Insider Tricks to Shorten your Resume

How many pages should a resume be? This is one of the first questions clients ask me about resumes. The answer isn’t as simple as just 1 page, so let’s go over how long a resume should be!

Your resume gives employers an overview of your most relevant, important experiences, so they start to understand you as an employee.

You have to make sure it’s long enough to give them a clear picture of your experiences. But you also need to make sure it’s not so long they stop reading it.

Here’s an insider secret: studies have shown employers spend the most time reading the top of your resume and the top of each section of your resume. Which means the longer your resume is, the less likely they are to read all of it.

How long a resume should be depends on your industry, experiences, and job you’re applying for, but there are a few guidelines you should know when deciding.

Let’s go over:

• Should a resume be one page?
• How to shorten a resume
• More ways to upgrade your resume

How long should a resume be?

Like I said, there are a few factors to think about when deciding how long a resume should be. The most important thing to think about is your experiences.

How many pages should a resume be?

Should a resume be one page no matter what?

If you don’t have a ton of related experiences, especially if you’re a recent grad or career changer, then your resume should be one page.

However, if you have a ton of juicy experiences you’d like them to know about, 2 pages is totally acceptable

BUT there’s 1 key rule you need to understand, whether you’re writing a 1 or 2 page resume:

Your resume has to be full pages. So, if you’re going to have a 2 page resume, it needs to be 2 entire pages. It can’t only take up half of the second page!

The same goes for a 1 page resume: it can’t just fill up half of the page or most of it. 

So, you might need to beef up your resume with your formatting to make sure it takes up 1 or 2 entire pages. For example, you can use a 12 pt text, 1” margins, and a large font for your header.

If your resume is just slightly over 1 or 2 pages and you need to shorten it, keep reading for my insider tricks!

How to shorten a resume

When your resume is hanging just slightly over the edge of 1 or 2 full pages, you don’t want to cut out an entire experience. Your priority is telling your professional story, so it’s important not to sacrifice your best info!

Luckily, I have a few secrets that’ll help fit your resume on 1 page!

How to make a resume one page

The first steps to shortening your resume are looking at your format:

1. Start by changing the margins of your resume. On word and google docs, the default margin size is 1 inch, but your resume is still readable with ½ inch margins. With most of my clients, this trick alone makes their resume fit on one page!

2. If your resume isn’t quite there yet, look at your font sizes. Your name should always be the biggest thing on the page, but it doesn’t have to be much bigger than the rest of your resume. 

3. Next, make the body of your resume size 11 (this is the smallest text size you should do!). If you need a little more, then make your headers size 11 too. 

Now, for the best resume formatting secret I have: you’re probably dividing your resume into too many categories. Instead of making separate sections for your work, volunteer, and leadership experiences, you only need TWO sections!

That’s right: with just 2 sections for your experiences, you can more effectively tell your professional story and save a ton of space on your resume!

So, what are the only 2 sections you need on your resume?

1. Relevant Experience
2. Additional Experience

That’s right! Like I mentioned earlier, employers spend the most time reading the top of each section of your resume. By putting your most related experiences right at the top, you pretty much guarantee they read the important stuff!

Once you’ve played with the format, start looking at the bullet points of your resume. Are there any that go onto a 2nd line by just a couple words?  Without sacrificing the quality of info in your bullets, work on trimming as many down to 1 line as you can.

Finally, after you’ve tried everything else, let’s look at your skills section. Most people carry the bullet points from their experiences over into their skills sections, so it ends up looking like this:

• Spanish, fluent
• Microsoft Office Suite, advanced
• Adobe Photoshop, intermediate

That’s 3 whole lines for just a couple words! Instead of using bullet points in your skills section, try formatting it in 1 line with spacers, like this:

Spanish, fluent | Microsoft Office Suite, advanced | Adobe Photoshop, intermediate

Note: if you’re reading this post on mobile, that example prob won’t show up on 1 line- but you still get the idea of how to format it on your resume!

No matter which changes make the most sense for your resume, you have to make sure it stays readable.

The best way to make sure your resume is still readable is by zooming all the way out and looking at it from a distance. If it’s hard to read or look at it, then go back in and play with your font sizes.

As important as it is for your resume to be the right length, it’s more important that it’s readable. So make sure you’re always double checking changes from the reader’s perspective!

More ways to upgrade your resume

Once you’ve figured out how long your resume should be, it’s time to upgrade the rest of it! Here are more resources filled with my expert secrets:

• How to Perfectly Tailor your Resume to a Job Description
• Insider Secrets to Writing a Resume with No Experience
• 5 Expert Things to do Before you Send your Resume
• Fix these Common Resume Mistakes Right Now (With Examples!)

If you’re wondering how long a resume should be, the first thing you need to know is: it depends. Start by looking at your experiences and deciding if they could take up 1 or 2 full pages. Once you’ve decided how many pages your resume should be, then it’s time to fit it on to 1 or 2 full pages. You can shorten your resume by changing the format, rewording your bullet points, and playing with the font sizes. Once your resume is 1 or 2 full pages, you’re ready to send it out!

Sick of sending resumes without ever hearing back? Transform your job search with my 10 strategies to network with confidence!