How to Shorten Your Résumé

Whether your résumé is one or two pages, you should cut the following:

1. The Objectives section

The admissions committee knows your objective: to get into law school. Cut this section from your law school résumé.

2. Highlights

Some people add a miniature résumé at the top of their résumé under a section called Highlights. Most résumé readers don’t look at the Highlights section, so it probably just adds clutter.

3. “References available upon request.”

Résumé readers know that they can request your references. This sentence is a waste of space.

4. High school accomplishments

Adding accomplishments from high school will make you look slightly pathetic.

5. Standardized test scores

This goes for the SAT, ACT, LSAT, and any other test you might have taken.

6. “Proficiency in Microsoft Word” and such

Admissions readers will assume that you have basic computer literacy. Noting your competency at Microsoft Office or the like only makes you seem bad at computers.

7. A few words from two-line sentences

If you need to compress your résumé, prune spillover two-line sentences down to a single line.

8. Bullet points that list menial tasks

Remember, it’s better to say what you learned at an internship than to note that you answered the phone, got the mail, made coffee runs, etc.

9. Activities for which you had little responsibility

If you need to save space, see if you can eliminate activities that weren’t important to you.

📌See also Résumé Language.