7 ms·

Ask HN: At what point do you have 2 pages in your resume?

30 points by lampshades 5y ago

Is it ever ok to have more than 1 page?

quintes 5y ago
Gee mine then is clearly too long over 22 years multiple orgs and projects. I’ll trim it.
karaterobot 5y ago
I'm not an HR person, but I have been involved in hiring people who work under me or alongside me. I've never penalized anyone for having 2 pages, or been penalized for it when I applied for jobs. However, I would excise older jobs if they are not relevant, or didn't make you look better. "Mail room intern (trial basis)" or "Junior fry cook, McDonalds (6 months)" are not going to help you get a senior dev role, so just leave them off and save the reviewer's time. Your resume doesn't have to be a complete, unbroken history of your employment to be useful in my opinion.
grn 5y ago
I’ve prepared a three-page version with the intent of reducing it down to a page or two per application. I ended up using the full version in all applications with project specific highlights in each. I’ve never had a one-page resume. It was two pages until recently. I’ve played a lot of roles (backend, front end, kernel, system level, infrastructure, product design, leadership, consulting) and a longer resume makes it easier to show that versatility — its my major selling point. I think what to put there and how to phrase it is MUCH more important than length.
- dolni 5y ago
  This is a great reply. My resume is similar. Mine's only two pages, however.
PaulHoule 5y ago
I was in one interview where I had an 8 page resume and was told by one of the interviewers that it was OK because I had a PhD. (It wasn't a job that required a PhD!) If you have more than 1 page the first page should summarize it in a way that gets the attention of whoever is reading it.
dyeje 5y ago
I like the 1 page per 10 years experience rule of thumb.
joezydeco 5y ago
If you're a senior person with, say, 20+ years of experience and only the last 6-8 years fit on the first page then put a second on there.
dolni 5y ago
You resume should tell a compelling story about who you are and what you bring to the table as a prospective employee. If you are using your space smartly and it takes two pages to tell that whole story, OK. If you can reasonably trim it to one page, you should.
psyc 5y ago
Having a one page resume would satisfy my own fondness for brevity, but it isn't happening. I've trimmed it aggressively over the years, and it's a bit over two. I think I could get it down to 2 full pages, but it will spill over again. My hyper-terse C.V. alone is one full page. I have more than 20 years of experience. I have no evidence that it's hurting me.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  I'm also in the multi-decade range. I've begun dropping my oldest jobs to keep it to 2 pages. This has had three benefits: more space for the relevant positions; I don't get asked about skills I haven't practiced in 20 years; and it makes pre-interview age discrimination a lot harder.
  - psyc 5y ago
    The age discrimination part is starting to feel like a relevant motivator. I'm increasingly unsure I actually want anybody to know I was a working programmer in the nineteen hundreds. I haven't actually experienced age discrimination yet (I think), but dropping the old jobs feels like good strategic sense.
eddof13 5y ago
Most people will look at just the first page, but as far as I'm concerned I don't care how long it is, particularly in this job market, I think mine is 3-4
mguerville 5y ago
Given the formatting required for easy parsing (either by ATS or by humans) you can count on every employer and every role to require at least 3 or 4 lines at a minimum (company, timing | Job title | some descriptor or activities and/or successes | line break before next job), I'd say if you've had more than 3 or 4 meaningfully relevant roles you could make the case for a second page. I don't think 3 or more is often warranted, at that point you need curation more than you need more "space"
water8 5y ago
I look at the first page to see skills they are most up to speed with. I look at the other pages as skills they could potentially provide if the need arises but I’m expecting them to have some degree of rust
romanhn 5y ago
Added a second page after about 10 years of experience. Not planning to ever add a third. Nobody cares about what you did three jobs ago, so I'm content with having my early gigs summarized to literally a single line each. There's also the option of dropping them entirely if ageism becomes an issue. As an ex-hiring manager, resumes over 3 pages were almost guaranteed to have a ton of useless (to the reader) detail that obscured the signal and any kind of messaging the candidate wanted to convey with this document. This is such a critical thing that many people miss - the product you are selling is your experience, and the resume is the sleek marketing document, not the dry technical specification (I don't mean this literally, but 5-15 page resumes, I'm looking at you).
- lastdong 5y ago
