I didn't mean to say the quality of the resume improves linearly to its length, as there certainly is a balance. What I was eluding to was to not be afraid of going past the mythical 2 page industry standard if you require an extras pages. I can see a 10+ page auto-biography being an issue, but 4-6 page, including a page for professional development is quite reasonable for an individual with 10+ years of industry experience.
In my case, with around a decade of experience, the 2 pager hindered my ability to properly articulate my skillset relative to the job requirements. Granted that was personal experience as well as input from the professional recruiters that led some of the workshops I attended.
Just wanted to dispel the myth about the 2 page resume being the preferred format. It really depends on your background and what you're applying for. If you have just enough experience to fill 2 pages, it is probably detrimental to try to expand it to 4 adding fluff that serves no value. But it is equally detrimental to exclude relevent experience or to condense sentences and introduce room for ambiguity just to fit the 2 page goal.
The format I had the most success with included:
Objective: A statement summarizing the role and primary challenges.
Summary of Qualifications: A brief paragraph or bullets that outlines your skillset to the primary job requirements. Recruiters/HR usually look at this to determine if they will read the rest of your resume. This should take up no more than half a page so they can determine your fit at a glance.
Work Experience: All the roles you've had that are relevent to what you're applying for. This should ultimately support your summary of qualifications and be in the format of:
Role, Employer, Timeline
* Accomplishment
* Accomplishment
Education: Relevent schooling
Professional Development and/or skills matrix: Courses taken throughout your career, additional skills relevent to your role/industry.
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