How long should a resume be?

There has been an endless, decades-long debate among career advisors: "A resume absolutely must be one page!" Is this rule truly the golden standard or is it an outdated myth?

Short answer: No, your resume doesn't strictly have to be one page but you must have specific and valid reasons to extend it to a second page.

Who is a one page resume for?

HR professionals love concise and to-the-point information. If you fall into one of the following categories, your ideal resume length is definitely one page:

Recent graduates and students: If you have no work experience, there is no need to fill space with unnecessary information or hobbies just to lengthen your resume.

Those with less than 5 years of experience: If you are in the early stages of your career, you can compactly fit your achievements and experiences onto one page.

Career changers: Your past experience may not be relevant to your new target role, so it is more beneficial to highlight only transferable skills and fit the information onto one page.

Who is a two page resume for?

Sometimes, sticking to the one page rule forces you to delete valuable achievements or shrink your font down to "ant" size. Don't do this! If you meet the following criteria, moving onto a second page is completely acceptable:

Professionals (5-10+ years of experience): If you have worked at multiple companies throughout your career, managed major projects and delivered significant results, squeezing them onto one page will diminish the value of your achievements.

IT, engineering and project managers: In these fields, the lists of projects and technical tools/software used tend to be long, making two pages perfectly acceptable.

What about three or more pages?

There is no place for a three page resume in a standard corporate job search. However, in the academic sphere (professors, researchers), the medical field or public administration, a traditional "Curriculum Vitae" (which includes a long list of publications, grants and scientific articles) can easily be three or more pages.

How to use space efficiently

If your information just barely spills over onto a second page, try to visually condense it. Summarize the details of that old job from 10 years ago and use column layouts instead of tables.