The Two Page Resume Is Worth Only When You Have Lots Of Important Information To Share:
The length of a resume also depends on how much experience you possess, your achievements, accomplishments and other vital stuff you have to share.
Mainly, if you possess long term experience, then only you will need more pages to write it down.
In case there is not much information or experienced possessed by you, or you are a fresher then why you need more space. You can compile all necessary information about yourself in one single page only.
How To Fit 25 Years Of Experience Into One Page Resume
The best way to fit the most content on one page is opening Enhancvs platform and choosing one of our two or three column resume templates.
With a single click, you can fit around 50% more content on one page.
Heres how William did it.
Right under his name, William wrote what defines him as a professional: Entrepreneur, keynote speaker, advisor & cyber czar. This quickly gives you an idea of what kind of jobs hes done, and what is most significant about his career all in just 7 words.
Next, William shared his life motto in one sentence: In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
A simple quote can speak volumes about you as a person and your attitude to work and life itself.
Beyond showing how you see the world, it signals to companies whether you might fit into their culture. This shows us that William is not the kind of person that gives up. He perceives problems as opportunities.
Taken together, these sections give a brief and quick insight into who William is and the energy he would bring to his role. As opposed to a lengthy personal summary, William said all he needed to in two short sentences.
William includes 3 jobs within his experience section. These are the most recent and significant jobs that relate to the field he hopes to work in. Theyre also quite diverse.
Rather than writing pages on every job he has ever had, he has tailored his experience to three impactful descriptions of the jobs that relate most to the job vacancy.
Short but powerful.
How To Shorten Your Resume
Cut ruthlessly isnt one-time advice. Your resume should be tailored to each new job for which you apply. That means what youre cutting should be different every time.
Write up everything into master resume
If rewriting your resume each time requires more time and energy than you have, consider maintaining a comprehensive master resume as a starting point for each tailored job application. List each and every duty, responsibility, hard skill, soft skill, and measurable result throughout your professional history.
Instead of rewriting a new resume for each job, this allows you to skip straight to the ruthless cutting for each new job.
Answer the question of the job description
Your resume is more than proof that youve been collecting a paycheck for however many years. An effective resume highlights exactly how youve been working toward the job for which youre applying. See the difference?
Study the job description and identify the most important qualifications and resume keywords. Review each line of your resume and think, Does this help prove that Im a great fit for this job? If not, its extraneous at best or distracting at worse. Cut it.
Jobscan helps you home in on whats important to the employer by instantly analyzing your resume against their job description. Try it out right here in the article:
Emphasize your most relevant experience
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Why Are There So Many Opinions About Resume Length
Unfortunately, theres no best answer.
The hiring landscape has changed considerably in recent years. Not even 20 years ago, keeping your resume down to one page was both a strategic and cost-effective move .
Going even further back in time youll read that keeping your resume to a single page is your best option.
Two pages are also acceptable.
But, anything longer makes it too difficult for employers to go through.
Today, these worries are less pronounced. In fact, theres a growing trend of recruiters preferring two-page resumes over single-page ones.
According to a study by ResumeGo, its found that hiring managers are 2.3 times more prone to select a two-page resume format over the one-page resumes. No matter what the candidates professional level is, it doesnt make a big difference.
So why do people still argue for a one-page resume?
In one word: relevance.
Every resume has an audience. But, not everyone will have the same opinion.
And, thats why its difficult to assume what the ideal resume length is.
Some recruiters and hiring managers will follow the one-page rule to the letter while others will think the rule is useless. To help overcome this difficulty, its best to research the hiring practices of the organization youre applying to and see the common traits associated with page lengths.
The More Concise The Better
Communicating your most important and relevant information as briefly as possible is crucial. Recruiters and employers only have a few moments to decide whether or not your resume is a good fit for the role. In keeping with this practice, be critical of every point you include on your resume. Here are a few ways to make your resume more concise:
- Instead of including every job duty for each position youve held at every company youve been at, consider including two to three bullet points of quantified achievements.
- Avoid using filler words, such as that,the,a,an or like.
- Consider removing experiences or information that may not be relevant to the position youre applying for.
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Study the job description to get a better idea of what the employer may be looking for in your resume and what potential keywords to include.
