How Long Should a Resume Be [For Any Profession]

How Long Should a Resume Be [For Any Profession]

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How Long Should a Resume Be

Short answer: it depends, but in most cases, you should stick to the one-pager. Well, here’s the thing. There’s a very good chance that you don't actually need to get past one page. Unless you have 20+ years of experience, a single page should be more than enough. Your resume should be a summary of your most relevant, most recent work experience.

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How Long Should a Resume Be

It’s not supposed to be a detailed account of everything you’ve ever done in your life. For a mid-level professional, here’s what you’d add to your resume (which would result in 1-page MAX): - Contact information section - 2-3 work experience entries - 1 or 2 education entries - Skills section - Languages section

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How Long Should a Resume Be

If you do have a decade’s worth of work experience, though, or if you’re a senior executive, you can actually break this rule and go for 2. Make sure to ask yourself, though, “am I aiming for quality over quantity? Are all the work experience entries I’ve mentioned relevant?” Now, you might be thinking, “do I ever go beyond 2 pages?” Well, you can potentially go for 

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How Long Should a Resume Be

3, but that’s only if you’re… – A senior-ranking executive with a remarkable track record. – Applying for a federal job that requests more information contrary to a civilian application. – Have a long, lengthy background and you need to hand over case studies, testimonials, project highlights.

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How long should a student resume be?

If you’re a student, you should never, ever, go past the one-page limit. You barely have any work experience, so whatever information you’re adding that goes past one-page, it’s probably not that relevant. If you’re having difficulty fitting everything into one page, look at every point in your resume critically. Do you really need to let your prospective employer 

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How long should a student resume be?

know about every single one of your volunteering experiences and extracurriculars, or make your summer lifeguard job occupy one-third of your resume? The answer is no, not really. Instead, focus on your most impressive qualifications, best academic achievements, and fields of study relevant to the job you are applying for, and you’ll find out you probably don’t even need a full page.

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

Here are some tips on how to turn your resume into a concise one-pager: – Use an online resume builder. Pick a free template resume that is optimized for length and let it do all of the work for you. You don’t need to mess around with the font and formatting: the resume builder will fit everything in one page for you.

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

– Focus on relevant information. Yes, this again. It’s crucial you carefully go through the job description and the main skills your employers are searching for. If you are applying for a job as a software engineer, don’t mention your internship as a social media manager. Cut your “yoga” from your list of interests. If the employer is not looking for it, you don’t need to have it in your resume.

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

– Achievements over responsibilities. Don’t list everything you were responsible for. That will not only prolong your resume and bore the employer, but won’t make you stand out.  Your prospective employer knows what your main responsibilities were if you list “Sales manager” on your resume. They are the same

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

as 50 other applicants that applied with the same work experience. Focus on tangible performance indicators instead. Instead of saying “did sales at X,” go for “Hit and exceeded department KPIs by 20-30% for 5 months in a row.” – Customize spacing. You can always make room for more entries if you reduce the document margins space. You

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

can, for example, customize the margins to 0.5” instead of the regular 2.5”. You can also mess around with the space between bullet points and sections. – Smaller fonts. A 12pt font might have been the norm for university papers, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow it for your resume. Try out an 11 or 11.5 font to win some more room. Make sure 

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

everything is readable without zooming in, though! – Bullet points. Instead of listing job or education descriptions as paragraphs, use bullet points instead. Keep your sentences short and to the point. – Remove unnecessary headers. Contact information or the resume summary will do just fine without their own 

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

personalized headers. – Don’t include your high school. Unless you used to study in a very specialized high school, or your employer went to the same high school as you, exclude it. It’s hardly ever relevant to the job you’re applying for. – Exclude repeated bullets. If you undertook similar responsibilities in more than 

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

one company, don’t repeat the same job description. No need for the hiring manager to read how you “analyzed industry trends” three different times. – Cut your resume summary short. Keep in mind that a resume summary is supposed to wrap up your most impressive qualities for the job. It doesn’t need a 6 line introduction and 10 bullet 

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How to Fit a Resume on One Single Page

points. Cut it down to three text lines. For a better understanding of how to properly write your resume summary, check out this guide.

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How Long Should a CV Be?

We’re going to say it before you ask: Yes, in the USA, a CV is different from a resume. A resume is customized to each individual job you are applying to and is strictly one page. A CV, on the other hand, covers the in-depths of your career and academic journey. It is usually used in Academia. Because the goal and nature of a CV are 

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How Long Should a CV Be?

different than that of a resume, you shouldn’t necessarily strive for the shortest pitch possible. Most recruiters agree that the average golden length for a CV is two or three pages. However, depending on your years of experience, accomplishments, training, and education, it can go up to eight pages.

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