How to condense 2 page resume into 1 page? help

[Just A Girl2]

Hello,

Hopefully this is the correct forum to post this in.

 

I recently came upon a very interesting position doing nursing research/clinical trials at a University. This position came up about 6 months ago, and I was interested then but didn't have the time or knowledge of how in the heck to condense my 2 page resume into 1 page.

 

They write:

 

"please submit resume and covering letter (maximum 2 pages), detailing the match between the position and your qualifications and expertise,...bla bla bla"

 

Heck....have my updated resume here, and it's actually 3 pages! Ugh.

 

Contains the headings:

-Education

-Additional Training

-Work experience

-Professional Activities

 

 

Does anyone here have a good resume format they can share, that will give an example of how to condense to just 1 page?

 

Tony? Clia? Quankanne? Hokey??

 

(if someone wants me to email them my current resume, to see what I have to work with here, just PM me with your email address and I'll gladly send it..thanks)

[Ryan]

Front and back of a single piece of paper.

[Just A Girl2]

Can't tell if you're serious or joking.

 

Resumes are to be emailed or faxed, so even if it *IS* one page, with info on both sides of the page, when they receive it, it will BE 2 pages. Different, obviously, if I was hand-delivering it....but I won't be.

[yes]

ideas:

 

tighter formatting / smaller font?

 

shorter descriptions of previous jobs? (no description for the less recent ones?)

 

I think they usually pay more attention to the cover-letter, because they want to see why you think you suit the position, so it's ok for the resume to be very brief - at least that's what they tell students at my university.

 

-yes

[clia]

Unfortunately, I have the same problem and have only been able to cut mine down by shrinking the font and margins (10 pt and 0.5"), and narrowing down to the most important things. I think you could justifiably even go smaller than 10 pt for some things.

 

I think the important thing to remember is that if they only want one page, they can't expect to see your entire career history. You can really take advantage of the cover letter--since you technically aren't supposed to discuss things they can clearly see from your resume, can you move some things over to the cover letter and talk about them there instead of on your resume? (Maybe some of the additional training? i.e. In addition to my degree and professional experience, I have also been trained in ..... )

 

I've seen resumes where the main subject areas are separated by bold lines, and there is basically a lot of runon text within each section with specific things highlighted in bold or underlined so they stand out. (Make sure when you look at the resume that the biggie important things really pop!) Bullet points waste space, as do putting things on separate lines. Whenever possible, put it all on one line. You can write separate sentences within the section.

 

For example: (an off the top of my head example--the wording is bad--I know nothing about nursing, so I'm using what I know just to show you what I mean)

 

_________________

EDUCATION

XXX University, J.D. in XXX, May 1995

XXX University, B.S. in XXX, May 1992

__________________

BAR MEMBERSHIPS

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, No. XXXXX, Michigan state bar, No. XXXXX, Ohio state bar, No. XXXXX...

__________________

LEGAL EXPERIENCE

XXX Firm, May 1995-Present, Associate: Worked in complex tort litigation specializing in asbestos defense, and blah, blah, blah. Won X cases. Second chair at three trials. Whatever. Did some more cool stuff.

The Honorable Judge XXX, Jan 1995-May1995, Extern: Researched and wrote memos for federal court judge. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Won best extern of the semester award. Did this and that.

__________________

 

Etc.... -- but you see how you can eliminate the white space (and fit more on the resume) by using the bold lines, and simply putting everything on one line instead of using bullet points? Can you list out your Professional Activities on one runon line, for example: (and underline those that particularly pertain to the position or that are particularly good activities to be a part of)

 

_______________

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Super Nursing Association, Society of Nurses, Canadian Medical Nurses are Fabulous, Neonatal Nurses of Canada, etc...

________________

 

-Education -- limit this only to School, Degree, and if you graduated with any honors -- GPA and rank don't matter anymore (unless you graduated first, in which case I'd put that on there!)

 

I think the key is to try to figure out what is most important and how to say it in the fewest amount of words. I don't think you need to go into excessive detail on everything you've ever done. They can ask you to elaborate at the interview. You just need to give them a good idea of what your background is like. I would think that if you, for example, worked in the Neonatal Unit at a hospital, that they have a pretty good idea what that job entails, so maybe you just highlight the particularly unique or interesting things that you did while working there.

 

Also, be sure to tailor your resume for this job--focus on the skills they are looking for with this particular job. Possibly you can substantially shorten some of your previous experience that, while you want it on there, doesn't specifically pertain to this position.

 

I'll be back if I think of more...

[clia]

If you go front and back, they will toss your resume so fast. That would be cheating. One page means one page, one side.

[clia]

I think they usually pay more attention to the cover-letter, because they want to see why you think you suit the position, so it's ok for the resume to be very brief - at least that's what they tell students at my university.

 

This is true for new graduates, who in general don't have a ton of professional experience to even put on their resume. Employers know new grads haven't done a lot, so don't expect to see a ton of work experience. The cover letter is important to distinguish students from eachother to help them narrow down the hiring process. (I mean, they might see ten resumes from people all with the same degree, similar GPAs, and each student may have had one or two intern positions. How do you pick who to interview? That's where the cover letter comes in.) Employers are usually well prepared to train new grads.