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When It Comes To Writing Your Resume Size Does Matter Resume Experts Weigh In On How Many Pages Your Resume Should Be Based On Your Level Of Experience And Occupation
How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be
Theres an age-old debate about whether size matters that affects job seekers: How long should your resume be?
If your resume is too short or skimpy, recruiters and hiring managers will think you don’t have a lot to bring to the table, says Peter Yang, New York Citybased co-founder of the resume writing service ResumeGo. On the flip side, if your resume is too long and bloated, readers will likely get bored or annoyed.
So, whats the middle ground for writing your resume? While theres no hard-and-fast rule, says Kim Isaacs, a nationally certified resume writer and director of ResumePower.com based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, your industry and level of experience can help you determine if your resume should be one or two pages long.
Include A Career Note In A Senior
If you only held one or two positions before the 15-year cut-off, you can provide a short career note that mentions the roles and titles you held.
This format gives you some flexibility, as you may decide to summarize a few very similar roles into a short blurb to keep your resume length under two pages. For instance, you may say that your earlier experience includes … executive assistant work for companies including Company A, Company B, and Company C. If you worked with some name-drop worthy clients, you have the ability to work those details into a blurb like this as well. However, the rule of thumb is to keep this note short and sweet, so eliminate unnecessary details such as employment dates.
Click on the following link to see the entire two-page sample resume for a senior professional.
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When Space Is No Longer An Option
Your content is impeccable. Youve edited, downsized fonts, tweaked margins, and finagled text boxes to abide by the one page golden rule. But unfortunately, space is no longer on your side.
Once you get to this stage, its fine to go ahead and supersize your resume to more than one page. Trust me, you will not be cast away to the Island of Misfit Resumes.
Honestly, the hiring manager will grant you extra brownie points for not assaulting his or her eyesight with eight-point fonts or instigating what I call the eyeball cha-chawhere your eyes have to dance all over the page to find information you need.
A resume that has text scattered everywhere or is so condensed it looks possessed by hoarders can send the wrong message about you as a candidate. If employers have the impression you cant organize your thoughts effectively on paper, they may second guess how youll perform in the role. Better to be safe than sorry and spread your wealth of experience to a second page.
Hiring Managers Want Clear Career Stories
Second, a study by TopResume found that employers value resumes that provide a strong career narrative. In other words, recruiters want to see more than merely a timeline of your professional and educational experience they want to be able to read your resume like a story. In order to create that story, your resume requires additional components such as a professional summary, a section to list your relevant experience, skills etc. all of which take up more space.
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Sample One Page Resume
This is an example of a one page resume. or see below for more examples.
Career Summary
Seasoned and meticulous Financial Analyst offering 10 years expertise providing decision support to executives of global manufacturing companies. Highly skilled in clear-cut and concise storytelling through financials. Core Competencies:
- Financial Analysis and Reporting
- Quantitative Methods and Forecast Modeling
- Revenue and Expense Variance Analysis
- Data Mining and Visualization
ABC MANUFACTURING CORPORATION, Oklahoma City, OKFinancial Analyst, 02/2013-PresentPartner across all functional business units to deliver quantitative analyses and forecasts of expenditures, sales revenues, and capital improvements.
- Implemented and trained executives in use of new management reporting system that increased timeliness and accuracy of financial reporting
- Pinpointed and reconciled discrepancies in business unit financial reports, averting risk exposure by creating stringent new due diligence processes.
XYZ GROUP, Norman, OK, 06/2008-02/2013
Skillfully researched and prepared business cases, performed cost benefit analyses, and structured quarterly forecasts to optimize business planning processes.
- Played instrumental role in creating a business case and performing due diligence key to a $4.5M merger and acquisition.
- Formulated recommendations for long-term planning that ultimately produced a 17% increase in business growth.
Education and Credentials
Let The Hiring Manager Request References
While it is customary to say “references available upon request” on your resume, you can save space by removing this line. The hiring manager will more than likely ask for references at the interview or in a follow-up letter regardless of whether your resume says this. You also don’t need to include hobbies, interests or volunteer work if they are not relevant to the job. If the hiring manager is interested in these things, they will ask you about them in the interview.
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How Long Should Your Resume Be
One of the many frustrating things for job seekers is that there arent definitive rules when it comes to resume page count. A few strong opinions aside, the prevailing advice is that 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.