  This. Experience that was 5 years ago can be summarised to the relevant essential - one or two liners, and further even removed in some occasions (e.g. doesn’t bring nothing new to the table). As new technology comes into place, the role/product/experience takes more importance and those subjects can be expanded in the interview. To the point and for the job you’re applying for. 1 or 2 best pages, yes imho. But I know ppl that can fill 3 or 4, with publications alone, it all depends on market and goals
- samstave 5y ago
  I also have several levels of "relevance" First, if I listed everything in my ~28 year career in the same industry but with a huge spectrum of companies and skills used... my full resume would be a lot of pages. I tried a one page with super dense, small font... I tried a one page with larger font, recent 2 job details and bullet summaries for the other companies. I have yet to find the right balance. As at some point certain positions dont matter, even if in the same field (for example I dont necessarily put my IT management of token ring networks from the 90s down...) --- HOWEVER: My BIGGEST piece of 'resume' advice -- is keep a job/project portfolio book. i.e. -- I worked on some of the biggest tech physical builds in SV over the last 25 years. Huge construction, datacenter, hospital builds, FAANG HQ builds.. etc. My biggest regret; not keeping a detailed portfolio book of said work with pics and details and schedules I built. (obv non NDA stuff, so save your comments) But keep records! Think of an interview of a audit of sorts.. :-)
hu3 5y ago
I made extra effort to fit all in one page and I think it is worth it because it's a sign of respect for the reader's time. Had to trim some details of old roles and make font a bit smaller. During interviews I have the chance to expand on my experience.
JauntTrooper 5y ago
I'm still at a single page with ~20 years of experience. I've completely dropped the two less relevant jobs I had right after college. It probably depends on the industry. I think academics and jobs where publications are important tend to have more pages.
ceekay 5y ago
Add a "summary" section at the top summarizing 3-5 key accomplishments in your career quantifying them as much as possible. If you don't capture the readers attention with that, doesn't matter how many pages you have. That's your superbowl ad.
wbsss4412 5y ago
As they say, resumes are marketing documents. Any “rules” are more like guidelines/conventions, they can all be broken given a good reason to do so, but if you don’t have a good reason it’s best not to. To more directly answer your question. Your resume can go to two pages if, after you’ve VIGOROUSLY edited your resume down for clarity and concision, it ends up over one. People will hold up some number of years of experience or another metric, but really you can have two if and when you can seriously justify every word on the page that takes it past one.
ipaddr 5y ago
I have many pages. Helps you stand out if someone wants to dive deep and helps with keyword filtering.
pygar 5y ago
I have never heard of this "one page" rule. Maybe it's meant for those people who cram every detail and buzzword in their resume mistakenly thinking that if they chance on the right combination of words it will help them. Mine is one and a half. I think it's more important that it's easy to read, if you're trying to fit everything into one page and it becomes dense or overly brief it defeats the purpose of the rule. These rules are made up employment coaches (or whatever they're called) who need content to write about and want you to hire them for their consulting services. A Resume is a crapshoot anyway, anyone can put anything they want in it - most of it is unverifiable until tested. As long as you have the required skillset, the important thing is that you don't act weird in the interview.
- paulcole 5y ago
  I hate seeing a 1.5 page resume more than I do a 2 page resume. If you’re going to take up a second page, use all of it. If you can’t do that, cut 1/2 of a page and get it all on 1 page. You’d be amazed at how many 1.125-1.25 page resumes I see.
  - esnowrackley 5y ago
    I hope you haven't been one of my interviewers! :D
  - sloaken 5y ago
    I disagree. A 1.5 would not bother me, a 1.125 or 1.25 would. At that point re do your format / font / margins / spacing SOMETHING to make it 1.5 or 1.
  - DarrenDev 5y ago
    A 1.5 page resume sounds ideal to me. You have a big empty block of space on page two to write notes. What's not to like. - says a guy with a 1.5 page resume.
    - paulcole 5y ago
      Who’s printing out resumes when like 99% of interviews are on zoom?
warrenm 5y ago
My resume's got 4 pages, going back ~25y (though you can get a pretty good picture of my recent experience on the front page) Don't get hung up on the length - resumes are 100% digital nowadays Do get "hung up" on precision, action, and measurable achievements (whenever possible) in your resume's bullet points Do be careful about spelling, listing relevant "non-work" experience, where you went to school, etc Do be as brief as possible - but no briefer
stuaxo 5y ago
