Top Reasons Resumes Are Rejected - Too Long and Wordy

It's so frustrating. You spend hours at your computer, detailing your long and illustrious career on page after page. You explain every last, intricate detail of your job, with footnotes for clarification. You include a page listing all the 150 professional courses you've taken over the years. There's another page just for your references. Half a page discusses your college courses, and another describes your volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. How could anyone NOT want to hire you?

Would it shock you to know that most hiring managers give your resume a mere 15 to 30 seconds before deciding if they like it or not? If they like YOU or not? It's true. A lot of them will barely get to the bottom of the first page. And let's be honest: if you were a hiring manager, and had to sit down in front of a pile of 200 resumes, would you give each one your focused, undivided attention, reading every convoluted, tiny font paragraph till the cows come home, attempting to figure out whether or not the person who submitted the resume matched the needs of the job? Or would you just skim them, grabbing the 10 or 20 that struck you right off the bat as suitable?

Nowadays, long and wordy resumes don't usually do well. So what should you do? Is it necessary to pare your information down mercilessly to one page? Even if it means leaving out the part where you won the Nobel Prize? No. Here are some suggestions:

1. The first half of the first page is the most important: Regardless of how long your resume is, use this area to note a very condensed version of all your most important skills and qualifications, as they relate to the job you're applying for. If this section looks good, the hiring manager might be tempted to keep reading.

2. Use bullets and short paragraphs: Attention spans just aren't what they used to be. People are rushed.?Hiring managers tend to skim, not read. Keep it short and concise.

3. Use bolding for important skills and achievements, but do it sparingly. To assist the hiring manager in skimming over your resume, bold the parts you especially don't want him to miss. But don't overdo it.

4, Cut out everything not relevant to the job you're applying for: This means hobbies, unrelated courses, excessive detail and explanations about each job. References can usually be left off, unless specifically requested.

5. Keep the resume to one or two pages when appropriate. If you're a student just starting out, or someone with only one or two jobs to list, you'll probably do fine with one page. If you have many years of experience, or are applying for a job as CEO of a multinational corporation, one page won't be enough. Use common sense. For most people, two pages will be about right.

6. Consider an addendum: If you have had a long career, have many projects to list, or perhaps have taken a lot of relevant professional courses, you may want to add an addendum to your resume. The resume will be complete without it, but it's a document that the hiring manager can go to for added information if he or she is so inclined.

So follow these tips to avoid a long-winded, multi-paged resume that makes the hiring manager feels tired just looking at it. Be concise, be brief, be focused. If you can't do this on your own, ask someone to help you, or hire a professional resume writer. It will be worth it when you get the job!