he keeps tweaking his resume, cutting it from 10 pages to two, then beefing it up to 24.
I’m no expert, but a 24 page resume?! I think I found your problem bud.
That’s fine if all the real content is in the first couple of pages and the keyword soup is clearly marked as such.
Edit: I forgot to mention that’s just my opinion, and I don’t read a lot of resumes these days. I think the real thing to remember is that at some point your resume is going to be read by a human being, and you don’t want to piss them off by making a tedious job even harder.
Seriously, wtf? Even some of the most extensive CVs I’ve ever seen from people with 30+ year careers still only top out at maybe 5 or so pages. I’m guessing this dude is trying to do what every first timer does and put literally every thing they’ve ever learned on their resume, every course with the syllabus description, every hobby, and just attaching the full job description for every job they’ve ever done.
I have a 2 page resume, and can still fit every skill, my last 5 roles, and even any relevant hobbies or other things to “stand out”. There’s literally no reason to have a resume this large, and it’s going straight into the garbage.
Mine is 1 page. I never let it get longer, because most people I know don’t read past the first page. If it’s not important enough to go on page 1, it doesn’t need to exist on the resume.
Everything important is on the front page, but I put the more “fun” stuff on the back, in terms of personal projects/hobbies or other things that might be semi-relevant to the role.
It works pretty well, because it also allows me to gauge their interest in me pretty quickly if they bring up anything on the back page. If they didn’t find my resume interesting enough to even bother flipping it over/scrolling down, it’s probably not a great fit. So far, it’s worked pretty well as every single time an interviewer has brought up something on the back page, I’ve gotten an offer.