Once I had been working about 6 or 7 years. I have more detail in the newer jobs. It's 3 or 4 now, it goes back to 1999 there isn't much space with alternating between perm and contract. Worked at places between 3 weeks and 3 years, but probably about 20 or so listed and other info.
eatonphil 5y ago
I used to have 2-3 pages but nobody read anything so I narrowed it down to just one sentence per job with a paragraph intro. 1 page. Worked about as well. I think it's fine either way.
pedalpete 5y ago
Outside of the US, I believe CVs are regularly longer than 1 page. For the North America, a cover letter and 1 page are standard. I've had a 2 pager, but I'm also old AF and changed jobs regularly. I don't use my entire history, but stick to the relevant stuff. If it's something that helps them have a better understanding of who you are, then go for it. My 2 cents.
user_named 5y ago
If you need more space you can just nak the page a bit taller. It's all digital anyway.
core-utility 5y ago
When you have enough content to fill a second page. I'm a firm believer in the rule of "Make your point on the first page, tell your story on the second." If someone gets to the second page, show them why you stand out. List your hobbies, skills, unique projects, etc.
cjk 5y ago
I wouldn't say it's _never_ OK to have a multi-page résumé, but as a hiring manager/interviewer I do strongly prefer one-pagers. I never penalize or reject candidates based on having a multi-page résumé, but I tend to see a strong correlation between candidates with great one-page résumés and great written communication skills. It shows that they've spent the time to consider what's relevant to the hiring manager/recruiter/etc. IMO, keep the résumé short and sweet, and stick to the highlights, with a heavier emphasis on more recent experience. If you really want to dive into more detail on something, write a cover letter tailored to the position/company you're applying for.
yuppie_scum 5y ago
Two pages is fine. It’s very easy these days to add a “see LinkedIn for more details” disclaimer.
esnowrackley 5y ago
Totally, but it depends on the story you're trying to tell. I'm still early in my career and my resume is broken up to provide a summary of key parts of my work/ career to date, the most relevant/recent experience first, then highlight skills, education, and finally a brief list of other positions I've held. I've definitely dropped jobs from that last section, so it's not a full dump. I'm listing these because that additional experience is relevant and both substantiates the summary/ skills section, and shows experience where I lack formal education. In interviews, I've had people read that far down and it's worked, they got exactly what I wanted them to out of it. In other interviews, it's clear that they didn't care, but the resume still got me in the door. They still got the most important parts up top. And of course, it depends on who you're interviewing with and what you're applying for. The rules aren't so hard and fast, esp. when you're sending over digital copies.
zeagle 5y ago
It depends on what you do, who your target audience is, how competitive it is to flag someone's attention from a pool of candidates, and how competitive it is to get the position. The tech field comments here perhaps capture one extreme of that with recruiters and keywords so I'll give a contrast. If you are in academia you probably teach courses, get grants, are a PI, publish and present at conferences, get awards, be invited to give lectures, contribute to books or some combination of all these over your career and your CV should reflect that. I've seen academic resumes with 40+ pages of publications, 5+ pages of grants alone without any effort at padding. This stuff is important when applying for promotion and grants, getting involved at a higher level in or out of your institution even if you aren't looking for a new job. Another case is when applying for something competitive e.g. graduate or medical school where transcripts attest to academic achievement and a CV should be highlighting various domains of their work ethic, scientific achievement, extracurricular achievements to round an individual out and score points on standardized rubrics. A longer resume e.g. 4/5 pages probably doesn't penalize compared to losing points by not reporting on this at all even if a bit excessive. I keep my academic resume around ~2 pages of core content and then a longer running bibliography. I trim sections of my life as they becomes successively irrelevant e.g. undergraduate awards/jobs/volunteering, medical school involvement/leadership/research (publications stay elsewhere), etc. as these all helped me to get a next stage but are no longer relevant.
throwaway81523 5y ago
Resume = 1 page. You compress stuff as your backstory gets longer. A multi-paged one is called a curriculum vitae (cv). That goes into more detail.
- quintes 5y ago
  Aaaah. In reference to my earlier comment here
justsomehnguy 5y ago
As I said in one of similar threads: keep it short. Nobody interested what I can manage Kerio WinRoute Firewall 6 and I don't want to work where it could be a factor in my employment.

