Resumes for Non-Trad Applicants Forum

[angiej]

My resume is 3 pages long and I'm trying to condense it -can I cut out the work experience as a legal secretary prior to attending undergrad? (I also have 5 years paralegal experience during undergrad which I will of course keep). Is it necessary for me to mention every job since high school and during my adult life?

Also, I have received two scholarships, if I'm trying to condense, is this something I can cut, or does this importantly address that others have had faith in me, so much so to help fund my education?

I have significant on-campus volunteer and organization/club work but I also have off-campus (non-school related) community volunteer work, do I omit the off-campus work?

[kalvano]

How long out of undergrad?

If you've been out of UG and working for a while, then focus on that. The crap jobs before college won't matter much.

[03121202698008]

Cut to no more than two pages. Lose any jobs which don't relate to law school. Omit the volunteer work if you need to...

[angiej]

How long out of undergrad?

If you've been out of UG and working for a while, then focus on that. The crap jobs before college won't matter much.

I haven't included any non-related jobs (for instance, my first career was as a hairstylist and I didn't include that). What I've included is the law job before undergrad, the law job during undergrad (both my first position and promoted position), and the competitive paid internship during undergrad.

[kalvano]

I guess I'm confused. When you say "non-trad", I'm thinking you've been out of school for a while and held a real job.

Is that not correct?

[notanumber]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

[angiej]

I guess I'm confused. When you say "non-trad", I'm thinking you've been out of school for a while and held a real job.

Is that not correct?

I was out of high school school for many years prior to going to undergrad (during that time I worked as a hairstylist, then as a legal assistant). Then decided to go to undergrad (during that time I took a different legal assistant job with a different firm and then was promoted to paralegal at that same firm). I'm in undergrad now but am 10 years out of high school.

[angiej]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

Wow, that's long. I do have it grouped in order of "priority" so the first page shows my academic work (degree, gpa, senior thesis, honors and awards, on-campus clubs and organizations and volunteer work). Then, on the second page I have my work experience and off-campus volunteer work. On the third page I have non-academic memberships, personal hobbies and special skills (I race cars, speak spanish, and research geneology) - I feel that's important b/c its a little a typical from the rest of my appication materials.

[kalvano]

I guess I'm confused. When you say "non-trad", I'm thinking you've been out of school for a while and held a real job.

Is that not correct?

I was out of high school school for many years prior to going to undergrad (during that time I worked as a hairstylist, then as a legal assistant). Then decided to go to undergrad (during that time I took a different legal assistant job with a different firm and then was promoted to paralegal at that same firm). I'm in undergrad now but am 10 years out of high school.

Interesting.

You can probably cut the secretary job. Keep the scholarships, trim the volunteer work. If you have a substantial amount of volunteer work, keep only the highlights.

Cut it down to no more than 2 pages.

[kalvano]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

Wow, that's long. I do have it grouped in order of "priority" so the first page shows my academic work (degree, gpa, senior thesis, honors and awards, on-campus clubs and organizations and volunteer work). Then, on the second page I have my work experience and off-campus volunteer work. On the third page I have non-academic memberships, personal hobbies and special skills (I race cars, speak spanish, and research geneology) - I feel that's important b/c its a little a typical from the rest of my appication materials.

You can safely cut the 3rd page. It may be interesting, but it's going to be overshadowed by academic / work experience.

[angiej]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

Wow, that's long. I do have it grouped in order of "priority" so the first page shows my academic work (degree, gpa, senior thesis, honors and awards, on-campus clubs and organizations and volunteer work). Then, on the second page I have my work experience and off-campus volunteer work. On the third page I have non-academic memberships, personal hobbies and special skills (I race cars, speak spanish, and research geneology) - I feel that's important b/c its a little a typical from the rest of my appication materials.

You can safely cut the 3rd page. It may be interesting, but it's going to be overshadowed by academic / work experience.

Okay - unless you think its worth it to keep it in case and if it never gets looked at fine, but if so, its a plus? I'm not seeing on any of my school's applications (from last app year anyway) that there is a page requirement.

[kalvano]

Okay - unless you think its worth it to keep it in case and if it never gets looked at fine, but if so, its a plus? I'm not seeing on any of my school's applications (from last app year anyway) that there is a page requirement.

Your resume really isn't that important. It's basically a summary of stuff you've done. It's not supposed to be pages and pages, it's supposed to simply be a list of what makes you awesome. You don't need reasons or explanations or anything.

It shouldn't be very long (unless you're 40 with tons of work experience) just because it's not a big deal in applications, and keeping it shorter is better.

[NonTradHealthLaw]

Sorry if this double posts.

Since this resume is part of the application, it likely will be formatted in such a way that will make it obsolete for any other purposes, so follow what the application requests, regardless of your time out of undergrad.