 

It's a different story when you've been working for ten years and have done a wide variety of things. They are specifically looking for certain work experience and things in your background that prepare you for the job so they don't necessarily have to train you. I think the cover letter is less important than the resume. While it needs to be coherent and needs to grab their attention, the resume is where you really show your stuff.

[HokeyReligions]

I am in the midst of a job search myself now. I have about 8 different resumes so far - because I tailor each one to the specific position.

 

What are they asking for? Eliminate everything they are not asking for from your resume. You cover letter can be in prose, but your resume can contain nothing more than your title and bulleted text that lists what specifics you did under that title.

 

You can use terms like "standard" or "general" to describe those activities that are common to any position like yours, and bullet specific accomplishments.

 

You don't want to reduce white space or make the font too small because that defeats the whole purpose - they need something easy to read.

 

In your cover letter you can state that you have included only those items that are pertinent to the present position, but that you do have a more in-depth resume and you would like to go into detail about your qualifications and how you can benefit them in an interview.

 

I actually have a 3-page resume -- a big no-no according to some, however it has been appreciated and I've received good response on it because it is so easy to read. I also have a Summary Worksheet that I bring with me to certain interviews and that has impressed some people -- that's how I got the contract job I'm in now, I impressed them with my organization on my summary sheet, and my thoroughness in my 3-page resume!

 

Also, if you really have only one or two prior positions that are relavant to the position you are seeking - don't put any other positions on the resume. They'll ask you what you did during the other years.

 

I don't know if this has helped, we are in different fields and prospective employers want to see different things.

 

You might just try the Resume Templates that come in MS Word (or Word Perfect, or whatever) and customize them to fit your information. also, look on the internet for tips on writing resumes and cover letters.

 

good Luck.

[longlegzs80]

I just went to a resume/coverletter class just afew days ago and I found it to be very helpful. That was taken place at the NY state Labor board office. Anyways, you best bet is to find a workshop like that in your area, and they can help you out a great deal with getting your resume rollin.

 

But, as far as your resume goes, DON"T TYPE ON THE BACK OF A RESUME. You just don't do that.

 

Include this:

Objective

Education

Job Experience (Make sure that is it relevant to what job your appling for)---If it does not fit what your going for but you feel that several of the jobs that might be irrelavent to this specific job you had to have certain skills, like phone skills, good communication etc), then put it down.

 

Other then that, I don't know what else you could put down. Have you gone to a library or a bookstore to see about resume writing. That can help.

[MercyRose]

No descriptons, just use bullet points with one word descriptions if possible and 1-2 sentences or lines where necessary

 

If the bullet points are short divide them into columns e.g

 

 

Heading

 

-ghghghghghg -gjfgjkgjgfjgjjg -ghghghghgh

-ghghghghghg -gjfgjkgjgfjgjjg -ghghghghgh

-ghghghghghg -gjfgjkgjgfjgjjg -ghghghghgh

 

 

Heading

 

ghghghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

 

Heading

 

-ghhhhhhhhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhh -ghkfkkkkkkkkkkkkskkfd

 

Hope it helps.

 

I have used this kind of format to fix peoples CV's at work and they thought I was a miracle worker

[quankanne]

I think the cleanest one I saw (and brief!) was by a fellow reporter who kept each entry to one line each, managing to get the important stuff all on one page.

 

name

address/phone

 

education:

place, date, degree (use one line for each degree)

 

 

additional training:

what kind, where, when, have certificate for it

 

work experience:

name of place worked, position, how long there, brief job description (again, use one line on each entry)

 

and if you want, extracurricular interests

 

someone mentioned using smaller type and smaller margins; another person mentioned using the cover page as the more "chatty" forum for letting the one reading your resume get to know you; both are good ideas. What I did was make up two different versions of my resume, one is expanded into 2-3 pages and I go into more detail, the other is the one-page jobby. I think you can pull it off if you just remember to streamline as much as you can and use compact phrases to describe things (especially in the work experience section), though, if you've got a rich and varied background, it'll be harder to keep things brief. ESPECIALLY if you've done some specialty work in the health industry.

 

thanks for asking, and good luck cranking this out,

quankanne

[veggie]

Originally posted by Just A Girl2

They write:

 

"please submit resume and covering letter (maximum 2 pages), detailing the match between the position and your qualifications and expertise,...bla bla bla"

 

 

Are you sure this means that your resume can only be 1 page? It's possible that the (maximum 2 pages) applies to the covering letter only, isn't it? If this job has been out there for 6 months already, I'd say you might want to take a chance on sending your full resume (trim it to 2 pages) and a 1-page cover letter. At a certain age, most people are going to need a 2-page resume.

 

If you really do need a 1 page resume, I would keep it short and sweet -- work experience, education (degree and school only), and professional memberships. Use bullets to highlight the most relevant parts of your experience. Then, use the cover leter to expand on those skills and responsibilities that most directly qualify you for the new position. I would not engage in too many tricks of changing font sizes or margins in order to cram more on a page because no one wants to receive a hard-to-read resume.

 

Good luck!