When it comes to resumes, less as more seems contradictory since it's tempting to want to fit your life's work on a single sheet of paper. Instead, focusing on just three big accomplishments can help create a stronger resume.
Resumes are often challenging in that people tend to run on limited space and push the margins to really accept all they've accomplished in their work life. It's natural to think the more you can show on a single page, the better off your standing will be. Instead, Mark Suster suggests emphasizing only three key jobs or tasks to create a knockout resume requires
Many people feel the need to tell the reader everything they worked on rather than the 3 biggest accomplishments. I always advise people to only put the things that had the biggest impact to maximize the chance that they'll actually be seen.
Since it's important for your resume to highlight the best of your experiences, focus on just a few major accomplishments over the course of your work history. You'll still want to mention the traditional stuff, such as where you worked, but emphasize the accomplishments you're most proud of.
While there may be cases where it's more beneficial to avoid resumes altogether, they're often a job application requirement. When you need to submit a resume, you're often better served by a concise resume that can be offset by your own personal site or LinkedIn profile that oulines your previous work, education, and other achievements.
Let’s say you’ve had 3-5 jobs in your career since college and for each job you list 5 key achievements. If the recruiting manager’s job consisted solely of reviewing your resume it would be an easy task. They’d read the whole thing and you’d look like the stellar candidate you know you are. The reality is that they have hundreds of resumes on their desk so they apply filters and spend more time on those that get through the filter. They look quickly for key facts such as where you worked, how long you were there, what role you played and maybe they’ll look for some key accomplishments.
So the problem is that if you have a few outstanding achievements they get lost in the sea of all the other shite you put in as fillers to make it look like you did a lot more. Many people feel the need to tell the reader everything they worked on rather than the 3 biggest accomplishments. I always advise people to only put the things that had the biggest impact to maximize the chance that they’ll actually be seen. It follows the same rule as with comma’s, “when in doubt, leave it out.” WIDLIO. That way the reader isn’t searching through a haystack to find your needles.