Strictly speaking, a resume should always be 1-2 pages whereas a CV should be longer.

[notanumber]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

Wow, that's long. I do have it grouped in order of "priority" so the first page shows my academic work (degree, gpa, senior thesis, honors and awards, on-campus clubs and organizations and volunteer work). Then, on the second page I have my work experience and off-campus volunteer work. On the third page I have non-academic memberships, personal hobbies and special skills (I race cars, speak spanish, and research geneology) - I feel that's important b/c its a little a typical from the rest of my appication materials.

You can safely cut the 3rd page. It may be interesting, but it's going to be overshadowed by academic / work experience.

Okay - unless you think its worth it to keep it in case and if it never gets looked at fine, but if so, its a plus? I'm not seeing on any of my school's applications (from last app year anyway) that there is a page requirement.

What I did with my "interesting but largely irrelevant" activities was condense them to a small section at the bottom of the last page that read something like:

"In addition to the above mentioned activities I am active in politics, having volunteered for local campaigns with the monster raving loony party, I enjoy mushroom hunting and am a member of the local mycological society, and I restore and race vintage cars." It doesn't take up much space but is important to add because it both humanizes you and tells the committee that you're a well-rounded person.

I also suspect that the resume is a more important part of applications than people let on. Every aspect of your application is going to be skimmed, it's easier to get actionable information from skimming a resume than it is from skimming a personal statement.

While I can't say with certainty that my rather long resume helped me, it clearly didn't hurt - and when post-admission I spoke with a member of the committee that awarded me a large scholarship he mentioned several activities on the resume that particularly impressed him. They do get read.

When I submitted my application I called several admissions offices about the page limit (something that you should do if you're still apprehensive about this). It seems that the suggested limits are there so that undergraduates don't drone on for pages and pages listing every single on-campus club that they're a part of and every vaguely relevant class they've attended, and their high school awards and jobs and other entirely useless information.

[03121202698008]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

6 pages is ridiculous. If you have less than 3-4 years of work experience...no more than a page. Why is listing scholarships critical? How does this help them determine if they should admit you? I have extensive work experience, multiple academic degrees, and significant volunteer stuff and I made it under 2.

My guess is you had tons of extraneous information on there that didn't need to be.

[09042014]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

6 pages is ridiculous. If you have less than 3-4 years of work experience...no more than a page. Why is listing scholarships critical? How does this help them determine if they should admit you? I have extensive work experience, multiple academic degrees, and significant volunteer stuff and I made it under 2.

My guess is you had tons of extraneous information on there that didn't need to be.

In the real word resumes are one page long.

[notanumber]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

6 pages is ridiculous. If you have less than 3-4 years of work experience...no more than a page. Why is listing scholarships critical? How does this help them determine if they should admit you? I have extensive work experience, multiple academic degrees, and significant volunteer stuff and I made it under 2.

My guess is you had tons of extraneous information on there that didn't need to be.

Eh, all I'm saying is that it worked for me, that a longer resume isn't a deal breaker, and that I sent in my longer resume after consulting with admissions committee members.

The OP should be more concerned with making sure that everything on the resume has a specific strategic purpose than with making sure that it narrowly fits within an informal limit. If the school explicitly says that they only want two pages then it's a different story, but very few schools ask that.

In the real word resumes are one page long.

This isn't the real world. It's academia.

Edit: I also don't want to give the impression that I'm advocating for sprawling resumes or against judiciously cutting down on extraneous activities. It's similar to grammar. You should not break an informal grammatical rule unless you have a very specific and explicit reason for breaking that rule.

[09042014]

This isn't the real world. It's academia.

Law school, barely. No adcom is going to read your 3 page resume. In fact I think Cornell specifically said no resumes.

The applications all have spots for work history, involvement in groups, etc etc.

[03121202698008]

3 pages doesn't seem unreasonable for somebody who has been working for awhile - my resume was 6 pages long and it seemed to do the job. Just make sure that everything you put on there is substantive and directly related to your application. Do not cut the scholarships. They're one of the more critical things to list.

6 pages is ridiculous. If you have less than 3-4 years of work experience...no more than a page. Why is listing scholarships critical? How does this help them determine if they should admit you? I have extensive work experience, multiple academic degrees, and significant volunteer stuff and I made it under 2.

My guess is you had tons of extraneous information on there that didn't need to be.

In the real word resumes are one page long.

I used to be responsible for hiring GS employees... Two pages is acceptable if it's a position that requires extensive background experience or educational qualifications. For example, when we hired a civilian shift supervisor, we want to know any and every job they ever had that is relevant AND what their responsibilities were in that position.

I mean, mine was 2 pages but it was all relevant and important. Enough so that Michigan's dean remembered my name when we met at the ASW and then talked to me for 20+ minutes about the different experiences I've had in the military.