As part of my job as an engineering career coach, I get the opportunity to speak to many engineering recruiters and hiring managers and I always ask them how long an engineer’s resume should be; here is what they tell me and some ways that you can save space on your resume.
For engineering students, your resume should be no longer than one page. Keep it simple. See my last Engineering.com post for resume formatting recommendations. In the rare case that you had extensive work experience prior or during college, there may be a circumstance where more than one page is acceptable for a college student but very rarely. Be sure to include all of your extracurricular activities on your resume, especially those in the engineering-related societies and clubs.
For those engineers who are in the first 5 to 10 years of your career, it is perfectly acceptable to have a resume that is multiple pages. You probably want to have something that’s about 2 or 3 pages. You want to include as much detail as you can about projects that you have worked on or managed including your responsibilities, the budget, number of team members/consultants involved, timeframe, etc. As opposed to a college student, your work experience should be at the top of your resume above education.
For those engineers that have been working for over 10 years, you may have a resume that is even longer, maybe 5 to 10 pages. I’ve actually seen longer than that! Similar to a younger engineer, the resume should include details for all of the projects you have worked on/managed. You should also include a section on non-billable activities that you are responsible for. Non-billable activities that prospective employers might be interested in seeing include mentoring younger engineers, proposal preparation, billing, business development, and marketing activities.
So how do you ensure that your resume doesn’t exceed the lengths described above? Here are some tips for keeping your resume at a reasonable length:
· Remove the objective. This is something that hiring managers have told me is perfectly okay. Why? They tell me that everyone has the same objective – to get a job! Therefore, they don’t spend a lot of time, if any, reading it.
· You do not have to put references available upon request on the bottom of your resume. This is now understood, however you should have a list of references prepared to give a prospective employer in an interview.
· List only the projects/experience on your resume that are relevant to that position. I always tell engineers that they should have a different resume for every job they are applying for. This will allow you to select only the projects that are applicable to that specific job description. Not only will this cut down the size of your resume but it will present you as a better fit for that specific job.
· You can decrease your margin size slightly, as long as the overall appearance is still neat and readable.
· Have a colleague proofread it and ask them what information really stands out to them and which information isn’t interesting. Their advice may help you to remove some extraneous information.
I hope this post helps you in deciding whether or not your resume is too long!
This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website atEngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.