I’ve actually been interviewing people at work lately, and so I’ve got a take on this from the other side.
A resume needs to be long enough but not too long. For someone coming right out of college, more than one page is almost certainly plenty. More than two pages, unless you’re a professional at the top of your field, will seem like it’s been padded out to look impressive.
What I want to know from a resume when I’m about to interview someone: where and how was this person educated? what jobs has he had? what sort of tasks did he have at those jobs that would be relevant to this job? Are there gaps of unemployment at unusual times?
One of the best resumes I’ve seen recently was for a man applying for a programmer position. He had a lot of system administrator experence, and a few unrelated jobs. His resume was two pages long, and it had obviously been tailored to this job: every job mentioned his duties in a very condensed format, and then highlighted the things he did at that job that demonstrated skills relevant to the position he was applying for. Jobs that had no relevance were mentioned briefly with a one-line summary. If he had put everything in for every job, it could have been a four- or five-page resume; as it was, it was a beautiful summary, gave me a lot to talk about in the interview, and showed a very fine attention to detail and an awareness of what our requirements were.
And by the time I see a resume, it’s been photocopied; brilliant design is less important than clear legibility, and the paper it’s on is irrelevant because it’s in the applicant’s file and not on my desk.