30 points by lampshades 5y ago

Is it ever ok to have more than 1 page?

quintes 5y ago

Gee mine then is clearly too long over 22 years multiple orgs and projects. I’ll trim it.

karaterobot 5y ago

I'm not an HR person, but I have been involved in hiring people who work under me or alongside me. I've never penalized anyone for having 2 pages, or been penalized for it when I applied for jobs. However, I would excise older jobs if they are not relevant, or didn't make you look better. "Mail room intern (trial basis)" or "Junior fry cook, McDonalds (6 months)" are not going to help you get a senior dev role, so just leave them off and save the reviewer's time. Your resume doesn't have to be a complete, unbroken history of your employment to be useful in my opinion.

grn 5y ago

I’ve prepared a three-page version with the intent of reducing it down to a page or two per application. I ended up using the full version in all applications with project specific highlights in each. I’ve never had a one-page resume. It was two pages until recently. I’ve played a lot of roles (backend, front end, kernel, system level, infrastructure, product design, leadership, consulting) and a longer resume makes it easier to show that versatility — its my major selling point. I think what to put there and how to phrase it is MUCH more important than length.

dolni 5y ago
This is a great reply. My resume is similar. Mine's only two pages, however.

PaulHoule 5y ago

I was in one interview where I had an 8 page resume and was told by one of the interviewers that it was OK because I had a PhD. (It wasn't a job that required a PhD!) If you have more than 1 page the first page should summarize it in a way that gets the attention of whoever is reading it.

dyeje 5y ago

I like the 1 page per 10 years experience rule of thumb.

joezydeco 5y ago

If you're a senior person with, say, 20+ years of experience and only the last 6-8 years fit on the first page then put a second on there.

dolni 5y ago

You resume should tell a compelling story about who you are and what you bring to the table as a prospective employee. If you are using your space smartly and it takes two pages to tell that whole story, OK. If you can reasonably trim it to one page, you should.

psyc 5y ago

Having a one page resume would satisfy my own fondness for brevity, but it isn't happening. I've trimmed it aggressively over the years, and it's a bit over two. I think I could get it down to 2 full pages, but it will spill over again. My hyper-terse C.V. alone is one full page. I have more than 20 years of experience. I have no evidence that it's hurting me.

ericbarrett 5y ago
I'm also in the multi-decade range. I've begun dropping my oldest jobs to keep it to 2 pages. This has had three benefits: more space for the relevant positions; I don't get asked about skills I haven't practiced in 20 years; and it makes pre-interview age discrimination a lot harder.
- psyc 5y ago
  The age discrimination part is starting to feel like a relevant motivator. I'm increasingly unsure I actually want anybody to know I was a working programmer in the nineteen hundreds. I haven't actually experienced age discrimination yet (I think), but dropping the old jobs feels like good strategic sense.

eddof13 5y ago

Most people will look at just the first page, but as far as I'm concerned I don't care how long it is, particularly in this job market, I think mine is 3-4

mguerville 5y ago

Given the formatting required for easy parsing (either by ATS or by humans) you can count on every employer and every role to require at least 3 or 4 lines at a minimum (company, timing | Job title | some descriptor or activities and/or successes | line break before next job), I'd say if you've had more than 3 or 4 meaningfully relevant roles you could make the case for a second page. I don't think 3 or more is often warranted, at that point you need curation more than you need more "space"

water8 5y ago

I look at the first page to see skills they are most up to speed with. I look at the other pages as skills they could potentially provide if the need arises but I’m expecting them to have some degree of rust

romanhn 5y ago

Added a second page after about 10 years of experience. Not planning to ever add a third. Nobody cares about what you did three jobs ago, so I'm content with having my early gigs summarized to literally a single line each. There's also the option of dropping them entirely if ageism becomes an issue. As an ex-hiring manager, resumes over 3 pages were almost guaranteed to have a ton of useless (to the reader) detail that obscured the signal and any kind of messaging the candidate wanted to convey with this document. This is such a critical thing that many people miss - the product you are selling is your experience, and the resume is the sleek marketing document, not the dry technical specification (I don't mean this literally, but 5-15 page resumes, I'm looking at you).

