<p>I was wondering if it was alright to have 1.5 pages in a resume. I am graduating this Spring from college and am applying for Fall 2014 full time positions. I have held 4 internships that I have listed and this pushes the resume to 1.5 pages. I have always heard that if your resume is more than one page it will just get tossed in the trash or not looked at. I am applying to big 4s and many other companies and I want to make sure they know that I worked a lot and not only just studied (I have a good GPA as well). I have made a one page version, but the margins are basically 0, the font is really small, and overall it just looks really cluttered. I know that some of you may say that a lot o fit may be "fluff", but I have shown my previous resume which was one page and I have gotten great feedback from professors and employers about the resume.</p>
<p>Maybe you have too much stuff on it (too much detail about the internships you already had). I have been a contract project manager for 30 years, and my resume is 3 pages long. I work pretty hard to keep it fresh/relevant/etc. You have been working a few internships, and are already at half that length. Seems like too much…</p>
<p>Things to consider:
If you have “bulleted” under each internship for responsibilities, etc., consider going to a paragraph format. You still don’t need complete sentences, and you want to set each internship off with its own header with the company, title, and dates. But then put the description underneath in a paragraph form.
Really scrutinize what you are saying about each internship to make sure there is no “fluff” as you stated before.
If your resume has anything about hobbies, extra curriculars, etc. on it, consider taking it off. Adults remove that stuff once they have “real” things to take their places. Unless the EC is directly related to your proposed field of employment, leave it off. For example: VP of the college branch of an engineering society, leave it on. Officer in your fraternity, leave it off.
If your GPA is good, put in on your resume with your degree info. :)</p>
<p>Should I consider taking off a job that ended 3 years ago and “relevant coursework”? I had great opportunities at that job and some great stories, but is it too old? If I got rid of that and shortened some other parts I could get one page.</p>
<p>Can you shorten the description of it up so you have very little detail on it? It depends on what it was… if you were working at Subway, take it off. If it is relevant to your future career, leave it on. Obviously the “great stories” don’t matter on a resume. I don’t list my job at a toy store from high school or my college job making deli sandwiches. But I did until I got to one page… then dropped them as relevant work experience was available to fill up the page.</p>
<p>I always recommend having 1 OR 2 page resumes. Not 1.5 or 1.3 or whatever.</p>
<p>I agree with the above advice that you should look at your resume with a critical eye. Cutting it down to one page doesn’t mean to squeeze everything onto one page by fiddling with the margins or font size. It’s about deciding what is relevant or what is not.</p>
<p>Are all four internships directly related to the jobs you’re applying for? Does your descriptions of them highlight the most important/relevant/impressive things you did or do you just list everything you did? Are your descriptions wordy? Is there a way you could make them more direct and succinct, without sacrificing clarity?</p>
<p>What other sections do you have on your resume that you could cut out? When I had a lot of relevant experience to something I was applying for, I cut out sections that had honors and awards or other things that were mainly there to take up space.</p>
<p>How important do you think your relevant coursework is? I never had a section that detailed relevant coursework, but it may depend on your field. Does your work experience show that you have the same knowledge or skills that you relevant coursework does? Are you including a relevant coursework section to show that you have certain skills? If so, you could list that under the skills section, rather than devoting another section to it.</p>
<p>Your career services center or even your school’s writing center might have tips on how to cut it down (either by changing your wording or formatting, or little things that aren’t that relevant or important). It’s hard to suggest changes without seeing the resume, and talking to someone in person with your resume in hand may be beneficial.</p>
<p>I looked at the OP’s resume (his one page version) and it looks good. We talked about a few ideas to tighten it up more if he needs to in the future, but I think he is on track to get a good job after graduation!</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I was really stressing about it, just uploaded the resume after another look over for errors. </p>
<p>Baktrax, I also read similar advice that it shouldn’t be 1.4,1.5 and so on. I did cut down a job that was a bit outdated and got rid of the relevant coursework. I’m sure I can talk about it in the interview.</p>
<p>Do you have a lot of extracurriculars listed? Maybe you can trim them. Also on my resume I customize relevant coursework according to the job. I only add the courses that are closely related to the job instead having a standard set. That helps you save a lot of space.</p>
I don’t list my job at a toy store from high school or my college job making deli sandwiches. But I did until I got to one page… then dropped them as relevant work experience was available to fill up the page.</p>