How Long Should Your Resume Be? The Honest Answer

Length is the most argued-about, least important thing about a resume. The honest rule: as short as it can be while still making the case. For most people that is one to two pages. The number itself does not matter. Relevance does.

A rough guide

• Early career (0 to 5 years): one page. You do not have two pages of relevant material, and padding shows.
• Mid-career: one to two pages. Two is fine if the second page earns its place.
• Senior / 15+ years: two pages, occasionally three for academic or technical roles with publications. Older roles compress to a line each.

The real test

Forget the page count and ask: does every line earn its place for this role? A two-page resume of relevant, evidenced experience beats a padded one-pager and a rambling three-pager alike. Cut the 2011 job, the hobbies, the "references available on request." Recruiters skim top-down and rarely reach the bottom, so the bottom is where filler hides.

Nobody was ever rejected for a resume that was too easy to read.

Tailoring naturally controls length: when you keep only what matters for the role in front of you, the right length tends to sort itself out.

Put this into practice on your own resume

ImproveMyResume reads the job description, scores your resume against it, and rewrites it in the role's language, without inventing experience. One free rewrite every month.