This advice is squishy, subjective, and open for interpretation. Most job seekers land somewhere in the one-to-three page range, yet some two page resumes would be much better off as one, and vice versa.
Where exactly should you draw the line?
Top It Off With Some Skills And Interests
The skills section of a resume gets a bad rap, but its just as important as the rest of the stuff you include. Its a quick list a recruiter can scan to see if your skill set aligns with what theyre hiring for. And its super ATS-friendly because it allows you to add in keywords the machine is scanning for.
Usually this section goes at the bottom of your resume, but in special casessuch as a skills-based resume or when someones switching fieldsyou may place it further up.
What exactly do you throw in here? Youll want to list any hard skills and applications youre familiar with , and, if relevant, your level of expertise. Avoid including soft skills here, like time management or public speakingsave those for your bullet points instead.
Be strategic when filling in your skills. Dont list things you actually couldnt do at a high competence level , and maybe nix skills that are completely irrelevant to the job you want. For example, you may not even need to include Excel if youre applying for say, a design position, unless its listed as a job requirement.
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The Final Word On Resume Length
In the end, the length doesnt matter quite as much as the content filling the pages. If you can capture your qualifications on one page, great. But if it takes two pages or more, thats OK, too.
Ive had new grads do well with two-page resumes and top executives do well with only one page, Isaacs says.
Just remember: Your resume should be a high-level look at your accomplishments that entices the hiring manager to want to learn more. A resume is like the copy on the back cover of a book, designed to make you want to read the book, Isaacs says. Its not the whole book.
Keep It Clear And Easy To Read
Your priority should be to keep your resume clear and easy to read. Be sure to leave enough white space on each page, use a 10- or 12-point font, and use a font that is easy to read .
That being said, dont leave too much white space. The key is to fill all, or at least three-quarters, of each page with relevant and helpful information so that the recruiter’s attention is not drawn to the blank space on the second page.
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Start With Your Basic Information
Your contact information should always go at the top of your resume. In this header youll want to include anything that could be helpful for a recruiter to get in touch with you. Usually, this means adding in:
- Your full name
- Your phone number
- Your personal email address
You might also choose to include other basic information, such as your LinkedIn or personal website URL, your GitHub , your social media profiles , or your address. If youre looking to move for a job, you may choose to leave out your address or write open to relocating to better your chances of getting an interview.
The key is to make this part as clear as possible. If a hiring manager cant reach you, theres no point in perfecting the rest of your resume.
Your Resume Is Only Your Marketing Tool:
Your resume is your marketing tool that you utilize in order to get hired by a company. So, just like a product is imbibed with its core benefits, similarly, you have to highlight only your core skills and qualities in the resume.
You only have to highlight what all vital skills you have, to serve the company and how your past experiences and present strengths can make them secure more productivity gains by hiring you.
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Experiment With Different Format Techniques To Meet The Appropriate Resume Length
There are a number of additional resume-length tips and tricks professional resume writers use to help their clients meet these length restrictions. If you’re having trouble making your resume fit within a specific number of pages, try messing with the font size, the spacing between paragraphs, and the margins. When experimenting with different design elements, make sure it’s still easy for a reader to quickly scan the resume and identify the most important selling points.
Did these resume-length tips answer your question about how long your resume should be? If not, hire a TopResume writer to help you write the next chapter of your career.
How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be
Your resume should be the shortest amount of pages possible while still communicating your value and relevant experience for the role youve applied for. Your resume should never contain needless words or paragraphs, but you shouldnt feel restricted to a specific page length or word count if you feel you have more relevant experience, accomplishments, or qualifications to share.
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Quick Tips: How To Fit Your Resume On One Page
Its true, both students andprofessionals add more qualifications to their resumes today. There are moreawards, self-study courses, internship projects, software skills, andextra-curricular activities available today compared to a few years back.
Unfortunately, its also the sheer numberof these experiences that makes it hard to cut your resumes length. Beloware 15 tips that’ll show you how to make your resume one page:
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
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Ensured our marketing had a positive ROI.
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Utilized marketing tools to ensure maximum ROI.
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Managed the marketing team to ensure smooth and efficient projects were deployed.
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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.
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