How long should a resume be?

The practical rule

One page if you have up to roughly ten years of relevant experience. Two pages beyond that, or if you work in a field where evidence accumulates - research, medicine, senior engineering, consulting.

Academic CVs are a separate category with different expectations. They are expected to grow with publications, funding and teaching, and are not judged by the same brevity standard.

Density beats page count

A recruiter's first pass over a resume is short - a scan for whether you are plausibly a fit. Two well-organised pages of achievements will always beat one page crammed to the margins in eight-point type with no whitespace.

If you are fighting for room, the answer is almost never to shrink the type. Cut content instead, or use a denser template that reduces spacing while keeping the font readable.

What to cut first

Work down this list before you consider trimming recent achievements.

• Duties that any holder of the title would have. Keep what you specifically changed or delivered.
• Roles older than about fifteen years - reduce them to a single line each, or a short 'Earlier career' block.
• Skills sections listing things now assumed, like email or basic word processing.
• Objective statements that describe what you want rather than what you offer.
• References available on request - everyone knows, and it is a wasted line.
• Full postal address. City and country is enough, and safer.

What is worth the space

Anything quantified. Numbers are the fastest way to make a claim credible: scale, money, time saved, percentage change, team size. A bullet with a number in it earns its line far more reliably than one without.

Also keep a short summary at the top. Two or three lines naming your role, your years of experience and your strongest domain gives the reader a frame for everything that follows - and it is the part most likely to actually be read.

What recruiters actually do with page two

Surveys of recruiter behaviour keep finding the same thing: the first screen is a matter of seconds, and it happens on page one. Page two is read later, by the hiring manager, once you are already a plausible candidate.

That tells you how to use the space. Everything that decides whether you get shortlisted - your summary, your current role, your strongest numbers, the skills named in the posting - goes on page one. Page two carries depth, older roles and supporting detail.

Never end on a nearly empty page

A resume that runs to one page plus three lines looks careless. Either cut those lines, or add enough substance to fill at least half of the second page - a project, another quantified bullet under a recent role, a certification that belongs there.

The same applies to a widowed section heading sitting alone at the bottom of a page. Move it, or move something up to join it.

Length by career stage

The rule of thumb is easier to apply when you translate it into cases.

• Student or first job: one page, and genuinely full - education, projects, any work at all.
• Two to ten years: one page still, unless you are in a field that accumulates evidence.
• Ten years or more: two pages, with the last decade doing most of the work.
• Senior leadership: two pages, occasionally three when board and governance work needs listing.
• Academia, medicine, research: a full CV, as long as the record requires.
• Government and public sector: follow the advert exactly - many specify a page limit and enforce it.

One resume per job

The strongest argument for keeping a resume tight is that you should be adjusting it per application anyway. When you tailor, length takes care of itself: the experience relevant to this posting expands, and the rest contracts.

That is easier if you keep one master document with everything, then cut down per application rather than rewriting from scratch each time.