I have more than 10 years of solid experience in one field, but went to graduate school for something completely different. I want to start working in the field I went to school for, but I have very little experience in it. Right now, there is a job that I think I can be a contender for if I can put all of my work experience in the right light.

My resume is a little less than 3 pages if I put everything on there. I have whittled it down to two and there are no gaps in employment, so I may be okay there. The bigger problem is that I wrote my cover letter and it's almost a full page, though that includes some formatting that could be changed to make it smaller. I think it's too much, but since I'm trying to move away from one field and enter another, I feel like the length might be good because it demonstrates how my experience and education could fit into this new field. I'm afraid that it will be ignored because it's too much to read, though.

There are a lot of opinions out there on the internet. I was hoping to get the points of view of some people on TWW who may be in a position of hiring and have some suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions!

3/1/2013 4:02:18 PM

lie, that's how the pros do it

3/1/2013 4:35:09 PM

If you are switching careers, there is no way in hell your resume should be more than a page long.

3/1/2013 9:41:26 PM

generally speaking, mention some of your skills/duties/responsibilities that are applicable throughout multiple fields

i had a similar switch, but things like experience in accounting and marketing can be fairly universal

3/1/2013 10:29:39 PM

I sort of used grad school to change career trajectories too. I've also been on the side of being the guy who weeds through resumes, not making the final hiring call, but picking who gets the first round interviews, and who goes in the yes, maybe, and no interview piles.

An overly detailed resume loses your strongest experiences and best points in the weeds. I'd suggest using brevity to highlight what is really important and where the strongest overlap of applicable skills are. And have good references and interview skills to make the connections between past experiences and your new field that don't fit on paper.

There are probably some connections between past and future career that just aren't worth making in the written format because of how much space it takes up and because of how much it'll detract for your other points by being too long, and thus less memorable.

And with everything else job related, networking and who you know seems to end up mattering a great deal too, so volunteering or interning or going to events related to your desired field can help too.

3/1/2013 11:16:06 PM

Tend to agree with the above points. For someone with 10+ years of experience a multi-page resume is *usually* perfectly acceptable. But in your case, you probably want to highlight the relevant duties/accomplishments and drop the rest where it doesn't apply. Doesn't necessarily have to stay on one page only, but I wouldn't come close to filling two. Same with the cover letter--economize. Think of it like an advertisement. How can you get their attention in the first paragraph? How can you keep them reading through the rest of the letter and make them want to peruse the resume with a critical eye?

*This is my opinion only. I am not a career counselor, or even a hiring manager.

3/2/2013 8:57:10 AM