One Lump or Two

One Lump or Two Remember when sugar used to come in cubes? Then, remember when you went to tea and the hostess asked you if you wanted One lump or Two? No, I am not that old either, but Ive seen that scene in movies and read about it. So, heres my question, One page or two?. In other words, should your resume be not quite sweet enough to drink or too sweet to finish? This debate has gone on forever and will continue. It is all based on personal preference- the preference of the reader, whom you do not know. Great, so this question still goes unanswered. Think about the sugar analogy. If the hostess only gave you one lump and you desired two, you wouldnt enjoy the tea. If, by some miracle, the sugar floated on top, you might drink the sweeter tea until you reached the less sweet tea. Ok, back to the resume. Start your resume with the sweetest part first. In other words, write a summary that states almost all your qualifications for the job. Then the reader has enough info to be tempted to read more. My advice would be to not limit your talents to a single page. Frequently, very talented people leave off information or write about their jobs in resume-ese which means, half a sentence that says absolutely nothing. Their logic, I was going to tell them more in the interview. Sure, thats not going to happen. It has to be disclosed on the resume otherwise you wont get the interview. You have to keep the reader interested/pleased, so they will want to continue reading. Keep the stories you tell focused on the job you are applying for. Conversely, if you have two pages filled with words, the poor reader is going to be overwhelmed. Just like some people might feel with two lumps of sugar. So, dont get too wordy. Dont make the text too small. Leave white space, more that .001 of an inch, please. Preparing your resumeis a series of drafts, re-writes and edits.Just likeGoldilocks and the three bears, the first will be too hard, thenext will be too soft and thelast should be just right.