lastdong 5y ago
This. Experience that was 5 years ago can be summarised to the relevant essential - one or two liners, and further even removed in some occasions (e.g. doesn’t bring nothing new to the table). As new technology comes into place, the role/product/experience takes more importance and those subjects can be expanded in the interview. To the point and for the job you’re applying for. 1 or 2 best pages, yes imho. But I know ppl that can fill 3 or 4, with publications alone, it all depends on market and goals
samstave 5y ago
I also have several levels of "relevance" First, if I listed everything in my ~28 year career in the same industry but with a huge spectrum of companies and skills used... my full resume would be a lot of pages. I tried a one page with super dense, small font... I tried a one page with larger font, recent 2 job details and bullet summaries for the other companies. I have yet to find the right balance. As at some point certain positions dont matter, even if in the same field (for example I dont necessarily put my IT management of token ring networks from the 90s down...) --- HOWEVER: My BIGGEST piece of 'resume' advice -- is keep a job/project portfolio book. i.e. -- I worked on some of the biggest tech physical builds in SV over the last 25 years. Huge construction, datacenter, hospital builds, FAANG HQ builds.. etc. My biggest regret; not keeping a detailed portfolio book of said work with pics and details and schedules I built. (obv non NDA stuff, so save your comments) But keep records! Think of an interview of a audit of sorts.. :-)

hu3 5y ago

I made extra effort to fit all in one page and I think it is worth it because it's a sign of respect for the reader's time. Had to trim some details of old roles and make font a bit smaller. During interviews I have the chance to expand on my experience.

JauntTrooper 5y ago

I'm still at a single page with ~20 years of experience. I've completely dropped the two less relevant jobs I had right after college. It probably depends on the industry. I think academics and jobs where publications are important tend to have more pages.

ceekay 5y ago

Add a "summary" section at the top summarizing 3-5 key accomplishments in your career quantifying them as much as possible. If you don't capture the readers attention with that, doesn't matter how many pages you have. That's your superbowl ad.

wbsss4412 5y ago

As they say, resumes are marketing documents. Any “rules” are more like guidelines/conventions, they can all be broken given a good reason to do so, but if you don’t have a good reason it’s best not to. To more directly answer your question. Your resume can go to two pages if, after you’ve VIGOROUSLY edited your resume down for clarity and concision, it ends up over one. People will hold up some number of years of experience or another metric, but really you can have two if and when you can seriously justify every word on the page that takes it past one.

ipaddr 5y ago

I have many pages. Helps you stand out if someone wants to dive deep and helps with keyword filtering.

pygar 5y ago

I have never heard of this "one page" rule. Maybe it's meant for those people who cram every detail and buzzword in their resume mistakenly thinking that if they chance on the right combination of words it will help them. Mine is one and a half. I think it's more important that it's easy to read, if you're trying to fit everything into one page and it becomes dense or overly brief it defeats the purpose of the rule. These rules are made up employment coaches (or whatever they're called) who need content to write about and want you to hire them for their consulting services. A Resume is a crapshoot anyway, anyone can put anything they want in it - most of it is unverifiable until tested. As long as you have the required skillset, the important thing is that you don't act weird in the interview.

paulcole 5y ago
I hate seeing a 1.5 page resume more than I do a 2 page resume. If you’re going to take up a second page, use all of it. If you can’t do that, cut 1/2 of a page and get it all on 1 page. You’d be amazed at how many 1.125-1.25 page resumes I see.
- esnowrackley 5y ago
  I hope you haven't been one of my interviewers! :D
- sloaken 5y ago
  I disagree. A 1.5 would not bother me, a 1.125 or 1.25 would. At that point re do your format / font / margins / spacing SOMETHING to make it 1.5 or 1.
- DarrenDev 5y ago
  A 1.5 page resume sounds ideal to me. You have a big empty block of space on page two to write notes. What's not to like. - says a guy with a 1.5 page resume.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    Who’s printing out resumes when like 99% of interviews are on zoom?

warrenm 5y ago

My resume's got 4 pages, going back ~25y (though you can get a pretty good picture of my recent experience on the front page) Don't get hung up on the length - resumes are 100% digital nowadays Do get "hung up" on precision, action, and measurable achievements (whenever possible) in your resume's bullet points Do be careful about spelling, listing relevant "non-work" experience, where you went to school, etc Do be as brief as possible - but no briefer

stuaxo 5y ago

Once I had been working about 6 or 7 years. I have more detail in the newer jobs. It's 3 or 4 now, it goes back to 1999 there isn't much space with alternating between perm and contract. Worked at places between 3 weeks and 3 years, but probably about 20 or so listed and other info.

