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I am almost seven years out of school, and am in the military. I'm currently writing a new resume for the first time in years and want to make sure I'm not breaking any unspoken resume rules. Right now it is exactly 2 pages. I'm worried that if I try to shorten it to 1 page I will have to sacrifice a significant amount of my accomplishments. Is it an unwritten rule that it must be 1 page, or can it be 2?
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TYFYS
@malotragaudet998 thanks for the specific advice! I've held seven positions in six years (I'm military, and we have "collateral" duties (aka side projects/jobs) in addition to main jobs, which add up to be a lot. Plus, some of these things take some explanation since their unique to the military and I think most people would not understand what a job entailed unless I explained it. All of my jobs have 3-4 bullet points. Thanks everyone, for all of the advice: looks like it'll be two pages!
I've also been told by admissions counselors 2 pages is perfectly fine, especially if you're 5+ years out of school and have held a few positions after graduation in addition to internships during college.
Also as a hiring manager, I prefer more detail to less, and have never had any issues with 2 page resumes. Remember though that you don't want to be so detailed that you lose the forest for the trees. I've held I think 6 positions since graduation and usually have just 4 or at most 5 lines of description for each, plus a top section of the resume for publications and awards if any; I like to put those out front.
My pre-law advisor told me two pages is just fine. He said you are competing against people who will have 2 pages. Say everything, elaborate, etc.
I think the standard has changed over time and it's become more commonplace to submit 2-page resumes. I'd say a majority of admissions and employers acknowledge that 1 page is not enough to say everything. Like what many have said here of course you should make sure whatever you have is substantive and concise and not done solely based on length.
Mine has to be 2 pages. There's no way to reformat it without eyestrain. So far it's OK.
I was on a webinar for working professionals with the admissions dean at UC Berkeley the other day. This was directly addressed. For those with substantial work experience, she said 2 pages is just fine if it is relevant and helpful to painting the picture of who you are, but avoid going over that. FWIW, mine is about 1.5 pages and I have been out of undergrad 9 years.
I think the "rule of thumb" is 1 page for every 10 years of work. Also, for applications, every school is different so as someone earlier said, definitely check out schools websites!
Thanks for the info!
I'm 5 years out and will be applying with a 2 page resume. I did a few intro calls with consultants and they said that 2 pages are ok if you actually have done 2 pages worth of work and time (which I know I have, and I'd bet you have as well).
This depends on the school(s) you’re going to apply to. Check what they request on their website. Some law schools want no more than one page. Others are fine with two.
Thank you for your service.