Short answer: one page if you have under about ten years of relevant experience, two if you have more. Then the country changes the rule, and some fields ignore it altogether.
By career stage
- Students and freshers: one page. Nobody expects more, and a second page of coursework hurts.
- Early and mid career: one page if it fits without shrinking the font below 10 pt. Two is fine if every line earns its place.
- Senior and executive: two pages. The second page holds older roles in brief.
- Academic and research: as long as your publications, grants and teaching need. See academic CV format.
By country
- US and Canada: one page early in a career, two at most.
- UK and Ireland: two pages is normal for a CV.
- Germany and most of Europe: one to two pages.
- India: one to two pages.
- Gulf: two to three pages is common, with personal details included. See CV format for Gulf jobs.
What to cut when you run over
- Bullets under jobs older than ten years. Keep the title, employer and dates.
- Duties that any holder of the job would list.
- An Objective section. A two-line summary does the job.
- "References available on request". Everyone knows.
- Skills nobody would search for, such as Microsoft Word.
- A second contact line. One email, one phone.
What not to do
Do not shrink margins below about 1.5 cm or the font below 10 pt to squeeze onto one page. A dense page is skimmed less than a clean two-pager. If you need one page and cannot cut, try a denser template such as Compact, which is built for long histories.
Questions people ask
- Is a two-page resume okay?
- Yes, with about ten years or more of relevant experience, or in countries such as the UK where two-page CVs are standard. Put the strongest material on page one.
- Can a resume be three pages?
- Only for senior executives, academics, or Gulf-region CVs with personal details. For most jobs, three pages is too long.
- Does a one-page resume do better with an ATS?
- No. Length does not affect parsing. It affects the human reader, who skims.