Resume writing
How long should a resume be?
The page count is not the problem. What fills the pages is.
Ask ten recruiters and you will get "one page" from some and "however long it needs" from others. Both are right, because they are answering about different candidates.
The short answer
| Situation | Length |
|---|---|
| Student or new graduate | One page |
| Under about five years of experience | One page |
| Five to fifteen years | One or two |
| Senior, or a long specialised record | Two |
| Academic CV | As long as the record needs |
| US federal application | Often three to five |
The real rule
Every line has to be information. Length stops being the question once that is true.
A tight single page of specific, quantified work beats two pages where the second is skills lists and hobbies. Two pages of specific, quantified work beats a single page that had to shrink to 9pt and lose the whitespace to fit.
So the test is not "how many pages" but: if I removed this line, would the reader know less about whether I can do the job? If not, cut it.
What makes a second page legitimate
- More roles that are still relevant, each with real detail
- Certifications that matter in your field
- Publications, patents, conference talks
- Selected projects, described with outcomes
- Professional service, board or committee roles
What makes a second page padding
- A skills list that repeats what the bullets already show
- Hobbies and interests, unless genuinely notable
- "References available on request"
- Jobs from more than fifteen years ago with full bullets
- Anything from before your degree, once you have a degree
- A second summary, or a "career objective" restating the first
If your second page is mostly the padding list, you have a one-page resume with a formatting problem.
Cutting without shrinking the font
Do not go below about 10pt, and do not remove the margins. A cramped page reads as someone trying to hide the length. Instead:
Cut the oldest bullets first. Your 2014 job needs one line. Nobody has been rejected for saying less about a job they left a decade ago.
Delete the duties. Any bullet that only describes what the role involved rather than what you achieved is a free cut.
Merge repeated work. If you did the same job at three companies, say the common part once at the most recent, then note only what was different.
Shorten the summary. Four lines becomes three. Most summaries have a first sentence that says nothing.
Cut adjectives. "Successfully delivered a comprehensive redesign" is "Delivered a redesign". No information lost.
Drop the address. City and country is enough. Nobody posts letters.
Drop the skills that are implied. If you list a role as a data analyst, "Microsoft Excel" is not news.
That list usually finds five to ten lines without touching anything that matters.
Templates for when you genuinely have too much
Some careers do not fit a page without help.
Compact is the densest layout here — tighter leading, smaller section gaps, still readable. Consulting is the McKinsey-style convention, built to put a lot on one page. Clean Sidebar takes a different approach: it moves the short items — skills, languages, courses — into a quiet right rail so the main column stays spacious.
All three are in the professional collection, and the editor shows the page edges live so you can see the moment you cross onto page two.
The federal and academic exceptions
US federal applications work differently. USAJOBS resumes are expected to be detailed: hours per week, supervisor contact details, series and grade, explicit duties. Three to five pages is normal, and being too brief is the actual risk. The Federal Style template has the fields for this.
Academic CVs have no page limit and are not resumes. Publications, funding, teaching and service all belong there in full. See resume vs CV and the academic templates.
The one-line-over problem
Almost everyone hits this: one or two lines onto page two.
Do not solve it by shrinking type or removing white space. Cut two words from three bullets. Adjectives and hedges — "successfully", "responsible for", "helped to", "various" — are usually enough on their own, and the resume reads better afterwards.