Resumes are not repositories for ALL of your honors and activities. They are curated collections that tell a story. I think of them a lot like my kids’ art. In the beginning, I saved it all. It was cute. My fridge was covered in paint smears and popsicle stick creations. But as time goes on, there literally isn’t enough space in our house for all the art that my kids produce. I need to curate it somehow and just save the ones that mean the most to me.
Some resume information is similar to the art. While we are of the opinion that old jobs should probably be represented on the resume in some way, we have a looser policy on non-job items.
What are non-job items on the resume? Glad you asked. Honors that you had while in school, scholarship information, peripheral honors earned in practice (or outside of the law), activities, publications and other material that HELPS tell your story, but might need to be dropped in the interest of brevity and then resurrected as anecdotes or stories in an interview (if needed).
Let’s say for example that you graduated with high honors from law school with a magna cum laude designation (remember, Latin honors are always written in italics). Further, you graduated from law school over 20 years ago. In that case, you might be able to drop some of the activities you did in law school, the scholarships you received, maybe even the journal you worked on (although Law Reviews are the last thing I would choose to drop – they are still powerful indicators of someone who excelled in school). The magna cum laude note shows that you are really smart.
If you are really crunched for space, the first place I might look to cut is in your activities section. Remember that those are there to show that you are well-rounded and involved in your community. They are also there as a crutch for an interviewer who may need a place to start to get the conversation going (“oh, I see you’ve run 15 marathons, which one is your favorite?”).
Also, you can remove a fair amount of bullet points from old positions when it is duplicative with your current or subsequent positions. Just keep 2 or 3 bullet points that shows what you did and explain the general level in which you did it. For example, if you worked at a top firm for 3 years doing complex litigation, stating that you were a litigation associate at an AMLAW 50 firm focusing on complex IP litigation is probably sufficient. If you had more space, you could talk more about the specific work you did (did you handle discovery, argue motions, take depositions, first- or second-chair trials, etc.).
Just make sure that anything you remove from your resume that tells a story about you has a similar item somewhere else on your resume that tells that story. If you remove the scholarship you received, make sure that somewhere else on your resume is an entry that demonstrates that you are smart (obviously it’s there). If you remove that you are involved in your community, make sure you have something that demonstrates that you generate business, for example (because that’s why many firms want you to be involved in activities outside of the firm).
In the end, a little curating should leave your resume reading a little tighter and make it easier on the reader to distill your experience and determine whether you are a good fit. And unlike my kids' art, no one will question what happened to the entry when they look at the fridge and can no longer see their masterpiece!