The most comprehensive article about resume length on the web. Covers 12 most important principles for deciding on your resume length.

1. How Many Pages
Should My Resume Be?
12 Principles

2. The most asked question by
jobseekers all around the world:
how long should my resume be?

3. There’s no right answer for
everyone.

4. Everybody has unique set of
experiences and circumstances.

5. But here are 12 principles which
can help you avoid cardinal
mistakes with resume length.

6. Be concise.
Principle 1:
You’ve got only a couple of seconds to
grab your future employer’s attention.
Don’t waste it on irrelevant information.

7. Put the most important info first.
Principle 2:
Make that recruiter grab a sip of coffee in order
to proceed with your stunning achievements.

8. Do not add irrelevant
information in resume.
Principle 3:
You heard 2 pages is a rule? You’re adding fluff
to fill second page? STOP! Cut it, trim it,
downsize it. There are no rules.

9. Do not detail jobs from more
than 15 years ago.
Principle 4:
Just write the name of the company, your
position and dates of employment.

10. Cut 1½ pages to 1.
Principle 5:
If you can’t fill 2 pages but only one and
something, trim it down to 1 page. It’s much
more pleasing to the eye.

11. Use bullets.
Principle 6:
It’s eye-catching, scannable and persuasive.

12. Never decrease the font size to
under 12 to make resume shorter.
Principle 7:
That size of text is hard to read. You don’t want
to torture recruiter with that.

13. Keep your margins normal.
Principle 8:
You want your resume to look professional with
a lot of white space.

14. Put omitted parts to LinkedIn.
Principle 9:
Never omit education, relevant and recent work
experience, achievements and awards. Move
hobbies and other irrelevant info to LinkedIn.

15. Never make a shorter resume
which doesn’t represent your
experiences and qualities well.
Principle 10:
Remember, it’s not a resume length contest,
it’s a contest of quality of applicants.

16. If your resume is longer than 1
page, include page numbers in
header/footer.
Principle 11:
In case pages get separated, this can save the
day.

17. Never write description of one
job to two pages.
Principle 12:
Recruiters don’t want to flip pages back and
forth to grasp what you wanted to say.

18. Keep in mind that there are no
hard, unbreakable rules
regarding resume length.

19. That’s because the quality of a
concise and relevant expression
of your career highlights is
always more important than
following some outdated rules.

20. This story is brought to you by
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