This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:
Yuanjie writes:
I am now writing my resume and cover letter based on your online advice. I am a student and will get my PhD degree in mechanical engineering soon.
My resume is slightly more than one page. Do I have to compress it into one page?
The Career Doctor responds:
I’m glad you are thinking ahead and working on your job-search materials. What do you plan to do after you receive your Ph.D.?
Do you plan to go into business/industry? If so, then you probably do want to write a resume. In this case, I would guess your resume will be longer than a page — just based on your education alone. I believe it’s almost always best to go to a two-page resume than to reduce font size and margins (and readability) just to get your resume to fit on one page. Remember the rule that if you go to a second page, that the second page should have enough content to fill at least half a page.
Or do you plan to go into academia? If so, then what you really need is a curriculum vitae, which shares some attributes with a resume, but which tends to be longer because there is more information is included in a CV. An academic CV would include information beyond your education and experience, including scholarly contributions, professional development, teaching, and service.
That said, the goal of a resume and CV is the same. These are marketing documents designed to help you get to the next step in the job-search process — the job interview.
Learn more about CVs by reading this article published on Quintessential Careers: Preparing a Curriculum Vitae (CV).
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