Should I add references to a resume? And what about it's length.?

Question

I'm getting ready to look for a new job, and I just updated my resume to try to attract potential employers.

My resume does not have references. I have stood on both sides of that fence. Some people tell me to add them to a resume. Some tell me that I should put the familiar line "available upon request". And others tell me to leave them off; if the employer wants them, they'll request them.

I actually have two questions. One; do you believe that I should add references to my resume, and Two, what about the length. Most people have me believing that I should keep it under a page if I can. Please help with your opinions.

Answer 1

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Answer 2

The old familiar tag line "References available upon request" at least lets them know you didn't leave them off and can provide references. If you have the room, I would put it in.

Regarding resume length, 1 page or less is best, but don't worry if it goes to a second page, if that's what it takes to get the information out. Most bigger companies these days screen their resumes with scanning software, looking for keywords in a person's job history and skill set. So, it's important to have those keywords on the resume, even if it takes 2 pages to fit them all in.

Answer 3

Always Available upon request.

I've been an IT contractor for 30 years, so I couldn't keep mine under a page.   It's 3 pages, but what I did is I bulleted the highlites at the very beginning.  That enables them to scan the highlites, and if they want, look at the longer description further down in the text.

I added a lot of buzzwords in the highlight areas, cuz I wanted the automatic resume scanners on Monster.com to pick up the resume.  That worked great, lots of offers resulted.

Answer 4

The rule today is that resumes are a page or less in length.  It gets hard if you've worked for 20 or 30 years have had twenty jobs, but you only put the last job or two and a paragraph about your education, and maybe one or two more facts, like if you invented a subatomic particle accelerator or something.

References really are moot.  You don't put them on the resume.  If you have room for one more line you say 'References available'.  If you don't, your prospective employer will ask you.

BTW, you always ask your references if you may use them as references.

I have been asked to be a reference maybe 20 times.  I've gotten calls from prospective employers maybe 3 times.  From which I gather either that employers don't care about them, or that they only check them out if they're really serious about hiring someone.

Oh, one more thing.  If you lie on your resume you will very likely get away with it.  They don't check lots of things.  BUT if later in your job, several years later, your boss decides he wants to fire you for any reason, one thing he will do is have someone go through your resume and check your job and school history.  If a single untruth is found, no matter how small, that is grounds for immediate dismissal and his butt is covered!  I have seen this happen several times!

Another thing.  A new employer ALWAYS wants to know what you made in your last job.  I ask "Don't  you know what I'm worth without knowing my previous salary?"  They always bristle.  "Sure, we have our own guidelines but we just want to see how close we are to your previous job."  And of course they will always offer you just what you made before, or maybe 10% more.  So you lie.  There is no way to check it, your previous employer is not allowed to give out that information.  If you left a job because you feel you were underpaid, you give yourself a raise.  Your new employer's 'guidelines' will, by some strange coincidence, come to the exact same number.

Answer 5

I am on the side that believes if they want them they will ask--that way you can tailor your references to the job, and contact the reference for a "heads-up".  Further, if i was a reference, I would not like my contact info floating around all over the place on hundreds of resumes for an unknown quantity of time.  I also believe resumes should be as short as possible.  Usually CVs are expected to be longer, but they are usually aimed at scientific type jobs where publications and teaching & lectures (and the more the better) are important. Good luck