How Long Should A Resume Be

Why Resume Length Matters

If you can summarize your experience and accomplishments in one concise and powerful page, do it. The punchier you can make yourself sound, the better. Say you worked in sales and doubled revenue over four years. Summarizing that accomplishment in a short sentence will be impressive enough. No need to fluff it up.

Is 3 Page Cv Too Long

A three-page CV is fine for those with long work histories, extensive published work, or exceptional accomplishments. In other words, if warranted, a three-page CV is absolutely not a deal-breaker. In fact, the information on that third page could be just the push you need to get you to the top of a recruiters pile.

Is A Three Page Resume Too Long

In general, 3-page resumes are likely too long. The 1 Page Resume Rule many still follow is outdated and unnecessary but 3 pages is oftentimes too long. The length of your resume should primarily be based on overall experience and the type of work you do.

Entry to mid level candidates should stick with 1 page but more senior level workers might need additional space to list their achievements.

Also Check: Resume Lines In Word

Make It Three Or More Pages If

• Youre a senior-level manager or an executive.

• You have a record of leadership roles and accomplishments.

• Youre in an academic or scientific field and have a list of publications, licenses, patents, professional courses, or public speaking engagements.

Based on the requirements of the position, job seekers who have a resume that is three pages can decide whether to send the full document or just the first two pages to potential employers.

When youre reaching this level of resume length, its probably best to use a curriculum vitae instead. The format of a CV is conducive to a comprehensive story of your professional life, so youre allowed to make it just about as long as you want.

Hiring managers and recruiters are busy people who dont spend a whole lot of time looking at each individual resume. Anything longer than two pages isnt going to get the attention it deserves, so whether you have 15 years of experience or 30, keep your resume to two pages maximum in almost all cases.

Simple Professional One Page Resume Template

This Simple Professional Resume Template and CV Template is straightforward and effective. It uses design to stand out in a good way. Like the Modern one-page resume template above, its divided for easy readings, with attention-getting headings. The big name and dark heading give it oomph.

The link is here.

Expert Hint: Not all Free Resume Builders are ATS friendly. To make sure your creative resume reaches a human reader, send it directly to the recruiter’s inbox.

You May Like: How To Put Coursework On Resume

Shift Focus To Achievement Instead Of Responsibility

responsible for

• Did you save the company money, MAKE the company money, get promoted?
• What important accomplishments are you most proud of?
• Did you come up with new methods, ideas, approaches?
• Did you master a particular skill or technology?
• What made you GREAT in the role?

thinkerdoer

• Administer
• Review
• Restructure
• A few more for good measure: allocate, approve, automate, decrease, launch, increase, overhaul, propel, propose, and restructure.

When Can My Resume Be Three Pages Long

While three pages might seem a bit excessive to many, seasoned professionals might need the extra space. It goes without saying that three-page long resumes are rare. Such lengths are usually more appropriate for a curriculum vitae as that should contain more details about your professional journey.

Consider writing a three-page resume if:

• You are an executive or a senior-level executive with a long record of impressive accomplishments
• You are in a scientific or academic field with several licenses, courses, publications, or patents
• You have a long project management background and need to show some project highlights, case studies, and technical skills
• You are a candidate for a federal job that requires a lot more information than usual civilian jobs

Consider including your LinkedIn profile to give the recruiters access to information that you did not feel necessary to include on your resume. But first, make sure that the information on your Linkedin profile matches the information provided on your resume. Any big discrepancies will seem suspicious and can hurt your chances of getting a call.

Such positions may require a CV instead of a resume, as it should be more comprehensive.

Ensure that your resume lists relevant qualifications. Give quality greater priority over quantity.

Read Also: How Do You Upload Your Resume To Linkedin

How Long Should A Student Resume Be

If youre a student, you should never, ever, go past the one-page limit. You barely have any work experience, so whatever information youre adding that goes past one-page, its probably not that relevant.

If youre having difficulty fitting everything into one page, look at every point in your resume critically.

Do you really need to let your prospective employer know about every single one of your volunteering experiences and extracurriculars, or make your summer lifeguard job occupy one-third of your resume?

The answer is no, not really.

Instead, focus on your most impressive qualifications, best academic achievements, and fields of study relevant to the job you are applying for, and youll find out you probably dont even need a full page.

Want to learn more about how to write the perfect student resume? Check out our complete guide with samples & tips!

