RESUME ADVICE

There is no shortage of resume writing advice - and some of the advice is contradictory. A good example pertains to the advice that resumes should be no more than 2 pages in length. While it is true that many hiring managers will look heavily at the 2 R's, the Recent and Relevant information; it is rarely viewed as a negative for technical people to have long resumes and include all of the detail about their earlier work.

For those with a long work history it is far better to focus on making the resume easier to read than to cut out important technical detail. For instance, you might consider using bullet points as this often makes resumes easier to scan quickly.

Another common technique used to help capture a lot of technical experience is to prepare a chart. For every technical skill that you have used you can convey your skill level, years of experience, and the year that it was last used. This typically helps the hiring managers see that you meet the minimum years of experience required for the job. Including a chart like this can sometimes make the difference in whether you are moved forward beyond the resume review step.