find 3 pages max to be ideal, so I definitely agree with you on this issue, and this is based on having to review a large number of resumes in the past two years.