Many job seekers have raised the question, “Is it acceptable to have a three-page resume? If not three pages, how long should a resume be?” Although, a proper resume length is one of the characteristics of a good resume, the answer to the questions are not simple. Even though there has once been a trend of a one-page resume, two-page resumes are the most common.
Hiring Managers have to look at hundreds of resumes so they tend to only spend about 6 seconds viewing a resume. However, three-page resumes are quite rare and professional resume writers recommend that it is acceptable for you to have a three-page resume only if you meet the following conditions:
Are you under the age of 40:
If you are still in your twenties or thirties and have a three-page long resume, it means that you lack the skill of putting your abilities concisely in your resume. It’s not that you will be rejected if you have one but there is a low probability that you’ll be called for an interview.
The reason is: by this age, you usually can’t have significantly lengthy career experience in the relevant field and having a three-page resume only means that you are over-elaborating your information which is certainly not desired by the recruiters for a resume. The simple answer for the best resume length is to try and keep your resume as concise as possible and you’ll see that it cannot extend to more than one or two pages if you are under the age of 40.
Have a long track of leadership experience:
What mistake most people usually make when they create a three-page resume is that they include too much irrelevant information. Because of this, when the employers scan through the resumes for what they are looking for, they get lost in unnecessary or irrelevant details that have been included. The best resume writers recommend creating three pagers if you have a long track-record of leadership experience. That means: unless you are a senior manager or someone with long-term proven experience in a leadership position, do not think that it is acceptable to have a three-page resume.
Have great academic accomplishments:
It is also suitable to create a three-page resume if you have great accomplishments in the academic field. Extending resume length is really not a problem if you are able to fill the resume with all the impressive lists of your scientific or academic publications, licenses and speech delivery records. The key idea is simple: include in your resume what your hiring managers want to see for the particular job position.
Want to change your career field:
If you are about to transition from one field to another, you might need the rare three-page resume. For instance, if you want to shift your job from an ‘accountant’ to a ‘sales executive’, mention skills, qualities, and experiences you gained as an accountant that also pertains to a sales executive. This way you can attempt to convince your new potential employer that you possess the qualities desired for the new chosen role using your previous experience in a different field.
Whenever you wonder how many pages a resume should be, think about what companies want to see in your resume for the designated job position. The answer for length is one, two, and no more than three pages. As explained above, unless you are over 40 years, have a long track of leadership or academic records or decide to transition your career field, it is not necessary to have a three-page resume.
You don’t want to end up creating a bad or vague impression leading to being rejected for what otherwise would have been a potential interview call. Are you still confused about how to put together your abilities into a proper resume length? Hire a professional resume company now to assist you.
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