eatonphil 5y ago

I used to have 2-3 pages but nobody read anything so I narrowed it down to just one sentence per job with a paragraph intro. 1 page. Worked about as well. I think it's fine either way.

pedalpete 5y ago

Outside of the US, I believe CVs are regularly longer than 1 page. For the North America, a cover letter and 1 page are standard. I've had a 2 pager, but I'm also old AF and changed jobs regularly. I don't use my entire history, but stick to the relevant stuff. If it's something that helps them have a better understanding of who you are, then go for it. My 2 cents.

user_named 5y ago

If you need more space you can just nak the page a bit taller. It's all digital anyway.

core-utility 5y ago

When you have enough content to fill a second page. I'm a firm believer in the rule of "Make your point on the first page, tell your story on the second." If someone gets to the second page, show them why you stand out. List your hobbies, skills, unique projects, etc.

cjk 5y ago

I wouldn't say it's _never_ OK to have a multi-page résumé, but as a hiring manager/interviewer I do strongly prefer one-pagers. I never penalize or reject candidates based on having a multi-page résumé, but I tend to see a strong correlation between candidates with great one-page résumés and great written communication skills. It shows that they've spent the time to consider what's relevant to the hiring manager/recruiter/etc. IMO, keep the résumé short and sweet, and stick to the highlights, with a heavier emphasis on more recent experience. If you really want to dive into more detail on something, write a cover letter tailored to the position/company you're applying for.

yuppie_scum 5y ago

Two pages is fine. It’s very easy these days to add a “see LinkedIn for more details” disclaimer.

esnowrackley 5y ago

Totally, but it depends on the story you're trying to tell. I'm still early in my career and my resume is broken up to provide a summary of key parts of my work/ career to date, the most relevant/recent experience first, then highlight skills, education, and finally a brief list of other positions I've held. I've definitely dropped jobs from that last section, so it's not a full dump. I'm listing these because that additional experience is relevant and both substantiates the summary/ skills section, and shows experience where I lack formal education. In interviews, I've had people read that far down and it's worked, they got exactly what I wanted them to out of it. In other interviews, it's clear that they didn't care, but the resume still got me in the door. They still got the most important parts up top. And of course, it depends on who you're interviewing with and what you're applying for. The rules aren't so hard and fast, esp. when you're sending over digital copies.

zeagle 5y ago

It depends on what you do, who your target audience is, how competitive it is to flag someone's attention from a pool of candidates, and how competitive it is to get the position. The tech field comments here perhaps capture one extreme of that with recruiters and keywords so I'll give a contrast. If you are in academia you probably teach courses, get grants, are a PI, publish and present at conferences, get awards, be invited to give lectures, contribute to books or some combination of all these over your career and your CV should reflect that. I've seen academic resumes with 40+ pages of publications, 5+ pages of grants alone without any effort at padding. This stuff is important when applying for promotion and grants, getting involved at a higher level in or out of your institution even if you aren't looking for a new job. Another case is when applying for something competitive e.g. graduate or medical school where transcripts attest to academic achievement and a CV should be highlighting various domains of their work ethic, scientific achievement, extracurricular achievements to round an individual out and score points on standardized rubrics. A longer resume e.g. 4/5 pages probably doesn't penalize compared to losing points by not reporting on this at all even if a bit excessive. I keep my academic resume around ~2 pages of core content and then a longer running bibliography. I trim sections of my life as they becomes successively irrelevant e.g. undergraduate awards/jobs/volunteering, medical school involvement/leadership/research (publications stay elsewhere), etc. as these all helped me to get a next stage but are no longer relevant.

throwaway81523 5y ago

Resume = 1 page. You compress stuff as your backstory gets longer. A multi-paged one is called a curriculum vitae (cv). That goes into more detail.

quintes 5y ago
Aaaah. In reference to my earlier comment here

justsomehnguy 5y ago

As I said in one of similar threads: keep it short. Nobody interested what I can manage Kerio WinRoute Firewall 6 and I don't want to work where it could be a factor in my employment.