Brevity is… Wit
“There is need of brevity, that the thought may run on.” — Horace
When we first launched RezScore, we were able to successfully grade resumes within ~80% accuracy just using the three criteria of Brevity, Impact, and Depth. While our algorithm has become significantly more complicated since then, these factors are so popular among our users that we still discuss these concepts. In this post we explore the importance of Brevity.
Keep It Simple, Stupid
“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” — Friedrich Nietzsche”
The largest problem we see with resumes, especially people who have a lot of work experience, is too many words. After we carefully prune about half of their resume, most people are shocked but eventually agree the shorter version is best.
Considering brevity in your writing allows you to exploit a few basic psychological hacks:
- Reviewers use very short attention spans.
- First impressions create a self-fulfilling feedback loop.
- Anything you say can and will be used against you.
We’ll attempt to keep our in-depth analysis of brevity somewhat brief to avoid charges of irony. Where possible we include links so you can go into greater depth. The focus here is to provide a high-level review of the science behind these three topics before providing you with practical exercises you can use to exploit brevity to your advantage.
The Data Behind Brevity
“The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”
— Martin Luther
Half of resumes are between 386 and 896 words long, with a median word count of 578. A quarter of people will drone on with pages of fluff. When we ask experts to evaluate these resumes, the longer resumes generally get lower marks.
The dropoff in the boxplots above is noticeable. Long resumes can still get high marks, but the black bar representing the absolute median score observably drops around the 800–900 word threshold. We therefore recommend in most cases you keep your resume under 800 words.
The overall effect constitutes around 20% of the score (i.e. brevity alone can’t fix an otherwise horrible resume), but it can make a tangible difference.
Armed with data on our side, let’s explore the psychological principles that could explain why brevity is so useful.
1. Reviewers Use Very Short Attention Spans
“The more you say, the less people remember.”
— Francois Fenelon
The science of attention is incomplete, but a basic understanding provides sufficient benefit. We live in a universe where we are constantly bombarded by information. We would be utterly paralyzed if we tried to process all this information, so we’ve evolved different modes of attention to help screen out most of the unnecessary information.
Researchers distinguish between at least two types of attention states:
- Transient Attention (i.e. distraction): very quick consideration of a stimulus, lasting no more than a few seconds.
- Selective Sustained Attention (i.e. focus): a state of mental flow in which progress against a task is accomplished, generally lasting about 10–20 minutes.
There is relevant neurochemical differences between these states, involving a complex interplay of acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine that we encourage you to read more about. For the purposes of this article, you just need to understand that moving from transient attention to sustained attention requires overcoming friction.
Taking the time to focus on something, or go into a sustained attention state, is somewhat rare by design. It requires multiple regions of the brain firing synchronously. The brain makes it intentionally difficult to go into this state unless it is necessary, most likely to conserve resources.
We have an easier time slipping into a sustained attention state if we enjoy the task at hand — you’ve probably experienced this firsthand if you easily give your attention to your favorite TV show but struggle to pay attention to your tax returns.
When people read your resume, they are usually doing it from the transient attention state. They are trying to quickly triage whether the resume is good or bad with as little energy as possible. If they judge it to be good, then they will willingly expend the energy to move into a sustained attention phase and review your resume in more detail. If the resume appears poor at first glance, then they will put up their mental barriers to shield themselves against going into a sustained attention state.
Your only hope is to immediately convince the reader that reading your resume will generate pleasure instead of pain. If their first glance looks positive, then they will happily slip into sustained attention, which brings us to our next topic:
First Impressions Create a Self-Fulfilling Feedback Loop
“You make a first impression and people never forget it.”
— Diablo Cody
We see above how the brain uses transient attention to judge whether a task merits sustained attention. This certainly explains how the first impression creates a powerful feedback loop. If there is a positive first impression, the brain is willing to slide into a sustained attention state. If the first impression is negative, then the brain wants to protect against wasting its resources by focusing. The first impression is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
One scary study demonstrates how the first impression of a person based on a positive or negative photograph, even when forgotten consciously, strongly affected disposition as far as six months down the line. First impressions heavily affect the unconscious brain.
Therefore, your resume must always create a great first impression.
If you create a great first impression, anything else you write matters far less. Every word will be contributing to a positive feedback loop in which the person justifies why they already like you. Nice to have, but you already had them at “hello.” Similarly, if you create a horrible first impression, every word you write is merely driving the dagger deeper.
Indeed, before the reviewer even processes a single word, the brain has already started forming a first impression just based on the size and structure of your resume. Without even reading the content, which of these two chunks of text do you think you would rather read:
Your resume screener is probably leafing through a few dozen resumes at a time and wants to do so quickly while staying in the transient attention state we describe above. If they see what looks like a short and well-structured resume with nicely organized bullet points, they know it will be easier to stay in a transient attention state and they judge you positively. If they see a long resume with large blocks of text, they assume they will need to move into a sustained attention to review your resume and they immediately put up their guard.