Combine Multiple Related Bullet Points Into One Bullet Point

If you have multiple lines on the same subject within your job experience, you can often combine the statements into one.

Example: Optimize your space by combining functions

• Ensured our marketing had a positive ROI.

• Utilized marketing tools to ensure maximum ROI.

• Managed the marketing team to ensure smooth and efficient projects were deployed.

• Implemented and managed a marketing campaign with extensive A/B testing to achieve a 190% ROI.

The three bullets can easily be grouped together to form a statement thatâs sure to impress an employer. If you have paragraphs, you should turn those into bullet points as well.

You May Like: How To Update Your Resume On Linkedin

How Long Should A Resume Be An Update Is Needed

The length of your resume shouldnt be long enough to bore the reader or short enough and void of information.

Your CV must successfully sell you, which is a lot to expect from a handful of pieces of paper. It should include enough information about you to demonstrate your qualifications for the position youre looking for without overloading the reader. The question, how long should a resume be is solely dependent on varying factors like your experience, your field, and the job youre applying for.

In this article, well carefully explain how long your resume should be and how to get your resume to the right length. Stay with me!

How Long Should A Resume Be Its Up To You

Your resume should be exactly as long as it needs to be and no longer, while also being as brief as possible without selling yourself short.

Resume length is a tricky one. If youre having trouble figuring out how long your resume should be, try focusing more on highlighting your top traits in the most reader-friendly way possible regardless of page count. If youre frustrated trying to smoosh all your experience into a single page, try a two page resume.

Most importantly, dont keep doing the same thing if its not working. Seek out new advice, try different techniques, and use all the tools at your disposal.

Don’t Miss: How To Include Linkedin On Resume

More Concise The Better

Keep it short and sweet. According to a study, recruiters and employers take about 6 seconds to look over a resume and decide if the applicant is a good fit. Instead of fleshing out all of your responsibilities, keep your job summaries to a few concise bullet points. Studying the job description and qualifications is also a great way to understand exactly what theyre looking for and what you should include in your resume. If theyre looking for an event coordinator, cutting out your years as a waitress is probably a safe bet.

To keep things even more condensed, use your cover letter to list basic information like education, contact information, and personality traits that will help you succeed on the job. By doing so, you save room on your resume to list only your most relevant skills.

What You Should Eliminate Or Condense

If youre having trouble fitting your resume onto one or two pages, focus on condensing your content and formatting:

1) Condense Your Resume’s Content

After you put together your draft, you should seek to condense your information as much as possible:

• Instead of listing every single job duty, succinctly describe your tasks and ensure youre not repeating information.

• For your most recent 2-3 roles, you will need around 4-6 bullet points that are no longer than two lines each. For earlier roles, focus on outlining your major achievements and responsibilities using 2-4 bullet points.

• For roles over 10 years old, consider only including your position, company name, and dates in an early career section.

• Consider eliminating work experience that is not relevant to the role youre targeting especially if it was a summer job from college or an entry-level role.

2) Adjust Your Resume’s Formatting

You want your content to fill up the entire page.

Be sure to incorporate some “breathing room” as well, though, so that page doesnt look cluttered.

White space is not a bad thing!

Play around with the following elements of your resumes formatting to ensure your content neatly fits onto the page.

If your resume nearly fits onto a single page but ran a few lines over, you can adjust your margins to create additional space.

We recommend keeping your margins between 0.5 1.0 inch.

Spacing

However, make sure that your spacing is consistent and that you are incorporating enough of it.

You May Like: How Much Work History To Put On A Resume

Whats The Ideal Length For A College Application Resume

Most people applying for college need a one-page resume. Be sure to include specific details so you can highlight your best and most relevant achievements. Use more pages if you need to list extracurricular activities, academic awards, leadership positions and other things that can boost your chances of getting admission.

How Far Back Should A Resume Go

One question on your mind might be how far back should a resume go for work history.

As mentioned, it depends on where you are in your career and how much work experience you have. These are the factors that vary for every candidate which can determine how long your resume should be.

And, thats why it can be difficult to assume the best answer.

To get a better understanding of how where you are in your career can match your resume length, see below!

