Without having seen your resume - here are some generalizations and pointers that may help. I am writing this from the perspective of a potential employer.
To shorten your resume:
- Leave off the activities - no one cares. This is why they have interviews. I don't care if you scored the winning touchdown at the
Rose Bowl. We only have a ping-pong table at our office and you have to sign up in order to use it. Company policy dictates that you have to provide the paddles. We call it cost cutting.
- Leave off the honors - unless it's something that is immediately reconizable. If it is just some scholarship - particular to that university - no one cares. Yeah, it's important to you - but I don't care. Again, work it into one of your success stories that you will tell at the interview.
- Back to honors - if you were class valedictorian - you can just write "validectorian" next to the degree. It doesn't need to be more than a one line statement at most. And again, I don't care.
- Leave off classes you took. No one cares. You graduated didn't you? So I assume that you took some computer classes.
- Leave off the references. Hell, I can't call them - legally that is - unless you sign a form giving me permission to do so.
- Do not staple transcripts to resume. I can't read printing that small. Seriously, I have seen this done in the past.
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- What
you should list:
- Your degree(s).
- Your technical certification(s) - no one cares if you went to truck driving school.
- Go over your projects. Did you use bulleted points rather than 5 sentence paragraphs? Did you you include a technical environment section for each project.
- What languages do you know. Don't list in alphabetical order - but rather in most knowledgeable to least knowledgeable.
For some reason, it's still ok to list Prolog, Pascal, and Lisp. Just list them last.
- I should be able to pick up your resume - and in 10-20 seconds know if I want to talk to you or not. I will not hunt/pick/read sentences in their entirety. And this is the mindset that you (as a resume writer) need to consider. The reson being - most recruiters (initial screening) have about 200+ resumes to sort through - and have about 5 minutes to do it in (seriously).
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Two pages or one?
If you did a good bit of work/internships - and are not adding fluff such as your shoe size, health, weight, and your family heritage - then a 2 page resume is ok.
If you have a clean - well formatted resume - then 2 pages is fine. The bozos at the college career center are English majors who couldn't make it in the real world. What do they know about the technical scene - other than what someone wrote in a book?
Unfortunately, it's these career service clowns who can do you favors if you get to know them. Such as getting you into a supposedly closed interview list, or handing your resume to a recruiter - when you were in class. Showing you how to signup for interviews - stuff like that.
My advice - make sure you put "References on Request" at end of resume - so reader knows they are done.
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Remember, it's the resume & your degree that get's you in the door. It's the interview that gets you the job.
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Don't worry about the other ten thousand schmucks at your college that say the economy is going to pooh. What the hell would they know?
You gotta put on your blinders (as we say), and keep plowing until something turns up.
And no law ever stated that you couldn't look outside of campus recruiting.
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Enjoy,
John Coxey
(jpcoxey@aol.com)