What is the Right Length of a Resume

Did you know that Length of a resume is independent to the Applicant Tracking Systems? In fact, it was in the days of print that resumes with more than two pages were considered pejorative to the resume. However, in today’s age of electronic resume formats, the right length of a resume is more flexible than ever!

How long should a Resume be?

The best answer to how many pages your resume should be is judged by your profile, experience, content, and legibility of the document. Ideally, the creator of the one-page resume rule is anonymous, and unless the recruiter has specified any resume length, candidates must restrict the profile to 1-2 pages.

According to experts, judging the right length for a resume is a job in itself. Although it might seem like an elementary task, resumes that prioritize, organize and condense points to accommodate maximum details with utmost neatness are considered professional and attractive by Hiring Managers.  Remember that the motive of writing the resume is to pave way until the interview room, crucially confirm the details you furnish in it.

Hiring managers take but a few seconds to assess the validity and relevance of a resume. In short, regardless of the length of the resume, it captures the attention of the reader in the first page, especially in the second half of the page.

Who should Use a One Page Resume

Freshers and graduate job seekers who are new to the employment processes must use a one-page resume to furnish their resume deets. One-page resume applies to candidates without sufficient employment experience such as less than ten years.

Some other reasons to use a one-page restriction on your resume are if you had a drastic career change or you held more than one job with the same company or employer. Resume coaches’ advice candidates to avoid cluttering the resume, in case they have a limited collection of relevant experiences that match the job requirements.

Additionally, if you are a fresher with numerous Internship, Summer Camp, and similar other Competitive Experiences, it is best to use a two-page resume that suits your profile.

Who Should Use a Two Page Resume

Considered the perfect length of a resume is Two-Page, candidates with extensive industrial experience relevant to the job role must stick to it. If you are a professional with more than ten years or practical experience, you must arrange all your relevant technical skills and accomplishments useful to establish your candidacy in the profile.

Another exception to use a two-page resume is for freshers with commanding industrial experiences under their sleeve. Candidates who use two-page resumes must remember to number the second page and the contact information alongside the name of the applicant as a footnote to the page. Moreover, it is best to list your best skills on the first page to avoid being missed by the hasty hiring manager!

When Should You Use a Three Page Resume

It is not wrong to use an extended resume in this digital age if you need it to highlight your numerous achievements and technical skills. In fact, for C-Level and Executive rated resumes, it is ideal to use a three-page resume that lists all your relevant details in concise bulleted points.

Length of an executive resume such as that of candidates who are scientists or academically qualified to describe mechanical facts in extended pages must make the most use of the three-page resume. In addition, if the three-page resume does not fit, you can use addendum or postscripts separately to elaborate the necessary information.

Tips to decide the Ideal Length of Your Resume

The length of a good resume is judged by the job you are applying to. In fact, recruiters nowadays even encourage candidates to send mandatory three-page resumes with selective job vacancies. Shorter resumes are argued as better, as it cuts the clutter out of a congested resume.

Moreover, cluttered resumes are the chief cause why the hiring manager often fails to see your best technical values on the resume.

1. Job Description

The most important deciding factor to use one, two or three-page resume is based on the job applications. While most job descriptions skip resume length, selective job applications are often seen with additional clauses that seek detail work history or salary sheets for the past jobs that require more than one page. In case, the recruiter has emphasized that candidates must not cross two pages but requested extra details, it is best to add the supplemental detail as addendums.

2. Work Experience

The best way to decide on the right resume length is your work experience history. As mentioned above, candidates can use options such as One, Two, Three or More Pages to format a resume.

In the work experience section, not every job since your first job as a teen, need to be listed. You must list work experiences relevant to the job application and emphasize your efficiency as a competent candidate for the same.

3. Adjust your Font Size

For candidates with a plethora of relevant resume details, it is necessary to be clever with designing tactics to restrict your resume length sans exceeding the maximum size. Candidates can fit surplus information by decreasing the font size by one or two points into the same resume.

Another trick is to use a bigger and bolder font size for phrases that need to be highlighted.

4. Is your Resume Cluttered?

It is vital to maintaining neatness in a resume to enables the reader to analyze the furnished credential effortlessly. Poor adjustment of the overall font size in a resume can also lead to congested resumes. The maximum font size to decrease in a resume is 10 points and candidates must ensure to use Sans-Serif Fonts, which guarantees maximum readability of the resume.

5. Difference Between a CV and a Resume

In opposition to Resume, CVs must be longer than two pages. In fact, the mandatory minimum length of a CV is three pages. If you are wondering why, it’s because CVs are required for technical and academic job applications that require the candidate to enlist elaborate details including achievements, awards, publications, and theses.

Conclusion

After assessing popular arguments and statistics about winning resumes, we advise candidates to restrict their resumes to one-page if this is the first time you are applying for a job. Candidates with extensive experience, on the other hand, must use up to two pages, unless the job description says otherwise.