One Page Resume:

• You want to ensure the recruiter sees everything
• This is your first job or internship
• Your focus is on your skills and not on previous experience
• Youre making a career change that requires robust industry knowledge

Two Page Resume:

• You have robust technical knowledge
• You want to balance your work experience and culture fit
• Youve made a significant impact in your previous role
• You have experience the company isnt aware they need
• You have both extensive work and volunteer experience
• You have multiple relevant educations
• Youre applying for a mid-level position
• Certain sections are required on your resume

Three+ Page Resume:

• Youre applying to an Industry-specific role
• Youre an executive / high-seniority
• Youre using a portfolio style
• Youre certain that HR wants the amount of detail you can provide in this many pages

Read Also: Is Resume.io Legit

Can A Resume Be More Than One Page

When youre early on in your career, your resume will be thin, because you wont have a lot of professional-level work experience. However, as you gain more experience and work at more jobs, your resume will fill out and, eventually, youll find that you cant fit it all on one page.

For years, job seekers and resume writers were advised to keep their resume to one page and only one page. The thought was that only the most important and most relevant experiences and skills should be on your resume. Anything that didnt fit on that one page wasnt important or relevant enough to include.

However, times have changed. Because technology plays such an essential role in work life, many people have an extensive technological skill set that needs ample space on a resume. Even people who dont think they have a lot of technology skills discover they have far more than they realize, once they start listing it out.

If youre creating or updating your resume, dont try to force a one-page resume. If you cant fit all of your relevant skills and experiences onto one page, youre probably better off going to two pages, which may be to your benefit.

Change Your Resumes Formatting

If your resume has wide margins and a large font, youâre going to have a hard time fitting all the information you need on two pages. After clarifying the content, read our advice on resume margins and font size, as well as the top 10 resume fonts. This will help your resume appear balanced, relevant, and easy to read.

Many people opt to use templates they find online. The templates you find on Etsy, Canva, or other sites are often very visually appealing and use a lot of white space however, multiple columns can confuse ATS scans so proceed with caution.

âIf your resume includes more than a square inch of white space at any point, adjust your settings. Thatâs valuable real estate! Play with the margins, tabs, and justification settings,â advises Caitlin.

Note: white space refers to spaces without content, no matter what color youâve opted to use or any lines youâve incorporated into your resume.

Finally, be wary of any site or resume builder that offers a subscription service for resume templatesâtheyâre notorious for charging unknowing job seekers month after month. When in doubt, DIY your resume or hire a reputable service.

Read Also: How To Make Resume On Photoshop

But Shouldnt Resumes Always Be One Page Long

Contrary to popular belief, there is no reason that you have to fit everything on your resume within one page.

If you ask anyone about how long your resume should be, theyre likely to tell you that you should never exceed one page and that everyone abides by this rule.

While this is a widely held belief, and most people try to keep their resumes to one page, there is no logical basis for this.

This obsolete piece of advice made much more sense when the resumes of applicants had to be physically mailed, faxed, or dropped off in a box somewhere.

However, with the integration of technology in the recruitment processes of many organizations, this reasoning no longer holds up. The second page of your PDF resume will not be accidentally torn off after you email it to the employer.

Whats The Right Length For A Resume

You might have heard that your resume should fit onto one page.

Yet, itâs not a hard and fast rule there are times where itâs perfectly fine to submit a two-page resume, too.

Some people state that a one-page resume is a better choice because it is compact, while others assume that a two-page resume provides you with more space to fill in the important information for a recruiter.

So, who’s right?

The answer is â both one-page and two-page resume can work in different circumstances.

The most important thing is that everything you include in your document is important and that the potential employer really needs to know about it.

The top two things that you should focus on are that itâs readable and relevant.

These two parameters are very much dependent on the resume format you choose.

Ever struggled to choose the right different resume format? Thereâs a few to pick from so be sure to match the one you use to your circumstances and the job you want.

Now we know thereâs not a definitive answer, letâs jump into getting to grips with when the right time to use a one- or two-page resume.

Found the perfect job listing and donât have a minute to waste? Get your resume sorted in five minutes flat with our free resume builder. Youâll be set in no time, no confusion and no lengthy design process – we’ve got all the templates you need. Create my resume now ð¥

Read Also: Resume Typing Skills

Get Guidance On When You Should Send A One

The right resume length depends entirely on your background.

Resume length is among the biggest quandaries for job seekers. The presiding belief is that if its too long, you risk a hiring manager not reading the whole thing if its too short, you might look like you dont have enough experience. For all the times youve wondered, How long should a resume be? you probably figured the universe has decided on an answer by now. Alas. Theres no magic resume length that works for everyone.

The trick is figuring out the best number of pages for your situation. Follow these tips.