I am not a professional HR nor a recruiter, but I have had to review résumés for potential hires either as colleagues or replacements. I hope I can help some of you understand what it is like to be on the other side of the table.
Keep your résumé within 1-2 pages
After the first 10 multi-page résumés, I got real tired of going through all the details of résumés with more than two pages. At first, I thought that these people had a lot of experience. Later, most of these candidates provide even less value than those with 1-2 pages.
The reason is that candidates who provide the same values with fewer words also demonstrates other abilities or interests. Foremost, they show a level of attentiveness to detail. They have an understanding of value and time.
Career Summary
In general, I recommend avoiding an employment objective. In most cases, employment objectives are all very similar and very difficult to prove or disprove. In almost all cases, best case is that it is ignored. Personally, I'd rather see white space and have a résumé that's easier on the eyes.
If you do have some space to use, I'd recommend a career summary instead. It is convenient to be able to view a list broken into skills (as opposed to careers in the typical résumé layout). This also allows me to focus more time on the more important part of your value. If the key words are met, then a few more valuable seconds will be invested to the rest of your résumé.
Exceptions
This is primarily for résumés that will be in a pile greater than 10. If you know you have been hand-selected or have bypassed the first couple rounds, you may be able to have more leeway because the reviewer will have more time to invest in reading. Or if you are applying for a very high position (c-level or directors), you may actually have skills and projects that may expand to 3-4 pages. Or lastly, you may bring in a more detailed résumé to your one-on-one interview.
But still do not go overboard, I still think keeping your résumés within the above guidelines should still be sufficient.
Summary
HR managers and recruiters are not out to find ways to eliminate any specific person. The whole process really becomes a numbers game for them, less so for employees like myself. But like what I've written above, after a while even I start seeing the statistics.
6-7 seconds is really about the amount of time I spend to skim through a stack of a hundred résumés. You see the same skills, the same jobs, the same education... and that's a good case.
Any résumés longer than 2 pages or had a bad employment goal, typically will only hold my interest for about 2-3 seconds. So don't shorten your résumé lifespan with practices you have control over.
I would add spelling to that list, but I have to read your résumé to see those so you will still at least get my 6-7 seconds. It will eventually be tossed just not an instant killer.