Once the reader has started to form an impression based on the overall visual appeal, they will start to glance over the first few words to size you up. Their impression is pretty much solidified after the first 100 words. We know this because our reviewers tend to give the same grade to resumes whether they see the entire document or whether they only see the first 100 words.
After about 100 words, each subsequent word tapers off in value. If you are writing an incredibly long resume, you’re basically creating a large brick of text that will sour the first impression (“Yuck! I don’t want to read all these pages!”) in order to add marginal extra value if the reader even happens to get past the first impression.
Like the science of attention, the science behind first impressions is also fairly nascent. In 2009, a team made a study on first impressions that demonstrated that it activated both the amygdala and the posterior cingulate cortex. Loosely speaking, the amygdala is closer to the brain stem, so you could argue that first impressions are a relatively primal function, so core to the brain’s functioning that it would be difficult to override.
This is the science that underlies our strong advocacy of the Professional Headline. A great professional headline is a phenomenal hook to create a great first impression. This is basically all you need to accomplish with your resume.
Brevity provides less ammunition for gatekeepers trying to reject you.
“Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”
— Proverbs 17:28
If you are applying to a very competitive job, it is quite normal for your resume to need to get through a committee. If this is the case, this means you need to get your resume past the naysayers — at least to the degree that your champions’ advocacy can overpower any resistance.
What is the best way to keep your critics at bay? They’ll never like you. However, you can at least neuter their argument by not giving them any rope to hang you with. Think of every word in your resume as a potential bullet your naysayers might fire against you. Deprive them of ammunition by writing less.
What is the basis of an argument against you? It’s tough to say. One office might say you are too unstructured to fit their culture, while yet another might say you are too rigid to join the team. In many cases, it can be impossible to tell, and often it can be completely arbitrary.
One RezScore user made it through 11 rounds of interviews at Google before they asked him where he saw himself in 5 years. He described how he foresaw his role evolving into a more senior position. They used this answer to disqualify him, claiming he lacked passion for the specific job at which he was applying. At any other company his answer would have demonstrated ambition, but so it goes. Who can ever guess?
If you don’t know what they will use as ammunition against you, then you are statistically better off saying less. Have your resume adhere closely to the guardrails of the job requirements, embellishing and touting achievements so you stand out as being more accomplished than any competitors.
Remember, you have a constitutional right to remain silent!
Obtaining Brevity: Exercises in Excising
“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
— Blaise Pascal
One of our favorite exercises to strengthen a resume, (or any piece of writing for that matter,) is to go through the entire document and remove any sentence that is below average. The end result, according to quick math, will be a document that is exactly half the size and necessarily better.
This is a very difficult exercise for most people, especially because people are strongly attached to the fruits of their hard work. Sometimes they complain viciously. Yet they relent when they provide both the full length and half length resume to a neutral observer; the shorter version inevitably gets higher marks.
If you’ve already cut your resume to 800 words or fewer, you may still be able to make some tweaks to make it more concise and readable.
- Find all paragraphs and turn them into bullet points. Readers HATE paragraphs.
- Resumes often lead with an introductory paragraph that won’t get read. Convert it to a Professional Headline instead.
- Is your resume a good length (under 800 words) but still using two pages? Try to condense it to one page by any means necessary — this will help the perceived readability and you may find more things to remove in the process.
Experienced / Executive Resumes
We most often get pushback from our clients who are seeking employment at an executive level, where they are required to include a more thorough history. This being said, your resume can still benefit from these principles. The first 100 words will still be the deciding factor whether you have a two page resume or a four page resume, so you just need to make sure the beginning is great while the remainder is not disqualifying. You will also have a better resume if you cut out the weakest half and turn your four page resume into a a two page resume.
Don’t believe us? Who is going to get the callback between you and the following resume that is short enough to fit into a tweet.
Bill Gates
Business Magnate, Investor, Philanthropist
425.555.1212 • william.h.gates@microsoft.comGates Foundation, 2000 — Present
Founder & ChairmanMicrosoft Corporation, 1975 — Present
Founder, Former CEO, Advisor
An extreme example, but the point is that if you have great accomplishments they can shine through with relatively few words. Flowery language is often an excuse to hide a lack of accomplishments.
Related Topics
In trying to keep this article somewhat brief, we omitted several related principles that could provide you some value as you pursue brevity. We’ll give them bullet point treatment here with links to explore more.
- Serial-Position Effect: Carmen Simon and others describe how people only remember the beginning and end of a presentation. You can use this fact to save one very strong bullet point for the end of your resume to seal the deal.
- Selling Past the Close: Salespeople know not to include more information than is necessary to make the sale, for risk of undermining the sale.
- Scarcity Principle: Team Robert Cialdini describes the value of scarcity to persuasion. If your resume is compelling but short, the reader may feel they need to invite you to an interview to get more.
