How "big"?

Interviewers scan resumes for key words that match the job description. The entire purpose is to decide if the candidate should be called for a phone screen or first interview or dropped in the trashcan.

I try to keep my resume to 2 or 3 pages. It was 4for a while but I started trimming. I saw a 12-pager once but that guy was a design engineer with lots of patents and publications. Two or three pages is good enough for the rest of us. Five is a book, which is not good.

What did I trim from my resume, and why? Well, I've been in the software industy for over 25 years now and I've had many jobs. At some point my college became a footnote that simply indicates my degrees. Early jobs were mainframe oriented and have little to do with the current industry. So I have a brief list with date range (years only), employer name, location, and job title. The only purpose of this list is to show continued employment.

So, how is my resume organized? Page 1 is about "now". Page 1 includes a brief introduction (synopsis or summary), a skills and (software) tools summary, and detailed information about my current and previous job. This area includes responsibilities and accomplishments.

Page 2 is about "history". That's where I list long ago jobs and my college.