Ideal length of a resume

Aug 26, 06

A great interview on recruitment by Guy Kawasaki with Libby Sartain, Chief people Yahoo! in his blog

One of the questions deals with the length of the resume:

Question: Does a resume that?s over one page long hurt a candidate?s chances?

Answer: We are looking at resumes electronically, so the pages aren?t really the issue. They should be succinct, but if they are two pages, or three pages…and great, that works. Anything over three pages is too much.

(Editorial comment from Guy: God help us, Libby is unleashing three-page resumes on us. Nota bene: she said ?and great.? Of course, every candidate believes his resume is great and requires three pages just like every entrepreneur believes he needs sixty PowerPoint slides.)

Guy Kawasaki shares with his own examples of a resume (short and long resume) and a cover letter in other related posts.

While short resumes ( one / two pages) appear to be a recommended practice in the US ( Though Libby Sartain is fine with three pages), atleast in Singapore, India and many other countries in Asia, most recruitment consultants would recommend a longer resume. This is one area that would be dictated by the region where you are submitting your resume and not on any standard international or best practice.

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