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Cindy
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| Joined: | Thu Mar 9th, 2006 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 11:16 am |
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A nice young lady I'm trying to help with the college process ("trying" is the key word here) has shown me her resume. Originally it had 3 pages. Her GC insisted she get it down to 1 page. I think she can get it down to 2 pages by reorganizing it a bit.
Here's the dilemma - this girl does A LOT of stuff! I just don't see anything really trivial on there. At one page it will just be a dumb list of stuff. At 2 pages I think it will nicely reflect her and her interests/passions.
Think I should tell her to get it down to one page? Or is two pages OK?
Thanks for ideas!
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Chedva
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 12:07 pm |
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Play around a bit with the formatting. By changing some margins, and using a different font, removing some spacing, etc., I was able to get my d's resume down to 1 page and still have it be readable. Some fonts, still at 10 point, take up less room on the page than do others.
One thing I did, with carolyn's help (and of course I don't know if it really made any difference), was organize the resume by interest area, rather than strictly chronologically. For my d, that involved three areas: Dance, Theater & Teaching. We took each activity and put it under the topic that we thought it fit best (no repeats). So her assistant teaching in dance and counselor for a junior drama program went under Teaching, while her summer intensives went under Dance. Theater was for roles she had in various productions. Things that didn't fit under those categories didn't get listed. I think that this different perspective allowed her to highlight her "passions" for the admissions counselors without them having to work at it!
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DesperateDad
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| Joined: | Tue Mar 14th, 2006 |
| Location: | California USA |
| Posts: | 849 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 02:41 pm |
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also remember that not everything has to be described in detail. Adcoms know what the job of Captain, xx sport entails, or Pres of NHS.
For most people, getting down to one page is a good life-skill -- few employers read past the first page. Of course, an academic cv is measured by weight. 
Last edited on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 02:42 pm by DesperateDad
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WestrnMom
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| Joined: | Fri May 26th, 2006 |
| Location: | West Coast, USA |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 06:42 pm |
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One page is best, I agree with the other replies. She can use 8 pitch type if that helps and narrow the margins, but she should cut back. Definitely group things together. Another suggestion is to have two or more resumes. One for all academic related subjects and another for the EC or special interest. I've seen students who were musicians who have a separate music resumes. On the academic resume, list the highlights, and then clump everything else together in the category. It depends what she is trying to show. If it's strictly grades and ECs, then highlight those. If she has done a lot of community service, include a separate section on that. Some schools also want to see employment. She might even use a slightly different resume depending on the schools she is applying to and what they want.
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CarolynLawrence
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 08:03 pm |
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Cindy wrote: A nice young lady I'm trying to help with the college process ("trying" is the key word here) has shown me her resume. Originally it had 3 pages. Her GC insisted she get it down to 1 page. I think she can get it down to 2 pages by reorganizing it a bit.
Here's the dilemma - this girl does A LOT of stuff! I just don't see anything really trivial on there. At one page it will just be a dumb list of stuff. At 2 pages I think it will nicely reflect her and her interests/passions.
Think I should tell her to get it down to one page? Or is two pages OK?
Thanks for ideas!
One page is ideal, but two can sometimes be OK IF the information is "value added."
In other words, don't just repeat what is already in the EC section of her application or in her recommendations from teachers and the guidance counselor. Focus, focus, focus on the MOST important things an admissions committee needs to know about her, rather than telling them EVERYTHING she's ever done.
Think of the resume as an advertisement. Advertisements don't try to tell you every little detail of the product they're trying to sell. They focus on the KEY selling points that will make the target audience buy the product. That's what a good resume should do as well.
When I work with kids on their resumes, I try to get them to decide what is most important for an admissions committee to know about them. They should try to boil it down to two to three things -- for example, artist-equestrian, dancer-linguist, musician-mathematician, community service activist-student leader. Then, the resume (actually everything in the application) should focus on those things, not telling all the myriad details of everything the applicant has ever done.
Admissions people don't have a lot of time. They're not going to slog through unnecessary words, unnecessary information, and tons of details they don't need to know. They're looking for an easy to grasp "selling point" for each applicant.
If two pages are absolutely necessary, do front and back, not two separate pages. Play around with the formatting a bit (but DON'T use smaller type - think of the poor admissions person reading hundreds of applications each week!), and cut out unnecessary words. Think about which details one of your recommendation writers might be able to include, or which details you might be able to include in your essays or on the actual EC section of the application. Those details don't necessarily have to be repeated in the resume unless they are absolutely vital to your selling proposition.
But let this be the mantra: Focus, focus, focus.
Carolyn
Last edited on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 08:24 pm by CarolynLawrence
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CarolynLawrence
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 08:19 pm |
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WestrnMom wrote: Another suggestion is to have two or more resumes. One for all academic related subjects and another for the EC or special interest. I've seen students who were musicians who have a separate music resumes. On the academic resume, list the highlights, and then clump everything else together in the category.
It depends on how you're using the resume.
If you're writing the resume to give to someone who is writing your recommendations, these sorts of details, including the academic ones are useful.
If you're writing a resume to hand to your interviewer, including your GPA and test scores can sometimes be useful. Although, to be honest, I am not a huge fan of using a resume for interviews, or giving out one with your GPA and test scores -- the goal of the interview should be one-to-one conversation, and resumes sometimes become crutches for kids.
If, however, you're talking about a resume that you are going to send as a supplement to an application, there is NO NEED to include any academic information at all - they'll get that from the rest of the application.
The one exception would be if you want to highlight some specific academic enrichment item that isn't fully explained in the application.
But, even that should be tied into that "selling proposition" I mentioned above.
Last edited on Tue Sep 18th, 2007 08:22 pm by CarolynLawrence
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Thumper
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 10:25 pm |
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DS is now a grad student. He has modified his resume a number of times and he keeps it to one page. Each item is on one line only. It tells the date, activity and place...no other details (in other words, it reads more like a list, not a narrative). It is easily divided by categories. He has a LOT of activities he has done within his area and it would seem that he should have more than one page. He doesn't. One thing that he has done is eliminate "old" info. For example, when he went to college, he deleted the Middle school info from his resume. Now that he is a grad student, he has eliminated all high school information (except for a couple of well regarded music festivals).
I think the key to a good resume is knowing what is important to include and what is just "other". I read a lot of resumes at my place of employment (I read over 250 this year for a job opening). I can tell you that the ones that were more than one page did not get my attention any more than a good one page resume.
DH also has a resume of one page and I do as well. Each of us has overt 25 years of extensive work experience...and we can keep it to one page. DH has a set of documents that he can attach to the resume which highlight his specific work projects...but these are an attachment, not part of the resume itself.
If it were me, I would do my best to create a one page, succinct and well defined resume. I know it can be hard, but try. Otherwise go with the two pages. I would strongly suggest you not have three pages.
Re: info for those writing recommendations...that is a student profile sheet and while it has much of the same information that a resume has, it does tend to be more detailed and usually is more than one page long. In this type of document you need to give someone enough information to write an informed letter about you....and all too often you are just a bit more that a stranger to your GC.
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Cindy
Member
| Joined: | Thu Mar 9th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 45 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 18th, 2007 11:27 pm |
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Wow! Thanks everybody. Lots to think about. I have copied her on all these messages. I know she appreciates the help. (She's a tad pressed for time - LOL.)
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