Career guide
How Long Should a Resume Be? One Page vs Two
A resume should be one page if you have less than about ten years of relevant experience, and up to two pages if you're more senior and the second page is full of relevant results. Length should follow content, so cut anything that doesn't help the reader picture you in the job before you shrink the font.
Key takeaways
- Most people with less than about ten years of relevant experience should fit their resume on one page.
- A two-page resume is right for senior people when the second page holds relevant results, not old duties or filler.
- Recent jobs deserve three to six bullets each, while jobs from more than ten years ago usually need one or two lines or a single summary line.
- Cutting content is better than shrinking fonts and margins, because a crammed page is harder to scan than a slightly longer one.
- Federal government resumes and academic CVs follow their own rules: USAJOBS caps federal resumes at two pages, while an academic CV runs as long as its publications and teaching require.
How long should a resume be?
A resume should be one page for most people with under about ten years of relevant experience and two pages at most for senior people with more to show. Three pages is almost never needed for a standard job application. The rule underneath the rule: the length is right when every line helps the reader believe you can do the job.
If you’re stuck at a page and a quarter, you’re in good company, and the fix is usually editing, not formatting. The sections below show what to keep and what to cut.
How long should a resume be at each career stage?
Your resume’s length should grow with the relevant results you have, not with the years. Here’s a practical guide:
| Career stage | Typical length | What fills it |
|---|---|---|
| Student or new graduate | One page | Education, internships, projects, part-time and volunteer work |
| Early career (1 to 5 years) | One page | Two or three jobs with results; skills; education at the bottom |
| Mid-career (5 to 10 years) | One page, sometimes a tight two | The last two or three roles in detail, earlier ones shortened |
| Senior (10 to 20 years) | Two pages | Leadership scope, budgets, teams and results; early career summarized |
| Executive (20+ years) | Two pages | The last 10 to 15 years in detail, a board or advisory section if relevant |
| Career changer | One page | A hybrid format with transferable results up top |
In marketing, a coordinator or specialist almost always fits on one page. A director or VP with budgets, teams and several channels usually needs two; our marketing director resume and CMO resume pages show what goes on each.
Is a two-page resume OK?
A two-page resume is fine when you’re senior enough to fill it with relevant results. It isn’t a problem in itself; a thin second page is. If page two has only a few lines, either cut back to one page or bring something strong forward to fill it.
Make page two easy to read:
- Put your name and page number at the top of page two.
- Keep your strongest material on page one: the summary and your most recent role.
- Break pages between jobs, not in the middle of a job’s bullets.
How many bullet points should each job have?
Give your current or most recent job three to six bullets, the job before it three to five, and older jobs one to three. Bullets should get fewer as the jobs get older, because the reader cares most about what you’ve done lately.
Each bullet should be one or two lines. If a bullet runs to three lines, it’s usually two bullets or one bullet with a sentence of context too many.
How far back should a resume go?
Most resumes cover the last 10 to 15 years in detail. Earlier jobs can be shortened to a title, company and dates, folded into one line ("Earlier roles in agency account management, [Company] and [Company]") or left off if they don’t relate to the target job.
You can also leave graduation years off once your degree is more than about ten years old. The degree and school are what matter.
What should you cut to shorten a resume?
Cut in this order, from easiest to hardest. Each step usually saves a few lines:
- An objective statement that says what you want rather than what you offer. Replace it with a two-line summary or nothing.
- "References available upon request." It’s assumed. See our page on references on a resume.
- Duty-only bullets that repeat your title ("Responsible for social media"). Keep the ones with results.
- Old or unrelated jobs, shortened to one line or removed.
- Generic skills like “Microsoft Office” or “communication”. Keep the tools and channels the posting names.
- Repeated results. If three bullets say you grew followers, keep the best one.
- Long bullets, trimmed to one line where you can.
Avoid shrinking the font below about 10 points or squeezing the margins to make it fit. A crammed page is harder to scan than a clean one, and the reader notices.
Do other kinds of resumes have different length rules?
Yes. A few kinds of applications follow their own rules, so check before you cut:
| Type | Typical length | Why it’s different |
|---|---|---|
| Standard US resume | One or two pages | The default for most jobs |
| US federal resume | Up to two pages | USAJOBS caps resumes at two pages and expects specific details for each job, such as hours per week |
| Academic CV | As long as it needs | Lists publications, teaching and grants in full |
| International CV | Often two pages | Conventions vary by country |
For federal jobs, USAJOBS accepts resumes of up to two pages under the federal Merit Hiring Plan, and its help center lists what each job entry must include. Check the posting’s instructions, since they take priority over any general rule.
FAQ
Is a one-page resume always better?
No. One page is right for most people early in their careers, but a senior candidate who squeezes 15 years onto one page often cuts the results that would get the interview. Use the length that fits your relevant material.
How long should a resume summary be?
Two or three lines, or about 30 to 50 words. It should name what you do, the scope you work at and one result. Our resume summary examples show versions for each level.
How long should a resume be for 20 years of experience?
Two pages. Cover the last 10 to 15 years in detail and summarize the earlier part of your career in a line or two, unless an older role is directly relevant to the job.
Can a resume be one and a half pages?
It can, but it tends to look unfinished. Either edit down to one strong page or build page two out with relevant material, such as a selected projects section or more detail on a recent role.
Should I make my resume shorter for each job I apply to?
Keep the same overall length, but reorder and swap bullets so the results that match the posting appear first. Our guide on how to write a resume covers tailoring step by step.