MyPunchblog

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

I get a lot of resumes. At any one time, we are advertising for at least a few open positions at Punchbowl Software. Most recently, we have been seeking a full-time Director of Business Development, and an additional senior Ruby on Rails engineer to add to our development team.

In every job posting, we always include the following line: “Send a *one page* resume, quick impressions of the site, and brief introductory email to jobs at punchbowlsoftware.com.” Note that the phrase “one page” has asterisks. Sometimes we’ll even bold “one page” to make it stand out even more.

On an average day, I’ll receive 15-20 resumes in my inbox. And like this morning, the vast majority of the emails are from people who send me a multi-page resume. In most of the cases, the same people send me a form letter email (something that they wrote once and send to every job posting). Why do they even bother? Do they think this is going to land them the opportunity to interview at Punchbowl? The instructions we provide are clear, succinct, and should take the average person no more than 30 minutes. Is that too much to ask?

I’ve been criticized in the past for asking people for a one-page resume. I’m often told that there is no way to fit their vast experience on a single page. So why do I want a one-page resume? Here are a ten reasons:

1. Your resume is your first chance to market yourself to me. I believe that quality over quantity is more important.
2. Our job description includes very specific instructions. If you can’t follow these instructions, how are you going to be as an employee?
3. One of the most important qualities in any employee is the ability to be succinct. If you can’t do it on a resume, how are you going to do it when we are sitting in meeting at 6pm on a Tuesday evening and everyone wants to go home?
4. A one-page resume is sufficient to tell me the relevant experience you’ve had in the last 10 years. Believe me, I have a resume that could fill up 3 pages too.
5. I don’t care what job you held in 1985 (or even 1995). It’s not relevant to a consumer internet startup in 2009. Just tell me what you have done over the last 10 years. That’s sufficient.
6. I don’t care that you were a waitress, firefighter, volunteer or private detective. We are a consumer internet company. Tell me about your relevant experience.
7. I don’t care what you did in high school.
8. I don’t believe that you are “the best”, “the most” or “the missing piece to your organization.” The more over the top you are, the less I believe you.
9. Spare me the 12 bullets under each part of your resume. Give me 3-5 bullets of your most important accomplishments for each relevant position.
10. Please don’t list every educational certificate you have ever received in your life. Your weekend marketing seminar does not make you a marketing guru.

If I’ve sent this post to you, it’s likely because you just sent me a multi-page resume — and you completely ignored the instructions in the job description. If you want our consideration for the position, please send me a one-page resume.

My guess is that 50% of the people that read this post won’t bother spending the time to send me a one-page resume. That’s ok — you’re probably not the right fit for our organization anyway. For those who do choose to send me a one-page resume, it does not guarantee that you are going to be asked in for an interview. At the end of the day, your relevant experience is what matters the most.

I hope this post is useful for those who really want to become a part of Punchbowl Software. And for those who feel the need to send me an angry rant: I welcome your email. I always find them amusing.

This entry was posted on May 19, 2009 at 11:11 am and is filed under Hiring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.