Should your resume exceed 1 page?

I know there are a lot of different perspectives on whether your resume can be more than 1 page. I am sharing my thoughts from reviewing 180+ resumes through Resume Rescue and from talking to recruiters and hiring managers.

No, your resume should not exceed 1 page.

On average, recruiters and hiring managers glance at a resume for 7 seconds. This is barely enough time to make it through the first page, so there’s really no point in having a second page UNLESS your resume is super compelling (aka has all the relevant experience needed) and you can justify every single word and line on your resume.

Many people think they need 2 pages because they have so much experience. However, it’s not about how much experience you have, it’s about how much RELEVANT and RECENT experience you have. Your part-time server job at a restaurant is likely not relevant to a corporate analyst job you’re applying for… so leave it off your resume.

Every bullet point on your resume must tie directly to a part of the job posting, or else you should delete it or replace it with something more relevant.

No matter how much experience you have, I am certain that you can trim your resume down to 1 page because you want to focus on your most relevant and recent impact. In this ever-changing world, I believe that any experience older than 5 years is not that relevant anymore because you’re likely out of practice by this point.

But… it may not always be a deal breaker!

Although I strongly believe that a 1 page resume is the way to go, I personally applied to Microsoft with a 2 page resume because I honestly believed that ALL of my experiences and accomplishments were relevant and would make me stand out as a candidate (I also did my research and confirmed that having a 2 page resume would not harm me in the application process).

Seeing that I made it into the Microsoft Aspire program right out of university, it worked out. However, now I only use a 1 page resume (that I tailor to every single job that I apply for).

TLDR: Stick to a 1 page resume. If you need help or a second opinion, visit Resume Rescue and I will get your resume down to 1 page.

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