If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times: There’s really no reason for anyone’s resume to be longer than one page. So how do you fit everything in? Simply follow the same principle you’d apply to anything else you write. Select, don’t compress.
Deciding what to leave out isn’t always easy, but you can start by following the excellent advice of Jennifer Nicole Sullivan, a copywriter for Real Simple magazine. On SPJ’s First Draft blog, Sullivan offers 12 edits to make everything fit.
Among her top tips:
Move information from your resume to your cover letter. Your job objectives and personal traits belong in the letter. Save room in the resume to summarize what you’ve done.
Leave information out, especially hobbies (unless they’re really relevant), anything from high school, and your grade point average. “Unless you have a 3.8 or higher, do not list your GPA,” Sullivan advises. “After your first professional job, omit it altogether.”
Don’t create a separate section for awards; list them with the job where you received them. And for goodness’ sake, write tight:
Use sentence fragments that begin with strong action verbs (no gerunds) to eliminate excess words and articles such as “the.” “I” is never needed.
Sullivan also suggests saving room by leaving references off your resume. Personally, I like seeing references listed, but if you can’t fit them in without spilling over to a second page, I suppose it’s OK to let them go.
